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UK National Archives Discovery catalogue (2026-10-03)

Site: The National Archives (Kew) Discovery catalogue, which also indexes other UK record offices. Searched through its JSON API: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/API/search/records?sps.searchQuery=... Result: partial (one relevant catalogue entry; nothing on Kassner, Ternion or Universal Inventions Ltd).

Queries tried

  • Kassner (records dated 1925-1960): 24 hits.
  • Ternion (1925-1960): 1 hit, irrelevant (Ternion Court, Milton Keynes, 2016).
  • Universal Inventions (1925-1960): 278 hits, none for Universal Inventions Ltd (the assignee of US 2,104,697).
  • Bauch (1925-1960): 45 hits.
  • Bauch Friedrich, Bauch F W O, Frederick William Otto Bauch, Bauch Frederick, BAUCH, F, Kassner Ernst, radiation therapy Marconi 1935 (all dates): 0 relevant.

Findings

  • Kassner: negative. Every "Kassner" record is an Austrian or German refugee of the late 1930s and 1940s: naturalisation, internment (HO 396), police registration (MEPO 35) and service records for Karl, Charlotte, Edward, Eileen Lucy and Max Herbert Kassner [web: Discovery API search "Kassner"]. None is Ernst Eduard Wilhelm Kassner. So no UK naturalisation or wartime internment file is catalogued under his name. That fits the SHAB evidence that he was in Zürich by 1943 (see 2026-10-03-e-periodica-shab.md).
  • Bauch: partial. The catalogue has the naturalisation certificate of Helen Irene Alexandra Bauch, "From Germany. Resident in Croydon, Surrey", certificate DZ3669, issued 6 May 1947 (HO 334/246/3669), and an HO 405 file "BAUCH, H I A, year of birth 1916" (HO 405/6145) [web: Discovery API search "Bauch"]. These match Bauch's wife in the IWM interview [read: facts.json]. No catalogue entry was found for F. W. O. Bauch's own naturalisation under any form of his name tried. HO 405 files are often described only by surname and initials. The HO 405/6145 file on his wife may refer to him, but it was not opened.
  • No record of the Marconi radiation-therapy patent sale (claim 9 lead) is catalogued.

How this bears on the claims

  • Claim 9: there is no new evidence for or against a Ternion project. The Bauch family's UK records exist. The naturalisation files (HO 405) could give Bauch's employment history in 1934-35, including GEC and any other employer, and could be ordered from Kew.
  • Kassner's London period (1934-36) is not reflected in Home Office files. His British company, Universal Inventions Ltd (London, assignee of US 2,104,697), is not in Discovery. Its record would sit with Companies House or the dissolved-company files in BT 31 (search by company name, not person) [memory, medium].

Next visit

  • Search Discovery for BT 31 with "Universal Inventions Limited" (dissolved companies) and the year range 1930-1950. Search "Ternion" in BT 31 and in the London Gazette.
  • Try HO 405 under BAUCH with the birth year 1903 or 1904.