Carl Edvard Johansson was born on March 15, 1864, and died on September 30, 1943. He was a Swedish inventor and scientist. He was born at Frötuna bruk, Fellingsbro, Örebro County.

Johansson created the gauge block set, also called "Jo Blocks" or "Johansson gauge blocks." He received his first Swedish patent on May 2, 1901, under patent number 17017, titled "Gauge Block Sets for Precision Measurement." In 1911, he founded the Swedish company CE Johansson AB (CEJ AB) in Eskilstuna, Sweden. The first CEJ gauge block set sold in America went to Henry M. Leland of the Cadillac Automobile Co. around 1908.

In 1923, Johansson began working for Henry Ford at the Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, Michigan. Ford purchased the American company, CE Johansson Inc., which Johansson had started in 1918 in Poughkeepsie, New York. All equipment was moved to Dearborn, and some of Johansson’s Swedish employees from Poughkeepsie also worked for Ford. At age 72, he retired and returned to Sweden. Throughout his life, he traveled across the Atlantic Ocean 22 times and spent much time in America.

Johansson received many awards, including the large gold medal from the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, which was given to him after his death in 1943 in Eskilstuna.

Johansson and the inch

In the 1910s, the United States and the United Kingdom had different measurements for an inch. The U.S. inch was defined as 25.4000508 mm, measured at 68 °F (20 °C), while the U.K. inch was defined as 25.399977 mm, measured at 62 °F (17 °C).

In 1912, when Johansson began making gauge blocks in inch sizes, he chose a standard size of 25.4 mm, measured at 20 °C (68 °F). This size was accurate to within a few parts per million of both the U.S. and U.K. definitions. Because Johansson’s blocks became widely used, they became the commonly accepted standard for manufacturers in both countries. By 1930, the U.K. and 1933, the U.S. officially adopted 25.4 mm as the standard "industrial inch."

In 1959, English-speaking countries signed the International Yard and Pound Agreement, which set the inch at 25.4 mm worldwide. This confirmed a practice that was already widely used in industry.

Life and family

In 1896, Johansson married Margareta Andersson. They had four children: Elsa, Signe, Edvard, and Gertrud.