Demetrius Comino
| Demetrius Comino | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
4 December 1902 Sydney |
| Died | 27 September 1988 (aged 85) Athens |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Engineering career | |
| Awards | OBE (1963) |
Demetrius Comino OBE (4 December 1902 – 27 September 1988) was an Australian-born Greek engineer, inventor, entrepreneur and philanthropist during the 20th century. He invented the slotted angle steel construction system, Dexion, which became widely used internationally for commercial shelving, storage racking, exhibition stands, accommodation, and for domestic purposes. In 1971 he founded the Comino Foundation, an educational charity.
Demetrius (always known as 'Dimitri') Comino (Greek: Δημήτριος Κομηνός) was born in Sydney, the eldest son of a Greek oyster merchant who had migrated from the island of Kythira in 1884. He demonstrated his creativity aged 12 when he invented a toy submarine, and after attending Sydney Grammar School, travelled to London in 1921 to study electrical engineering at University College London. After graduating with a first class honours degree in 1924, Comino served a three-year apprenticeship with British Thomson-Houston in Rugby before leaving to establish a printing business, Krisson Printing Ltd, near Oxford Circus in central London ("Krisson" being Greek for 'better').
The printing business grew quickly, but Comino never felt happy in printing and wanted further business challenges. In 1937, he established Dexion Ltd (from the Greek for 'right') to market products he had developed and patented to improve the efficiency of the printing process. These included: a gauge to check the squareness and register of a printer's forme; trolleys; chutes; a duplicate book; interlocking frames to hold print in place inside the chase; and a compositor's chart. As a printer, he was also concerned about the lack of versatility of the wooden shelving often for storing paper and other consumables. He began to work on steel shelving which could readily be assembled, dismantled and then reassembled. By 1939 he had developed an angled section made of steel with slots cut down one side and a long groove cut down the other. Birmingham-based Accles & Pollock manufactured an initial batch which was delivered in late August, a week before the declaration of the Second World War on 3 September 1939, and Comino sold most of this angled section to local stores of Lillywhites, John Lewis and Selfridges.
...
Wikipedia