Johan Petter Johansson

Who was Johan Petter Johansson?

Johan Petter Johansson, sometimes known as JP, was a Swedish inventor and industrialist. He invented a modern adjustable spanner. He obtained over 100 patents in total.

He was born in Vårgårda in western Sweden, the oldest of six children in a crofter's family. His was first employed as an assistant operator of a steam engine at a local peat factory. He left Vårgårda at age 19, in 1873, for Motala to work as a navvy. Following military service in 1874, he moved to Eskilstuna where he worked for the Bolinder-Munktell factory, and in 1878 he moved to Västerås where he found employment at a mechanical workshop. Following that, he worked as a blacksmith at a nearby farm.

At this time, he had made a decision to leave Sweden for the United States. This never happened; he was instead offered a more esteemed job by his former employer Munktells, and the offer changed his mind.

He eventually decided to start his own business and, in 1886, moved to Enköping where he started Enköpings Mekaniska Verkstad which quickly became a successful venture. It was during the years in his workshop that he invented the adjustable spanner and the plumber wrench. In 1890, B.A. Hjort & Company agreed to distribute his tools worldwide under the "Bahco" trademark. The Bahco tools became greatly successful, and the company is still in operation and has manufactured over 100 million wrenches to date.