Hobbs Hart & Co Lever Indicator lock

Selector

Hello all - this is my first post.

As a furniture restorer I am always making keys for old simple locks in chests of drawers and so on.
I keep an eye out for keys at auction and have just bought a lot containing some keys for just this purpose.
At the bottom of the box was this large heavy iron lock.
Can anyone tell me anything about it please ?
I have read that Hobbs was a man of importance in the lock world and that this is probably after his return to the USA but still don’t know where this puts this lock in date terms.
I am also interested in the purpose of the lever indicator - would it show that someone has tried to open it ?

Thanks

Paul Prescott

Generally speaking locks with indicators on them are generally for institutional purposes, prisons, asylums etc.

Selector

Thanks oldlock that’s interesting to know.
I’ll get a picture of the insides up tomorrow.
It appears to be 5 large levers some in brass some steel.

Richard Phillips

As Oldlock says, this is a cell lock, for an inward-opening cell door. There were made left-handed, right-handed, and for inward-opening and outward-opening doors. Inward-opening being more common. Limits of age unknown, but most date from late 19C.

It has a trigger-action - see the small square stud near the forend. When the key unlocks and withdraws the bolt against a strong spring, the bolt is held in and the key can be removed, leaving the door unsecured whilst prisoners are allowed out of their cells. Slamming the door shut causes the trigger stud to hit the doorframe and be pushed in. The strong bolt spring then projects the bolt which is instantly deadlocked - no key is needed. This is the origin of the prison expression ‘banged up’. The indicator shows the lock’s status.

Selector

Thank you Chubbbramah - that’s really informative.
I wonder how may people have been ‘banged up’ behind it ?
I have tried to upload a pic of the insides but just can’t make it happen !!

wylk

Selector wrote
I have tried to upload a pic of the insides but just can’t make it happen !!

I assume you’ve read this:

http://www.antique-locks.com/showthread.php/3328-How-to-upload-images-to-your-posts

If the upload manager doesn’t like an image there will be some sort of error message but it does a rather poor job of making it clear there was an error. Usually this will be either an image that is too large, or a file type that is not supported.

[unknown]

Selector

I had read that !! But I wonder if my file was too large ??
Anyway here goes again, hopefully a pic of the internals

Richard Phillips

I forgot to mention what the op will now have discovered: on this lock, the knob handle is fixed. Most modern cell doors open outwards, so nobody can hide behind the door. Victorian cell doors, however, commonly (though not always) opened inwards (saves corridor/landing space), so the handle was really essential to allow the door to be pulled shut.
Many modern mechanical trigger-action cell locks use a handle to withdraw the bolt, the key only ‘unlocking’ the bolt. The handle is also needed to pull the door open.