Ardeshir Godrej

The Gootherajee's were a wealthy Parsi family of Bombay (now Mumbai), and Ardeshir's father Burjorji and grandfather Sorabji dealt in real estate.

On 25 April 1891, Bachubai and Ardeshir's second cousin Pirojbai Sohrabji Kamdin decided to climb to the viewing platform of the 85-meter high Rajabai Tower.

In 1894, Ardeshir, fresh out of law school, was hired by a well-known firm to argue a case on a client's behalf in Zanzibar.

[1] The fine details of the case are not known, but according to his biography, it went well until, towards the end when Ardeshir refused to acknowledge (before the court) that his client had visited a particular place because there was no hard evidence that he had done so.

Not allowing himself to be convinced, the client had to find a replacement, and Ardeshir returned to Bombay and gave up the law altogether.

In 1895, Ardeshir visited Merwanji Muncherji Cama, a friend of his father's, and who was highly respected for his business acumen.

With 3,000 Rupees ($1500 US in 1895) from Cama, Ardeshir began manufacturing "scalpels, forceps, pincers, scissors and the other implements of a surgeon's trade."

When he was satisfied that the product fulfilled the necessary specifications, he asked for a meeting with the proprietor of the company he worked for, who, when they met, profoundly congratulated him on his accomplishment.

But when Ardeshir insisted that the product be stamped "Made in India", the proprietor rebuked him: "you may be a first-class machinist, but we are discussing marketing here.

One morning Ardeshir read an article in a daily newspaper on the rise of burglary incidents in the city and in which the commissioner of police called for better security of homes and places of business.

Calling on Merwanji Cama again, Ardeshir apologised for his inability to repay the loan immediately, but went on to describe his plans for the new lock-making venture.

In a 20 m2 (215 ft2) shed next door to the Bombay Gas Works, with forty steam presses and a dozen skilled workers he had sent for from Gujarat and Malabar, production began on 7 May 1897.

Like Charles Chubb's patent of 1824, the Godrej lock didn't need a special "regulator" key to restore functionality.

Ardeshir made dozens of designs on paper and held innumerable discussions with his engineers and craftsmen, until it was finally determined that the only way to ensure security and stability was to make the safe out of a single sheet of steel.

In July 1908, Ardeshir with his brother Pirojsha applied for and were granted (in October 1909) a British patent for the world's first springless lock.

Shortly before he left, Ardeshir visited Merwanji Cama again, this time to repay him for his 3,000 Rupee loan of so many years before.

Ardeshir made copious notes, and upon returning to Bombay, implemented many of the methods he observed on his European tour.

The fires that resulted from an ammunition explosion at Bombay's Victoria docks raged for days, and the loss of life and property was enormous, but the contents in many of the Godrej safes survived, including one belonging to a bank.

Around 1909 Ardeshir read an article by Dadabhai Naoroji on the impoverishment of India through unfair trade practices and excessive taxation levied by the colonial authorities.

In the paper, Naoroji established that although India has a positive trade balance, the taxes that the colonial authorities levied consumed the advantage, leaving virtually nothing that could be invested.

In an interview published in the Indian National Herald on 27 April 1927, Ardeshir was bitterly critical of the leaders of the Swadeshi movement who encouraged the acceptance of domestic products even if these were of substandard quality.

Illustration from the publication Kaiser-I-Hind about the Rajabi Tower deaths