"What the Victorians did for us"

[Engineer]

I don't know how many others have seen this series, but in the episode called "Crime and Punishement", the latter part of which is all about old locks - Including basic blacksmith made ones, all the way up to the Brahma lock and a forensic investigation of how it was famously picked. it also visits the locksmith musuem:
http://www.localhistory.scit.wlv.ac.uk/ ... story2.htm

The programme I found is on Youtube, but in three parts:

Part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZkI3E2KP68

Part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8sqKtIYzfA

Part 3:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWEFAhLejuA

[Major Boothroyd]

Looks interesting, thank you.

[Engineer]

Incidentally, despite living in the UK all my life (where Bramah locks are made), they are such serious locks, that this is the only one I have ever actually seen:

http://www.hygra.com/uk/jb/jb115/

[Jaakko]

http://www.localhistory.scit.wlv.ac.uk/Museum/locks/LockMuseum/frontroomexhibit2.jpg

Now that is an interesting looking lock

[n2oah]

Excellent video! Thank you for sharing.

[mr_chris79]

An excellent thread! Thanks for the heads up Engineer!

[n2oah]

The A.C. Hobbs and Bramah story needs some serious clarification. The rep in the video said the total time was "51 hours spread over 16 days". LSS quotes the time as "24 days". Also, was this really the first time it had been opened for a long time?
[quote="LSS in 2005]
After a careful examination of the original lock, it is the
author's conclusion that Hobbs decoded the slider position in
much the same fashion that John Falle constructed his pin and cam
system to read minute tolerance variations.[/quote]
Granted, this doesn't necessarily mean he disassembled the lock, but how else would you see the marks made by decoding the gate position? The suggested "destructive assembly" theory is simply asinine.
And the part when he couldn't show the man disassembling the lock because it was a "closely guarded secret" sounded verrrry fishy.

[n2oah]

If somebody could touch up that quote for me, that would be great!

[Jaakko]

n2oah, there is this thing called fibe optics that have been probably used

[Engineer]

Hi n2oah!

I share your reservations about what really happened with A.C. Hobbs and Bramah. Everytime I come across the story, the "facts" seem different. I thought it was a matter of public record and so should not be in dispute, but apparently not. Since A. C. did this in secret, I would have thought the ammount of time he spent enclaved with the lock would have been clear at least.

I was very puzzled by not being shown the actual investigation of the lock, surely from the parts of the mechanism they did show, a lot of people could make a guess at least? I wondered if they were purposely being oblique about thew reason for not showning the investigation, because the methods used are the ones that would be used by invesigators for the Police in crimes? I can understand them not wanting those methods known any more widely than they already are. That leads onto the old argument though about the real bad guys already knowing these things, so I won't revisit that.

I admit to being confused about what probably did happen between A.C. Hobbs and Bramah, I've read that many different things over the years. Does anyone know of an account that is probably fairly accurate at all please?

[aussielocky]

For the best account of the opening you need to read the section in george prices 1856 book.

There is also some info here :

http://antique-locks.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=150

[aussielocky]

And here's the section from the above mentioned book :

http://antique-locks.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=218

[n2oah]

And here's the section from the above mentioned book :

http://antique-locks.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=218

Thanks for the link. I'll be sure to read through it later when I have the time.

[Engineer]

This appears to be an excelent account - Thank you.

Reading through it, I did notice several errors that make me wonder if they are simple typos when typing it into the webpage, or were they present in the original, in which case, I am a little concerned over the care that might have been taken with the facts. For example, the prize was 200Gns. (1 Guinea = £1 1Shilling = £1.05). In other words, section 571 should refer to £210, not £200 as it does. Later on this mistake is not repeated and referance is made to the full £210.

Notwithstanding that, it does still seem to be the most convincing account I've seen. Thank you!

For the best account of the opening you need to read the section in george prices 1856 book.

There is also some info here :

http://antique-locks.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=150

[aussielocky]

I've checked my copy of the original 1856 book, and in there is does quote GBP 200. So that was either a typo at the time of publication or a mistake in the original newspaper that the book is quoting from. Either is quite possible.