author
A. C. Hobbs
1812–1891
Best remembered as the lock expert who stunned Victorian audiences by opening famous “unpickable” locks, this American inventor turned practical security into a public spectacle. His writing and demonstrations helped change how people thought about safes, locks, and the challenge of making them truly secure.
1 Audiobook
Rudimentary Treatise on the Construction of Locks
by A. C. Hobbs, George Dodd
About the author
Born in Boston in 1812, Alfred Charles Hobbs became an American locksmith and inventor whose reputation spread far beyond the workshop. He worked in the lock trade at a time when security devices were often advertised as impossible to defeat, and he made a career out of testing those claims in public.
Hobbs is especially associated with the Great Exhibition in London in 1851, where he gained international attention by opening famous British locks, including those made by Bramah and Chubb. Those feats made him a well-known figure in nineteenth-century debates about privacy, protection, and whether exposing weaknesses in a lock could ultimately lead to better security.
He later became connected with Hobbs Hart & Co. and remained an influential name in the world of locks and safes. Although he is not remembered as a literary author in the usual sense, his life and work have endured because they sit at the lively intersection of invention, showmanship, and the everyday human desire to feel secure.