Three of the Most Interesting Security Innovators of All Time

These statistics are disheartening, but luckily, there is always someone looking to make our world just a little bit safer. Here are three security innovators who changed residential and commercial security forever.

This event garnered great interest, but Hobbs would only outdo himself by tackling Bramah’s equally impenetrable lock. This attempt was higher stakes, as the lock was displayed in a shop window with the challenge, “The artist who can make an instrument that will pick or open this lock shall receive 200 Guineas the moment it is produced.”3 Hobbs was granted permission to work on the lock for 30 days, and about halfway through the month, after more than 50 hours of finagling, the lock finally popped open.4 The Bramah family denounced his successful attempt as unrealistic and claimed he used excessive force to achieve his aim, but the damage had been done. His lock-picking feats were dubbed the “Great Lock Controversy,” inspiring future locksmiths to improve upon the security of their inventions.

Yale, Jr. grew up around his father’s lock business, where his dad specialized in producing quality hand-made bank locks in New York. When Yale, Sr. passed away, his son took over the business and began perfecting the technology of the locksmiths that came before him.

While Yale patented many types of locks, his most famous is the pin tumbler lock, also called the cylinder lock, which he patented in 1861 after improving upon his father’s design. This is the lock we all use today, consisting of pins on springs and a “plug” that rotates to allow the door to open. It can only be opened with the correct serrated key, as only this key’s grooves will align the pins in precisely the right spot to allow the plug to turn.

Marie Brown was inspired to invent this system because she worked odd hours and worried about the safety of her neighborhood. It is unclear if the invention ever made it beyond the initial brainstorm phase. Regardless, she seems to have inspired the modern-day security system, since 30 inventors have cited her patent when filing their own, with the most recent citation in 2017!5, 6

Dixie Safe & Lock Service Inc. offers a wide variety of security services to keep you and your items safe from harm, including:

• Electronic locks
• Video surveillance and CCTV
• Alarms
• Radio and phone line monitoring
• Master key systems
• Loss prevention assessments

1 https://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=6166

2 https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2016/crime-in-the-u.s.-2016/topic-pages/property-crime

3 http://mentalfloss.com/article/501820/man-who-picked-victorian-londons-unpickable-lock

4 https://gizmodo.com/in-1851-a-man-picked-two-unpickable-locks-and-changed-1698557792

5 https://youtu.be/vOKnOW7CLNQ?t=49s

6 https://patents.google.com/patent/US3482037A/en