Edgar Gretener, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

Edgar Gretener

Swiss cryptographer (1902-1958)

Date of Birth: 02-Mar-1902

Place of Birth: Lucerne, Canton of Lucerne, Switzerland

Date of Death: 21-Oct-1958

Profession: engineer, mathematician

Nationality: Switzerland

Zodiac Sign: Pisces


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About Edgar Gretener

  • Edgar Gretener (March 2, 1902 in Lucerne – October 21, 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), where he received his Ph.D.
  • in 1929.
  • 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 in Berlin.
  • There he got in contact with Fritz Fischer (physicist), 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 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 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.

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