Alfred Charles Hobbs (October 7, 1812 – November 6, 1891) was an American locksmith and

inventor An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...

. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1812; his father was a carpenter. He married Charlotte F. Nye (1815-?) of

Sandwich, Massachusetts Sandwich is a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, and is the oldest town on Cape Cod. The town motto is ''Post tot Naufracia Portus'', "after so many shipwrecks, a haven". The population was 20,259 at the 2020 census. History Cape Cod wa ...

, in 1835 and had four children: Charlotte Hobbs, Alfred J. Hobbs (1843-?), Mary H. Hobbs, and Arthur Hobbs. Both of his parents were born in England.

Life

Hobbs went to London as a representative of the New York company of Day & Newell, which was exhibiting at the

Great Exhibition of 1851 The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, also known as the Great Exhibition or the Crystal Palace Exhibition (in reference to the temporary structure in which it was held), was an international exhibition which took pl ...

. Hobbs had brought with him his boss's (Robert Newell) Parautoptic lock, designed to compete with, and surpass, the locks available at the time in Britain. He was the first one to pick Bramah's lock and the

Chubb detector lock A Chubb detector lock is a lever tumbler lock with an integral security feature, a re-locking device, which frustrates unauthorised access attempts and indicates to the lock's owner that it has been interfered with. When someone tries to pick the ...

at the

and forced lock manufacturers to improve their designs.

The lock controversy continues a subject of great interest at the Crystal Palace, and, indeed, is now become of general importance. We believed before the Exhibition opened that we had the best locks in the world, and among us Bramah and Chubb were reckoned quite as impregnable as
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— more so, indeed, for the key to the Mediterranean was taken by us, but none among us could penetrate into the locks and shoot the bolts of these masters. The mechanical spirit, however, is never at rest, and if it is lulled into a false state of listlessness in one branch of industry, and in one part of the world, elsewhere it springs up suddenly to admonish and reproach us with our supineness. Our descendents on the other side of the water are every now and then administering to the mother country a wholesome filial lesson upon this very text, and recently they have been "rubbing us up" with a severity which perhaps we merited for sneering at their shortcomings in the Exhibition.

In 1854 he was awarded a

Telford Medal The Telford Medal is a prize awarded by the British Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) for a paper or series of papers. It was introduced in 1835 following a bequest made by Thomas Telford, the ICE's first president. It can be awarded in gold ...

by the

Institution of Civil Engineers The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) is an independent professional association for civil engineers and a charitable body in the United Kingdom. Based in London, ICE has over 92,000 members, of whom three-quarters are located in the UK, whi ...

for his paper 'On the Principles and Construction of Locks'. Hobbs Hart and Co sign

Hobbs became one of the founders of the lock making firm of Hobbs Hart & Co. Ltd. The company started in 1851 and was formally registered as Hobbs and Co. in 1852. By 1855, it had become Hobbs, Ashley and Company. The name then changed to Hobbs, Ashley and Fortescue, with an address at 97 Cheapside in London. Then for the next ninety years the address was 76 Cheapside in London.Evans, Jim
"A Gazetteer of Lock and Key Makers"
/ref> In 1860 Hobbs returned to America and lived in

Bridgeport, Connecticut Bridgeport is the List of municipalities in Connecticut, most populous city and a major port in the U.S. state of Connecticut. With a population of 148,654 in 2020, it is also the List of cities by population in New England, fifth-most populous ...

, and went on to hold a dozen patents for firearm ammunition manufacturing. In 1880 he listed himself as a "Superintendent Of Cartridge Factory".

Publications

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

Patents

* Improvements in Machines for Winding Wads April 15, 1873 * Improvements in Cartridge Loading Machines February 18, 1873

References

Bibliography

*The Stevens Point Journal; December 26, 1891; The late Alfred Charles Hobbs. *Fitchburg Daily Sentinel; December 29, 1891; ... Alfred C. Hobbs, noted lockmaker, aged 79 *Daily Northwestern; Oshkosh; January 2, 1892; ... Alfred C. Hobbs, noted lockmaker, Bridgeport, Connecticut, aged 79 ...

External links