Subscribe your email id to receive promotional offers and other News.
About Hugh Johnson, First UK Design
Hugh Johnson has been involved with Sales, Marketing, International Product Development and Innovation for a number of years and is a creative thinker (new ideas). He has an extensive range of commercial experience which includes working for large International companies and running his own company. He invented and patented the Johnson Data Firesafe in the UK, Europe and the USA, and was selected by the DESIGN CENTRE LONDON.
As UK Product and Marketing Manager, I was instructed by the Swedish Board to develop a new range of computer firesafes for the protection of computer media. At that time, we manufactured data firesafes in various sizes, from small to large, but on a par with our competitors. I decided to work from the other direction and investigate the various types of removable storage media, available and in development. I produced a list of disks and tapes with their external dimensions, height and width. I also contacted the computer manufacturers and collected information on the probable required number of stored disks or tapes for a particular computer system. Companies included IBM, Burroughs, ICL, Honeywell, Systime and DEC.
This information enabled me to design a range of range of fire safes from small to double-door. Specification included the exact internal dimensions, but with the proviso that the external dimensions would fit through a Standard single door. Manufacturing would be instructed to produce the safes with these internal dimensions. Storage was optimised to provide little or no wasted space. I presented my recommendations to the Board in Sweden and they were accepted. We now had the most competitive range of firesafes in the market place on a “cost per disk and “cost per tape" stored basis and stored more pro rata.
We “white labelled" the firesafes and distributed them through the computer manufacturers. I had customised them for their relevant computer systems and they became part of the installed package. Rosengrens is the leading supplier of Safes, Firesafes and Security equipment in Europe and now owns most of the, then, competitors.
Case 2: The Johnson Data Firesafe - Statens Provningsanstalt Fire Classification 120D
I invented and developed my own unique computer firesafe. I recognised a market for the storage of small quantities of data with the introduction of the Personal Computer. I resourced an innovative and high tech intumescent material, used on the space shuttle.The material was a liquid and had to be moulded. A company was set up with private investors and BES funding. The product was designed and patents obtained in the UK, Europe and the USA. USA Patent,please click here. United Kingdom and European patents please click here.
The Johnson Data Firesafe was successfully tested in Sweden to the 120D Classification and is, to the best of my knowledge, still the smallest computer firesafe, in the world, with an official 2-hour fire test (temperatures to 1,200 degrees C and internal temperature staying below 50 degrees C). Small enough to fit into a filing cabinet drawer and light enough to carry home.
The Johnson Data Firesafe was manufactured in the UK and sold for £395. We sold 1,500 units in the first year and to countries including Australia and South Africa. Unfortunately, it could never be mass-produced. It required specialised, controlled and costly manual assembly. I still get asked about this unique Portable Computer Firesafe.
