safeman I had already posted this catalogue in mid-March but by not having attached any narrative it seems to have been ignored. The introduction alone which takes up the whole of the first page is an insight as to why he entered the safe making business. He doesn’t take issue with any competitors until page two when referring to Chubb & Hunter’s Improved Patent of 1860 which he claims to be ‘cool piracy’ of his own 1855 lock. It would have been this Chubb lock on the Price Double Door Fire & Fraud-proof safe, as shown, which Milner’s representatives overcharged with gunpowder at the Burnley test in 1860 and which ended in the tragic death of a child onlooker. This catalogue is from the papers of the late Bill Stanton from which I have also learned that after Chubb, Price used the Tucker & Reeves Holdfast Patent, Safeguard Patent, and Nettlefolds A1 Guardian Patent as illustrated (left). Price’s 1859 Patent, the one he quickly re-patented the following year when he saw the Chatwood lever design, is shown here - Ne Plus Ultra lock No. 30 - (right) with off centre keyhole and locking up. With his redesign in 1860 he was mocked by some of the press for having improved on the unimprovable.
Brian Denyer Very nice …thanks for posting. Interesting graphics, or I should say etchings! Brian…………………………..
Huw Eastwood yes a BIG thanks from me as well safeman 🙁y): lucky to have a member who’s prepared to share such great info like this. I also missed it the first time, and seeing it now there’s so much to digest I’m going to read over it many times to take it all in proper. Really interesting stuff there, and I loved some of his comments like “the more you plaster them (Iron safes) with ornaments the more you lessen their security,” and another using the typical grammar and expression at the time: the “perfect ease and pleasantness with which the large bolts of the largest safes and doors work”. Pleasantness of the boltwork action on a heavy iron bankers safe- I love it! Perhaps Gunnebo’s marketing dept could learn a thing or two…. One interesting point for me was the No:8 cut of the bankers safe with internally concealed hinges or “hung on inside centres” as he puts it- looks typical of that type but can’t remember if I’ve ever seen one without the normal outside carriages. Will be coming back to read this one for a long time- thanks again 🙂-:
