Edgar Gretener on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
Edgar Gretener (2 March 1902 in Thesis E. Gretener
/ref> He then became head of development at the Albiswerk factory in Zurich. In 1930, he worked as head of the telegraph laboratory of
When World War II started, the Swiss authorities asked Gretener to develop an encryption device for teleprinters. For this purpose the Dr. Edgar Gretener AG was set up as a company in 1943. Gretener got absorbed by this new challenge. As his replacement,
Edgar Gretener (2 March 1902 in Lucerne
Lucerne ( , ; High Alemannic German, High Alemannic: ''Lozärn'') or Luzern ()Other languages: gsw, Lozärn, label=Lucerne German; it, Lucerna ; rm, Lucerna . is a city in central Switzerland, in the Languages of Switzerland, German-speaking po ...
– 21 October 1958 in Zurich) was a Swiss electrical engineer.
Gretener was the twelfth of 14 siblings. He studied electrical engineering at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich
(colloquially)
, former_name = eidgenössische polytechnische Schule
, image = ETHZ.JPG
, image_size =
, established =
, type = Public
, budget = CHF 1.896 billion (2021)
, rector = Günther Dissertori
, president = Joël Mesot
, ac ...
), where he received his Ph.D. in 1929./ref> He then became head of development at the Albiswerk factory in Zurich. In 1930, he worked as head of the telegraph laboratory of
Siemens & Halske
Siemens & Halske AG (or Siemens-Halske) was a German electrical engineering company that later became part of Siemens.
It was founded on 12 October 1847 as ''Telegraphen-Bauanstalt von Siemens & Halske'' by Werner von Siemens and Johann Geo ...
in Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
. There he got in contact with Fritz Fischer (physicist)
Fritz Fischer (9 February 1898, Oberdiessbach im Emmenthal BE, Switzerland – 28 December 1947, Zurich, Switzerland) was a technical physicist, engineer and inventor. He was married to Maud Schätti.Borgnis, Fritz''Fischer, Fritz''.In: ''N ...
, another Swiss engineer, working as a manager at the central research labs of Siemens. When Fritz Fischer got the call to become professor at the ETH Zurich in 1932, he made Gretener his chief assistant a few years later. Fischer invented the Eidophor
An Eidophor was a video projector used to create theater-sized images from an analog video signal. The name Eidophor is derived from the Greek word-roots ''eido'' and ''phor'' meaning 'image' and 'bearer' (carrier). Its basic technology was th ...
video projection system. Gretener was in charge of its implementation.
When World War II started, the Swiss authorities asked Gretener to develop an encryption device for teleprinters. For this purpose the Dr. Edgar Gretener AG was set up as a company in 1943. Gretener got absorbed by this new challenge. As his replacement, Hugo Thiemann
Hugo Thiemann (February 2, 1917 – June 10, 2012) was a Swiss R&D manager and visionary. He was a founding member of the ''Club of Rome''.
Life
Hugo Ernst Thiemann was born in Heiden, Switzerland, then educated in nearby St. Gallen, Switzerland ...
continued the development of the Eidophor system at the ETH. When Fischer died unexpectedly in 1947, Thiemann and the Eidophor project were transferred to Gretener's company. It now had two lines of R&D: encryption devices and Eidophor, which still needed development to make it a viable product. Finally, the marketing effort led to first contracts for this new wide-screen video projection system.
The untimely death of Gretener in 1958 led to the renaming of his company, which continued under new ownership as GRETAG AG.
Literature
* W. Gerber: Obituary in ''Schweizerische Bauzeitung'', 1958 (76), p. 782.References