J.P. Johansson - One of the foremost inventors in Sweden

Without our inventors, Sweden would not be what it is today and neither would the rest of the world. Many of the objects that we use and are surrounded by daily and every fourth element was invented or discovered by a Swede.

One of those successful inventors was Johan Petter Johansson. Every one of us has been in contact with his inventions or products. His most well known inventions are the pipe wrench (1888) and the adjustable wrench (1892). Most of us have an example of these items in our toolbox.

Few Swedish inventions have had such an extensive use internationally, been manufactured in such great numbers and lasted such a long time as the adjustable wrench. On June 2, 1998, the Sandvik Bahco Company in Enköping made the 100,000,000th adjustable wrench and the production of these wrenches is still running. Worldwide, 40 million adjustable wrenches are manufactured annually and they are all of the J.P. Johansson type.

J.P. Johansson was born in Vagarda in Vastergotland on December 12, 1853. He was the oldest of six children and the crofter's cottage soon became to small. So Johan Petter after a brief period of schooling left home to earn his own living. His first job was as a farm hand at an adjacent farm. He then worked as a helper at the steam engine of a Peat Factory in Vargarda. There, his employers recognized his excellent work habits and he was promoted to stoker.

When he turned 19 years old in January 1873, he went to Motala. There he worked as a navvy at the ongoing railway construction. The very next fall he left to work on the construction of the railroad Stockholm-Vesterås-Bergslagen (SWB) on the section from Västerås to Kolbäck.

Having served his time in the army, in the spring of 1874, he was employed by the Munktell Factory at Eskilstuna and at last found his career. At Munktell he received an all-around mechanical experience and after 3 years he was very familiar with setting up machines. He then decided to try other employment and took a job as a blacksmith master at the Hagbyholm farm outside Västerås.

At this time, he came very close to leaving Sweden. He had made up his mind to go to America and on his way home to Vårgårda for a short visit before his departure; he stopped at Eskilstuna to visit Munktell. While there he was offered a job of his choice if he would remain in Sweden. He accepted the offer and chose to be a representative for Munktells and be responsible for a larger fitting-job at Kolningsberget in Norberg.

Although he was very satisfied working at Munktells, he wanted to set up his own business. In July 1886, he moved from Eskilstuna to Enköping to start his own company, the Enköpings Mekaniska Verstad. Making this move he probably traveled by train on the railroad that he helped build.

He established his first business by leasing a Blacksmith shop, located at the present Gustav Adolphs Plan, adjacent to the bus station in Enköping. After only one year he bought, as he put it, "a water fall at Fanna" - about 2 km from the city center. There he built his first workshop. His good reputation as a mechanic and the increasing mechanization, primarily within farming, contributed to a very good opportunity of securing work.

J.P. Johansson's first invention of importance was the pipe wrench, for which he obtained a patent on August 17, 1888. Some years later he invented the adjustable wrench, which was patented on May 11, 1892. He produced both of these tools in his own workshop.

In 1890, J.P. Johansson entered into a sales agreement with the B.A. Hjort & Company that, using their sales organization, sold the tools worldwide. The demand increased, the shop was enlarged and production rose rapidly.

J.P. Johansson did not stop after having produced those epoch makingproducts. Another invention that became very popular was the adjustable mechanical hammer "Vulkanus."

The inventions and products were many and the size of the operation continued to increase. In 1916 he transferred the enterprise to his son Hannes Brynge and the B.A. Hjort Company.

He continued to experiment and in 1919 he was ready with an electrical pendulum. The same year he built the Triplex Factory where the Triplex pendulum, the sugar tong triplex, the door-lock, the fire log tong Eldgripen and many other products were made.

J.P. Johansson was also active in the local government. Some of the positions held were a member of the town council for many years, chairman of the school board, a member of the public assistance committee and a major power in getting the town electrified.

Also during his last years he was working in the experimental laboratory and was thinking about new inventions.

Johan Petter Johansson lived a long and productive life. He passed away on August 25, 1943, only a couple of months before his 90th birthday.

But the memory of the inventor and industrialist, J.P. Johansson, is still alive. Every time we come into contact with the quality tools of Bahco, we are reminded of his inventions and industrial activity. Many of his products reached worldwide fame and still are an important part of production at Sandvik-Bahco.