Alfred Charles Hobbs (1812 - 1891) was a famous American lockpicker. He was the first one to unlock Bramah's lock and the Chubb detector lock at the Great Exhibition of 1851 and forced the lock manufacturers to improve their designs. Afterwards he started his own successful lock factory that was later bought by Chubb Safes in 1954. Locksmithing is the science and art of making and defeating locks. ... A Chubb detector lock is a type of lever tumbler lock that when picked or opened with the wrong key will stop working until either a special regulator key or the original key is used (depending on the lock). ... The Great Exhibition: Paxtons Crystal Palace enclosed full-grown trees in Hyde Park. ... The Chubb Locks subsidiary of the Assa Abloy Group is a British manufacturer of high security locking systems for residential and commercial applications. ...

Publications

• Locks and Safes: The Construction of Locks. Published by Virtue & Co., London, 1853 (revised 1868).

External links

• http://home.earthlink.net/~drillpoint/achobbs.htm
• http://www.localhistory.scit.wlv.ac.uk/Museum/locks/gazetteer/gazhaa-hog.htm
• http://www.localhistory.scit.wlv.ac.uk/Museum/locks/gazetteer/priceg/priceg02.htm