Alfred Charles Hobbs

Who was Alfred Charles Hobbs?

Alfred Charles Hobbs was an American locksmith. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1812; his father was a carpenter. He married Charlotte F. Nye of Sandwich, Massachusetts, in 1835 and had four children: Charlotte Hobbs, Alfred J. Hobbs, Mary H. Hobbs, and Arthur Hobbs. Both of his parents were born in England.

Hobbs went to London as a representative of the New York company of Day & Newell, which was exhibiting at the Great Exhibition of 1851. Hobbs had brought with him his boss Robert Newell's Parautoptic lock, designed to compete with, and surpass, the locks available at the time in Britain. He was the first one to pick Bramah's lock and the Chubb detector lock at the Great Exhibition of 1851 and forced the lock manufacturers to improve their designs.

The lock controversy continues a subject of great interest at the Crystal Palace, and, indeed, is now become of general importance.