3-011-437 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The International Exhibition: Chubbs' safe-lock and key, 1862. '...a very massive fire-proof wrought-iron safe for bankers' use, upwards of seven feet in height; its sides six inches thick, and weighing nearly four tons. The drawers and strong closets of the interior have all distinct locks. The outer folding-doors are made of wrought-iron plates and hardened steel combined into a solid mass or plate of great thickness, forming an unexampled security against the attacks of drills or other instruments, and are fitted with two gunpowder-proof wheel-locks, throwing thirty-one bolts all round. The main keyholes of these are in turn closed by casehardened iron scutcheon-locks, opened by a small gold key set under the stone of an ordinary finger-ring which thus becomes the master-key and principal means of access to the safe. Messrs. Chubb showed also several ornamental safes for jewels, in varied combinations of burnished and plain steel, enriched with ormoulu mouldings and inlaid scrollwork'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.