J.P. Johansson, man of the Century in Sweden

Though I have no famous relatives in my family, my wife, Cindy,  has a famous Swedish inventor in her family.

Cindy's great-grandmother, parents, brothers and sisters were preparing to leave Sweden for the United States, when the eldest brother, Johann Petter,  was offered a good position with a regional firm that produced steam engines.

In 1886 he started his own repair shop in Enköping, Sweden. When he had to go out on repairs, he would have to carry a wide assortment of wrenches, one for each size of fitting. Some of these fittings hadn't been standardized, so there may not be a properly sized wrench. In addition, he was unable to afford a complete set of wrenches. Out of this problem came his invention of a pipe wrench in 1888. This was  followed by his adjustable wrench, (or as we call it, a 'crescent' wrench) in 1892.

J.P.partnered with B.A. Hjorth to market his wrenches. They used Hjorth's initials, BAH, then added Co. (as in company) for their trademark known as Bahco.

Bahco is now owned by Snap-On tools.