Living in a Geneva hotel room, lacking capital or equipment, Casas sold his patents to Tavaro through a holding company, and the first Elnas left the factory in 1940. Ramon Casas Robert, a Spanish engineer, a working prototype was reportedly complete as early as 1934, but development was interrupted by the Spanish Civil War, and Casas was forced to emigrate to Switzerland. Tavaro's first sewing machine had no official name, just a model number (500890) but it was consistently referred to in sales literature simply as Elna (without a definite article). At first, the factory exported watch parts & movements to the United Kingdom, in violation of wartime trade restrictions, for which the firm was recognized by the British government. When the Swiss federal government restricted, then banned, exports of war materiel, Tavaro shifted to peaceful industry. Tavaro was once responsible for a full 11% of Swiss military sales to Nazi Germany. The company was known for high-quality clockwork artillery fuzes, which saw use most notably in the German 88mm anti-aircraft gun. The firm began as Ateliers Mécaniques de Précision Tavaro SA, founded as an export division of the Tavannes Watch Company (today part of Sandoz). A Tavaro-made artillery fuze, Hämeenlinna Military Museum, Finland
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