caption death_date children birth_place nationality birth_date known_for spouse image article_title name occupation
j. , the plumber wrench . in his breast pocket , p. an adjustable spanner , also invented by him . johansson with his favourite tool and invention 25 august 1943 hannes brynge vårgårda , västra götaland county , sweden swedish 12 december 1853 inventor . of the adjustable spanner and the plumber wrench matilda johansson sba_hist_j_p_johansson_big . jpg johan petter johansson
 johan petter johansson inventor
johan petter johansson

johan petter johansson -lrb- december 12 , 1853 -- august 25 , 1943 -rrb- , sometimes known as jp , was a swedish inventor and industrialist .
he invented a modern adjustable spanner -lrb- patents in 1891 and 11 may 1892 -rrb- .
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 '' -lrb- the mechanical workshop of enköping -rrb- 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 .
johansson transferred the then-large enterprise to his son , hannes brynge , and the b.a. hjort & company in 1916 .
he started experimenting with electrical armature and in 1919 opened a new factory , triplex , which manufactured electrical pendulums and various devices .
he died 89 years old after having been productive for the most of his life .
