Bramah locks - a guide to dating

Paul Prescott

A well made genuine Bramah lock can be roughly dated from it’s markings, the information below can serve as a guide to such dating. If a lock is part of a master keyed system & bears a system number more accurate dating is possible. In such cases please contact the Bramah lock company in London.

21st August 1784, Lock patent granted. The Bramah Lock Company, Denmark Street, St Giles. Locks marked I (or J) Bramah Patent.

1784 moved to 124 Piccadilly, London.

2nd June 1798, Patent extended for a further 14 years. Locks marked I (or J) Bramah and a crown - no word Patent.

1800, Locks marked I (of J) Bramah with or without crown, but with address 14 or 124 Piccadilly.

1801 Challenge padlock placed in shopfront of 124 Piccadilly. This lock is now in the Science Museum, London.

1805 - Design change - Prior to 1805 the key bit faces an expanse of metal; after 1805 the bit is placed directly opposite one of the slider slots.

1813, Eldest son Timothy joined the business as a partner and the company name was changed to Bramah & Son.

1814, Joseph Bramah died.

Circa 1815 - Design change - Prior to 1815 each slider had it’s own spring, this design was changed to the central spring design.

1817 - Design change - False notches where introduced - Design attributed to ‘ Russell ’

1821 - 1836, Two other sons Francis & Edward became partners and the company changed its name to Bramah & Sons.

1837 - 1841, A new partner joined the company and the name was changed to Bramah and Robinson.

1841, The lock business was separated from the engineering business. The former became called Bramah & Co. and the latter became known as Bramah, Prestige and Ball.

1874 - 1901, Company owned by J.T. Needs & Co. and held Royal Warrants from Queen Victoria and King Edward VII. The locks marked J.T.Needs & Co. 100 New Bond Street (Late J Bramah 124 Piccadilly)

1901 The company was bought by the Whitfield Safe & Lock company.

1910, The businesses name was changed back to Bramah & Co. A Royal Warrant was granted by King George V.

1926 - 1934, Locks marked 2 Nottingham Street.

1936 - 1939, Locks marked 11 Old Bond Street.

1939 - 1963, Locks marked 31 Oldbury Place.

1966 - Date, Locks marked with Joseph Bramah registered trademark.

There are many other markings that have been used at one time or another and also technical modifications introduced at various dates which can also date the locks.

My thanks to Richard Phillips & Jeremy Bramah for their assistance in producing this guide.

NKT

This is very interesting.

Bramah locks before ₁₈₁₇ could have been fairly easily opened, before the design change. I didn’t realise that there was ever a version with many springs, I thought that it was a clone of the design rather than an actual Bramah.

Going back to the Great Exhibition, I could have opened that lock in perhaps just five minutes, knowing what I know now!

Chris Belcher

Given the Great Exhibition of 1851 dates, and the incoming of the false notches in 1817, and remembering that the tool had to be in the singular, I doubt that many of today’s locksmiths could have overcome it.

Even today the average locksmith that is around probably still would not be able to open it. Especially because there is a singular spring - the slightest error in manipulation would mean that you have to start from scratch. It just does behave like a pin cylinder. And I’m talking from experience.

155 years on - it is still a difficult lock to overcome and we have had 155 years to learn how.

The best way of opening today’s Bramah locks is by decoding and placement. Tricky but do-able.

regards Chris

Paul Prescott

I should add that the pre 1840 locks had slides made of iron - which is soft and probably easier to hold in a gate than the later locks which had steel slides. Bramah’s made a point of stressing that the lock Hobbs picked was far from the latest design …

James

Ive got a documentry on Bramah and it says that the lock that Hobbs came over and picked was highly likely to be one of the original multi sprung ones and was changed to the new design single spring after Hobbs had picked it, the original lock no longer known to be in excistance was stripped and examined to find out how it had been opened, the lock that is supposedly to have been the one that Hobbs picked (but isnt) is a multi sprung one but has no picking marks on the internals at all.

Paul Prescott

If it’s the programme I am thinking of, it’s highly inaccurate. Someone needed to do some research ….

It was a single spring lock with 18 slides, the lock currently in the science museum was rebuilt after it was picked and placed back in the window of bramahs - as far as I am aware it was not picked again.

The current lock has 13 steel slides, very heavily false notched.

NKT

That’s very interesting. Seems there is a lot of duff info floating around, then!

Chris, I agree they are not easy to open at all. I have yet to beat mine, even with your tips. However, I was referring to the older multi-spring design, which I thought was the type Hobbs picked.

Oldlocks, you say the current version has 13 sliders, I’m a bit confused, as I have a BS lock from the 70’s which has 7 sliders in the locking part, and it was the same as the current ones on display on the Bramah display at the Telford MLA show.

The Bramah style of lock is my favourite - the complete lack of weak points and the beautiful simplicity of them is a large part of it. :-)

Paul Prescott

NKT wrote
Oldlocks, you say the current version has 13 sliders, I’m a bit confused, as I have a BS lock from the 70’s which has 7 sliders in the locking part, and it was the same as the current ones on display on the Bramah display at the Telford MLA show.

:-)

By current I mean the rebuilt Victorian exhibition lock currently in the Science museum. Externally it’s the same lock picked by A.C.Hobbs, internally it is not.

Paul

NKT

Ok, I see what you meant now. An 18 (or even “just” 13) slider Bramah would be a total nightmare! Even the (apparently fake) 5 slider one I’ve been doing up is a tight keyway.

James

The documentry i have is distributed by Bramah themselves but was made by the BBC i think so could be wrong i suppose.

The lock Hobbs picked was said to be the old one with multiple springs then they changed the internals afterwards which is what your basically saying.

I would have thought that if the lock was a single sprung version wouldnt have Bramah either corrected the program before distrubting it or not distribute it at all?

I suppose its the same as the unknown actual time it took, some say 50 hours others say more others say less and i guess Bramah themselves do not know the real truth.

Ive heard rumours that the original lock internals are actual in a glass case on top of a book case in the offices of Bramah but thats just here say.

Paul Prescott

The programme was “ What the Victorians Did for us ”.

The challenge lock was an 18 slider - Single spring lock - if you read an account of how hobbs did it, the 1st thing he did was to defeat the spring (not springs) and once done he used two very simple tools to pick the lock.

When I get time I would post an article on the picking of the challenge locks, with information from contemporary reliable sources.

The lock in the glass case at Bramahs is the original patent model / exhibition lock. Pictured above.

James

Where would i find the text on how hobbs picked it? It sounds an interesting read.

Ive got the George Price book of 1856 which is supposed to have a bit about Hobbs picking techniques in it but i havent read it yet so i dont know, i would be supprised if it mentions the Bramah but as i say until i get time to carefully read it i dont know, have you read the book? is it any good?

Paul Prescott

James wrote
Where would i find the text on how hobbs picked it? It sounds an interesting read.

Ive got the George Price book of 1856 which is supposed to have a bit about Hobbs picking techniques in it but i havent read it yet so i dont know, i would be surprised if it mentions the Bramah but as i say until i get time to carefully read it i dont know, have you read the book? is it any good?

Yes - that is the book, it has what is probably the best most reliable account of the whole business. I will be posting from that book later.

Paul

James

:lol: Serves me right for not reading it yet then, thanks.

Billy B Edwards Jr. CML

I have a reprint of a book “Rudimentary Treatise on the Construction of Locks”. The original, published in 1868, was constructed from the papers of AC Hobbs. On page 124 it quotes a document signed by George Rennie, Edward Cowper and JR Black that Mr Hobbs spent a total of 51 hours in the room alone with the lock over a total of sixteen days. This is said to have occurred between July 24 and Aug. 23, 1851.

Interestingly, there is a section of the book that examines the Bramah lock and an exploded view of the lock shows a single spring. If this indeed is how Mr Hobbs thought the lock was constructed it may account for some of those 51 hours.
BBE.

levi

I have a Bramah lock in a writing box that is marked “BRAMAH PATENT LONDON”. This doesn’t seem to match up with any other details mentioned here or by Bramah. Can anyone date this lock?

Paul Prescott

The markings suggest that it’s a later copy, made by another maker to Bramah’s old design. This was quite common as the design was widely copied once the patents had expired. As such is isn’t really possible to date with any accuracy.