e-periodica: Schweizerisches Handelsamtsblatt (SHAB) 1883-2001 (2026-10-03)

Site: e-periodica (ETH Library), which carries the digitised Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce (SHAB / FOSC) and other Swiss journals: https://www.e-periodica.ch/ Access: a session search (/digbib/dossearch?ssearchtext=..., then /digbib/hitlist). The OCR text of each page comes from /digbib/ajax/pageinfo?pid=.... The text of every SHAB page used is saved in files/shab/ (file name = page id). Result: positive, and the most productive site this run.

Queries tried

Ternion (noise: quaternions, ternions in bookbinding), "Ternion A.-G.", Ternion Glarus, Ternion Aktiengesellschaft, Kassner Arbon, Dipol Arbon, "Dipol A.-G.", "Dipol A. G.", Dipol Stoffel, Vibranic, "Vibranic Ltd", Grell Vibranic, "Giodvad Grell", Grell Stoffel, Kassner Ultrakurzwellen, Kassner Dipol, "General Infra", "Suisse Infra", Kassner Stoffel, "Universal Inventions" (0), Hoffmann Stoffel Arbon. German-language queries (Ultrakurzwellen) and company-name phrases worked. Personal names alone return mostly noise.

Findings (all [web], SHAB page URLs in the form https://www.e-periodica.ch/digbib/view?pid=...)

1. Ternion A.-G. (Glarus): public notices for the whole company history

• Founding, SHAB Nr. 94, 23 Apr 1932, p.989 (register entry of 19 Apr 1932): "Zweck ... die Beteiligung an elektro-physikalischen Unternehmungen und Laboratorien"; capital Fr. 100,000 in 100 registered shares, fully paid; sole director Max Stoffel, Kaufmann, of Arbon, in St. Gallen; domicile c/o Balthasar Oertli-Heer, Kaufmann, Glarus [pid=sha-001:1932:50::1086]. This matches the register copies [read: facts.json Ternion AG 1].
• Dissolution, register entry of 24 Dec 1937 (SHAB Nr. 304, 29 Dec 1937, p.2876): general meeting of 20 Dec 1937 resolved to dissolve; liquidation by Max Stoffel as "Ternion A. G. in Liquidation" [pid=sha-001:1937:55::3183].
• Creditor calls (Liquidations-Schuldenruf, three publications, May 1938, dated "Glarus, den 14. Mai 1938"): creditors are to file claims with the liquidator, Max Stoffel, Kaufmann, Rosenbergstrasse Nr. 20, St. Gallen [pid=sha-001:1938:56::1211 (first), ::1225 (second), ::1235 (third)]. A creditor call is required by law (Art. 742 OR). The lenders of the Fr. 1.1 million loan account, if outside Stoffel's circle, would have had to file here. No creditor is named.
• Deletion, register entry of 29 Aug 1952: the extraordinary general meeting of 12 Aug 1952 found the liquidation complete; the company is deleted [pid=sha-001:1952:70::2391]. This matches Ternion AG 3 [read: facts.json].

2. Dipol A.-G. (Arbon): Ternion's sister company, founded the same day

• Founding, register entry of 3 May 1932 (SHAB Nr. 109, 12 May 1932, p.1147): "Unter der Firma Dipol A.-G. ist am 18. April 1932, mit Sitz in Arbon ... gegründet worden. Zweck ... die Unterhaltung eines Laboratoriums zur Ausarbeitung und Verwertung von Verfahren auf elektro-physischem, elektro-chemischem und elektro-technischem Gebiet". Capital Fr. 25,000 in 25 registered shares, fully paid. Sole director Max Stoffel. Individual signature also for Anton Lanter, Kaufmann, of and in Steinach (St. Gallen). Domicile "am Philosophenweg, in den Fabrikräumlichkeiten der Firma" (in the firm's factory premises) [pid=sha-001:1932:50::1259].
• Ternion (the holding company, Glarus) and Dipol (the laboratory, Arbon) were founded on the same day, 18 Apr 1932, by the same man. Kassner gave his address as Arbon on US 2,089,966 (filed Dec 1932) [read: facts.json]. Ternion's 1936 balance sheet carries a loan to "Dipol A.-G. Arbon" of Fr. 51,154.90 [read: facts.json]. Anton Lanter is the man whose proxy was struck through in Ternion's founding papers [read: facts.json Ternion AG 1]. Together these strongly suggest that Dipol was the operating laboratory where Kassner worked and that Ternion was the patent-holding parent. This answers part of the arbiter's open question "Did Dipole A.-G. Arbon, rather than Ternion, house the research?" It is an inference and is not stated in any notice.
• Signature for a chemist, register entry of 9 Aug 1932 (SHAB Nr. 189, 15 Aug 1932, p.1964): individual signature granted to Dr. Alfred Wiegner, Chemiker, von Zürich, in St. Gallen [pid=sha-001:1932:50::2153]. This is the first named scientist connected with the Ternion group other than Kassner.
• Trademark: deposited 26 Nov 1932, no. 79010, "Dipol A.-G., Fabrikation, Philosophenweg, Arbon (Schweiz). Elektrische Apparate" [pid=sha-001:1932:50::3391]. The mark itself (word or picture) is not in the OCR. Dipol was a manufacturer of electrical apparatus with factory premises, not just a paper company.
• Dissolution: general meeting of 6 Apr 1938 resolved to dissolve; liquidator Max Stoffel; "Die Unterschriften von Anton Lanter und Dr. Alfred Wiegner sind erloschen" (register entry of 4 May 1938) [pid=sha-001:1938:56::1137]. Creditor calls follow in May 1938, side by side with Ternion's [pid=sha-001:1938:56::1211]. The two companies were wound up together.

3. A Swiss patent family member of the 1931 applicator

• SHAB 1934 (patent list, Kl. 116f) shows Swiss patent CH 169,177: filed 8 Mar 1932; "Verfahren und Vorrichtung zur Erregung von Ultrakurzwellen für elektromedizinische und andere Bestrahlungszwecke"; Ernst Eduard Wilhelm Kassner, Düsseldorferstrasse 35a, Berlin W.15; agent Fritz Isler, Zürich; priority Germany 9 Mar 1931 [pid=sha-001:1934:52::1647]. This is the Swiss member of the GB383508 / US1951731 / FR732805 family. The agent Fritz Isler of Zürich also represented Giodvad Grell in 1949 (item 5).

4. Kassner in Switzerland during the war: General Infra Company A.G., Chur (1943-1953)

• Founding, register entry of 20 Apr 1943 (SHAB Nr. 121, 26 May 1943, p.1187). Purpose: exploitation of "der Strahlenerzeugung des sichtbaren Spektral- und unsichtbaren Infra-Wellenbereichs sowie des angrenzenden Mikro-ultrakurzwellengebietes auf Grund der Anwendung eines neuen physikalischen Prinzips". Capital Fr. 100,000. 25 shares were paid in kind for rights bought from the consortium "Suisse Infra-Compagnie" in Neuchâtel (Emanuel Borel, Arthur Studer, Alfons Burri and Ernst E. Kassner) for Fr. 25,000; Kassner received 7 shares. Board: Oberst Emanuel Borel (Neuchâtel, president), Ing. Arthur Studer (Neuchâtel), Ing. Alfons Burri (Kilchberg ZH) and "Ingenieur Ernst E. W. Kassner, deutscher Staatsangehöriger, in Zürich". Domicile c/o Dr. Hs. Jörg, Quaderstrasse 15, Chur [pid=sha-001:1943:61::1311].
• Revision, register entry of 6 Jan 1944: the 25 in-kind shares were cancelled "gegen Rückgabe der bei der Gründung der Gesellschaft eingebrachten Sachwerte" (the contributed rights were returned) and replaced by 25 new shares [pid=sha-001:1944:62::147].
• Dissolution, 10 Jul 1953; deletion 16 Dec 1953 [pid=sha-001:1953:71::2375 ; ::3413].
• This places Kassner, a German citizen, as a resident of Zürich in 1943 working on high-power "spectral infra-red" emitters. That fits his 1951 US 2,558,568 ("Device for producing infra-red rays", assigned to Vibranic Ltd) [read: facts.json]. The project's documents had no record of his whereabouts after 1938.

5. Vibranic Ltd (Glarus, 1945-1952): Stoffel buys patent rights from Giodvad Grell

• Founding, register entry of 17 Nov 1945 (statutes of 15 Nov 1945). Purpose: "Erwerb, die Entwicklung und die Verwertung von Patenten". Capital Fr. 100,000, of which Fr. 90,000 was paid by contribution in kind. "Die Gesellschaft übernimmt von Giodvad Grell, in New York, die im Kauf- und Abtretungsvertrag vom 15. November 1945 näher bezeichneten Patentrechte. Der Kaufpreis beträgt Fr. 200 000" (Fr. 110,000 in cash plus 900 shares). Board: Max Stoffel (Arbon, in St. Gallen), president; Giodvad Grell (US citizen, New York), vice-president; Robert Bult (Basel); Hans von der Mühll (Basel); Pierre Turrettini (Geneva). Domicile c/o Balthasar Oertli-Heer, Hauptstrasse, Glarus (the same domicile as Ternion in 1932) [pid=sha-001:1945:63::3294].
• Dissolution resolved 5 Apr 1949; liquidator Carl Alexander Drenowatz, Zürich. The signatures of Stoffel, Grell, Bult, von der Mühll and Turrettini lapse [pid=sha-001:1949:67::1188]. There is also a 1949 notice to shareholders [pid=sha-001:1949:67::506]. Deleted 4 Mar 1952 [pid=sha-001:1952:70::694].
• A 1949 SHAB patent list shows Swiss patent CH 264,736: filed 22 Nov 1945, 20:00 (one week after Vibranic was founded); "Verfahren und Vorrichtung zur Wärmebehandlung von Stoffen im hochfrequenten Kondensatorfeld" (method and apparatus for the heat treatment of materials in a high-frequency capacitor field); "Herm. H. Giodvad Grell, East 36th Street 119, New York"; agent Fritz Isler, Zürich, the same agent as Kassner's CH 169,177 [pid=sha-001:1949:67::3469]. The patent frames the technology as heat treatment.
• Significance. Grell was the US agent who held the 1941 option on the Dufour/Leduc patents and licensed them outside rubber. Ten months after the Jan 1945 announcement that Goodrich and Firestone had bought the "basic electronic vulcanization patents" of Dufour, Leduc and Kassner, Grell sold "patent rights" for Fr. 200,000 to a new Glarus company chaired by Max Stoffel, Ternion's founder and liquidator, and domiciled with Ternion's old domicile holder. Vibranic was later assignee of Kassner's 1951 US 2,558,568. So the Stoffel–Kassner group ran from Ternion and Dipol (1932-1938) through Vibranic (1945-1952). The notices do not say which patents Grell sold, whether they were Kassner's, or how Kassner's US patents reached Grell. The Kauf- und Abtretungsvertrag of 15 Nov 1945 would say. Its likely place is the Glarus commercial-register file for Vibranic (Landesarchiv Glarus), which is the same source the project's Ternion register copies came from in 2017 [read: facts.json ternion-docs-request].

How this bears on the claims and open questions

Next visit (recheck plan)

• Search SHAB for: Wiegner, Lanter Steinach, Drenowatz Vibranic, Borel Infra, Burri Kassner, Philosophenweg Arbon, and the 1947 Vibranic notice (SHAB Nr. 25, 31 Jan 1947, p.310). Also search the Swiss patent lists for Kassner in 1933-1955 (Kl. 116f, 21a4), for the Swiss members of the GB417501 and GB448417-9 families.
• Find the 1941 hit for "Kassner Ultrakurzwellen" (issue node pid=sha-001:1941:59::2895). Pages ::2896-::2911 were checked, and none contains "Kassner", so the matching page lies elsewhere in that issue.