The scene
A factory has more than one kind of history. A 1948/49 archive board shows the people and spaces behind the industrial name; another photographic record shows an accelerator hall built in 1959 and photographed in 1962. A 1977 workforce photograph adds what an equipment catalogue often leaves out: the people who kept a technical enterprise running. These images are dated glimpses, not a continuous film of the company, and they should be read alongside the original archive captions.
The engineering challenge
The Basel collection is fragmentary in a precise way: the e-manuscripta catalogue records seven original photographs in one file, while only three sheets are accessible in its digital display. “Not digitised” does not mean “never existed”. The surviving views show changing buildings and working environments without identifying every person or proving who invented an instrument. Creator names, collection references and dates are kept beside the eight carefully selected documentary images used across the whole website.
Why it matters
The story continues beyond the old buildings. A 12 November 2026 public announcement describes a planned move of HAEFELY research, development and manufacturing, involving roughly 250 existing employees, from Basel to Pratteln by 2029. In the same industrial park, MGC Moser-Glaser separately envisages about 200 new jobs by 2032; neither the move nor those future jobs should be described as already completed. A remembered rooftop high-voltage test said to have caused a motorway queue remains an unverified anecdote, not a documented event.
What the historical record shows
An empty industrial hall in the 1948/49 building record makes the physical space of the Basel works tangible, without assigning later products or workers to this image.
This dated archival interior is compared with the 1962 building plate and 1977 workforce photo to trace a concrete change in the visual record, not to decorate a generic company timeline.
Image citation · SWA PA 510 D 173/1, facsimile page 6; factory hall 1948/49 · Atelier Eidenbenz (photograph); Schweizerisches Wirtschaftsarchiv (archival record)
CC BY-SA 4.0 (record metadata); resized WebP of original photo board; no retouching
Open original source
The archival card dates the photograph to 1962 and the accelerator-hall building to 1959. The dates describe different things, not contradictory construction dates.
The complete original photo board is a primary artifact documenting the HAEFELY accelerator hall, building date and photographer credit. We preserve its identifying border to make the historical claim auditable.
Image citation · SWA PA 510 D 173/1, facsimile page 7; photograph 1962, building constructed 1959 · Durisol (photograph); Schweizerisches Wirtschaftsarchiv (archival record)
CC BY-SA 4.0 (record metadata); resized WebP of original photo board; no retouching
Open original source
The documented 1977 workforce shifts the story from buildings to people; this archive photo is quoted to examine the company’s social history.
The staff photograph is discussed as evidence of working life and industrial community in 1977, not as a headcount or an assertion about the identity of every pictured person.
Image citation · Swiss Social Archive, F 5032-Fc-0660, Basel workforce 1977 · Paul W. Bonnot / Schweizerisches Sozialarchiv
Contextual quotation for explanation of factory workforce; no general republication licence established; keep source attribution and original watermark
Open original sourceSources, scope and limits.
Basel photo boards dated 1948/49 and 1962, 1977 workforce photograph and e-manuscripta catalogue; official Basel-Landschaft announcement of 12 November 2026. Rooftop motorway story is unverified oral history, not an established incident.
- SWA PA 510 D 173/1 historical building photographs 1948–1960S-003 · historic_media · digitized_metadata_and_license
- e-manuscripta official IIIF v2 manifest SWA PA510 D173/1 three digital sheetsS-E6-006 · archive_catalog · iiif_manifest_metadata_read
New documentary references
- Basel-Landschaft government communication, 12 November 2026Original government communiqué reproduced by the regional news platform; HAEFELY ~250 planned transfer by 2029, MGC ~200 new by 2032.
- Schweizerisches Wirtschaftsarchiv, E. Haefely & Co., building photographs 1948–1962 (SWA PA 510 D 173/1)Original uploaded ten-page facsimile with photo boards dated 1948/49 and 1962; original archive credits, photographer marks and subject labels preserved.
Visual quotations document individual historical points with named sources and creators; they are not a general image-library licence. Equipment claims are intentionally narrower than the surrounding institution’s activities.