Master Locksmith Tom Jenkins has spent 40 years securing doors and now holds training sessions on physical security standards. Here, he provides some background on door security, why it’s needed and how it ends up in front of us, without most of us taking much notice. 

During your working life, say from the age of 18 to 50, do you know how many doors you have walked through in total? Roughly? Well for me, surprisingly, it’s somewhere between 10 and 11 million. It’s taken me 35 years to count them! 

But do you take much notice of each door you walk through, apart from your own front door, back door or car door? Probably not. 

Doors have been in use for 4,000 years and the lock makers and locksmiths who keep them secure are part of one of the oldest professions and still going from strength to strength. 

Previously I have written in City Security magazine about our finest lock makers. From Charles Chubb, Alfred Charles Chubb, Joseph Bramah and August Stenman to, and in more recent times, Emil Henriksson, all of whom have paved the way for how we lock our doors. You can read the full article here: https://citysecuritymagazine.com/security-technology/high-security-locking-victorian-today 

I began as an apprentice locksmith more than 40 years ago and have had the privilege of working on some historical door sets and gates, learning some intriguing facts on the way: At the Tower of London, the Ceremony of the Keys has been held for more than 400 years at the same time each night, even during the bombing of London during the Second World War. 

When the Tower holds the ceremony for the new Governor, he is handed the Key to the Tower and this is solid gold. Further afield, I have worked at the Vatican, which has a similar set of gold keys that have occasionally been called the Keys to Heaven; I’d suggest they were to God’s House. 

Closer to home, I have also applied my master locksmith skills at Number 10 Downing Street – probably the most famous door in the United Kingdom. 

Today, doors and associated locking hardware are required to comply with several regulations and standards. These include building regulations, such as Part B (Fire) and Part Q (Residential Security); British and European standards; and independent standards, such as those published by the Loss Prevention Certification Board (LPCB). Manufacturers invest in testing and certification to these standards in order to provide assurance of the performance provided by their doors and locking hardware. Of particular note is Loss Prevention Standard LPS1175. This standard which was first published over 25 years ago, previously defined eight levels of security (SR1 to SR8). The latest edition (Issue 8) defines a matrix of options covering eight threat levels (A to H) and six levels of delay, ranging from 1 to 20 minutes. 

LPCB certification to LPS1175 is supported by rigorous testing. The tools used are categorised according to their size, power, availability, portability and concealability. Meanwhile, the delays measured during the tests and indicated in the final security rating attributed to a product can be used to determine the delay provided by those products against the tool kit selected. This enables a product to be selected according to its suitability for different applications. Such decisions are based on an assessment of the threats to be mitigated; consideration of the time likely to be required to detect and respond to an intrusion attempt; and the functionality required. For example, a doorset rated to achieve a D10 security rating will resist the D10 tool kit for at least 10 minutes. 

Doors are also blast and ballistic tested. This involves literally shooting at the door and creating controlled explosions to record how doors and windows withstand terrorist attacks or industrial accidents. Yes, that door you walked through last month has actually been shot! 

The doors installed at both your work and at home have more than likely been tested for protection against smoke from fires, which is the main killer, and naturally fire itself. Additionally, some doors are designed to protect people, assets, and buildings from intrusion and acts of crime, for example, a marauding terrorist attack (MTA). 

Doors must also allow escape in an emergency situation; the related standards here are British Standard (BS) EN 1125 & BS EN 179 and are vitally important. The testing and regulation for this forms a major part of every building specification. 

We as an industry test all of these for you, and I’d invite you to take notice, just for a day, and see how many types of doors you see at work. Ask yourself about the glass and other materials used. The doors we have today have multiple functions. Do you use a card and/or PIN number to get in? Think about how many skilled trades it took to put the door in front of you. 

We as an industry do our upmost to keep you safe, and mostly without you even knowing. So have a look and ask yourself, how safe am I behind that door? 

Tom Jenkins MSyI DipGAI MinstAI MBLI. 

Director – ATAJ Secure. 

www.atajsecure.com 

The post High security doors appeared first on City Security Magazine.

Tom Jenkins, Master Locksmith, explores the history of security locking.

High security locks from the Victorian era are still in use today, the specifications have not changed, the inventors providing us with excellent platforms to build on: Chubb, Bramah, ASSA, Hobbs and Abloy are all found in the modern world and I’ve spent the last 30 years working with them all.

In many of London’s landmarks, some of our finest Master Locksmiths have interfaced today’s 21st century technology with 17th and 18th century design, so as not to lose our craft.

Charles Chubb, Alfred Charles Hobbs, Joseph Bramah, August Stenman and, in more recent times, Emil Henriksson. Five names synonymous with locks, but what do we know about them?

Charles Chubb

Around 1800, the company Chubb was started as a ship’s ironmonger by Charles Chubb in the south of England. After building a secure business, Chubb then moved to Portsmouth, around 1804. Circa 1820, Charles then moved the company into the locksmith business and relocated to the West Midlands. Here he founded the famous Chubb Factory in Railway Street, which is now still known as the Chubb Building in Wolverhampton.

Jeremiah Chubb

Charles’ brother joined the company and they produced Jeremiah’s patented detector lock. Later, in 1823, the company was awarded a special licence by HM George IV and later became the only supplier of locks to the General Post Office, these locks are still used today on every Red Post Box and they were also a supplier to Her Majesty’s Prison Service. These locks are still produced today in Wolverhampton. The only thing that has changed is the enhanced design and the company name. In 1835, they received a patent for a burglar-resisting safe and opened a safe factory in London around 1838.

The largest IRA Bomb on the UK mainland was in 1996, 3,500kg of explosives devastated buildings throughout Manchester City Centre, as they had done the City of London. Unbelievably, the only door held locked outside the Arnedale centre was the Red Pillar Box in this picture, locked with a “Chubb Lock”.

Today the name Chubb is still a household name; I remember back in the 1980s working on Chubb locks as an apprentice. As Chubb grew, the name moved into many areas of safety, security, and fire protection. It will always be associated with locks as far as we are all concerned. There are Chubb locks on banks, prisons, historical palaces and they are used by the Royal Mail, our military and government, all of which is managed by master locksmiths around the UK.

Alfred Charles Hobbs

Born in 1812, he was an American locksmith. Hobbs visited London as a representative of the New York company Day & Newell and was exhibiting at the Great Exhibition of 1851, known as the Crystal Palace then built in Hyde Park. Later this wonderful building was re- erected in Penge, South East London, but was sadly destroyed by fire.

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 had this on show at the exhibition of industry. Hobbs was challenged to pick open the Bramah Lock. It is documented in many history books that he was the first one to pick Bramah’s lock, even though he spent some six days doing so!

He also opened the Chubb detector lock at the Great Exhibition, which then forced lock manufacturers to improve their designs. Having worked for Bramah myself, I learnt that this claim caused great controversy as Hobbs completed the trial behind closed doors! But the gentlemen of Bramah ‘paid up’ the offer of 200 guineas prize money. Today’s security locks are still tested by ‘master locksmiths’, and I have been involved in testing.

Hobbs made quite a name for himself in the UK, especially in London. He later became one of the founders of the lock making company Hobbs Hart & Co. Ltd. The name then changed to Hobbs, Ashley and Fortescue, and was based in London at 97 Cheapside. With almost 100 years at a new address, 76 Cheapside, the Hobbs lock continued to secure many of London’s historical Royal Palaces, Banks, Livery Halls, Masonic Halls and some of our finest buildings.

Joseph Bramah

As a well-established inventor from Yorkshire, he attended some lectures on the technical aspects of locks. Bramah then designed a lock of his own, receiving a patent for it in 1784. This was the same year he started the Bramah Locks Company that resided at 124 Piccadilly. Bramah is today based in Marylebone, London and also has a factory in Romford, Essex.

I worked for Jeremy Bramah in the 1990s at what is now known as Bramah Security. The locks produced by Bramah were famed for their resistance to lock picking and tampering. I can honestly say that the Bramah, along with the Abloy lock, designs are the best in the world today, in resistance against picking, bumping, and manipulation in general.

The company most famously had a ”Challenge Lock” displayed in the window of its London shop from 1790 mounted on a board inviting people to try and open it: “The artist who can make an instrument that will pick or open this lock shall receive 200 guineas the moment it is produced.”

The challenge stood for over 67 years until, at the Great Exhibition of 1851, the American locksmith Alfred Charles Hobbs, as previously described, was able to open the lock.

The Bramah Challenge Lock is in the Science Museum in London.

August Stenman

In 1881 a blacksmith called August Stenman, owner of a small hinge manufacturer in the town of Eskilstuna, Sweden, returned home to find his good lady had embroidered a pillow slip with his name on it. Her design was forwards and backwards, “August Stenman, Stenman August”, Taking the first letter from each name ASSA. August thought it would be a good idea to name the company with this name. Sounds like ABBA had a similar idea?

In 1939 ASSA was registered as a company, and in 1959 produced its first five-pin high security cylinder. ASSA later became a leader in designing ‘master key systems’, and today is a world-class lock company.

The locking systems today are designed on the principles taken from August Stenman, and have not changed specifications. Typically the “Swedes” do things differently, but it all makes perfect sense, and we have adopted these principals with our own household names. These make up almost every key ring selection in 21st century Britain.

Emil Henriksson

The unique ABLOY lock and key was invented in 1907 by Emil Henriksson, an office machinery mechanic in Helsinki, Finland. While repairing a cash register, he realised that the rotating cylindrical disks of the machine were eminently suitable for use as a lock mechanism.

The first locks went on sale two years later and lock production at Ab Låsfabriken Lukkotehdas Oy began in 1918. If you can pronounce that, well done! We all just call it “OY!” The name ABLOY is formed from the letters of this company’s name in a similar fashion to ASSA.

Today, Henriksson’s disk lock invention can reach 1.97 billion combinations.

With this fantastic history and experience, the future proofing of this industry is safe in our hands. I am just one of 33,000 employees and today we focus on education in safety and security standards across the world and share this through our academy.

Tom A Jenkins

Master Locksmith

Abloy

Assa Abloy was formed in 1994 when ASSA AB joined the Finnish high-security lock manufacturer Abloy Oy. The company was introduced to the Stockholm stock exchange later the same year. Assa Abloy now owns an estimated 25% of the world’s locking “Household” names, some of which are mentioned in this article.

The post Security locking: from the Victorian era to today appeared first on City Security Magazine.

The first key

Theodorus of Samos in the 6th century BC invented the first key, according to Pliny the Elder. Stories in Greek and Egyptian history refer to locks and keys, which can also be found in the Old Testament. Egyptian locking (wooden) was first used 4,000 years ago, and what is fascinating is that the principle of their invention is still used for today’s mechanical locking devices.

The wooden peg key was recorded at 14 inches long for doors and if the lock was on a main gate the key could be 30 inches long. These were made from timber with a single peg on the end which corresponded with pins on the inside of the gate or door. Then the  key holder would place his whole arm through a hole with key held, and operate the locking bolt. This was the first key hole.

New designs and materials

Over the coming centuries Bronze and Ivory were included in the designs as inventors and craftsmen continued to produce locks and keys of various shapes and sizes. From around 870-900AD the first all-metal locks were produced under Alfred the Great.

Around 1411, Charles IV of Germany established the “Master Locksmith” and there followed many years of skilled craftsmen developing metal locking throughout the Gothic Period.

In the Renaissance period, the dressing of locks and keys with figurines and sculptures continued from France, Germany and England, producing some of the world’s finest locks. This has been documented with museum pieces from across Europe of beautifully engineered locks and keys.

In the 18th century lock design continued from Charles & Jeremiah Chubb, we also had the great Joseph Bramah & A.C.Hobbs; these names are synonymous still today in our world of locks and keys.

Tom Jenkins

Master Locksmith Abloy UK

www.abloy.co.uk

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