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Wooden Prison Doors refurb, need some advice on the locks Ive found.
Hi, I am currently refurbishing two prison doors with working locks, (Charles smith and sons of Birmingham) there old but as to the age of the locks I can asume there poss victorian or 1940? hence posting here to seek some advice. I have made a video of the project Im doing in my spare time which may be of interest.
vid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HzZ...ature=youtu.be
I have taken some pictures to help, I have also the keys of which are called "Servant Keys" one "Male" and one "Female" any info about these would be great.
Thanks
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Cell door locks in Norwegian Cell Prisons in 1851 and the 1860's
Hello!
In the 1850's and 1860's there was a massive building of solitary Cell Prisons of different Sizes, all based on the Pentonville Model Prison. I send you some Pictures of the standardtype Cell Door Locks used in Norway in the 1850- and 1860-prisons in Norway. OurDepartement of Justice bought a large Quantity of these from Britain. The oldest have knob-handles, the newer t-shaped handles - but works the same way. Similar locks in each Prison, differing a bit between the Prisons. Seems there was different numbered types of locks/keys, see cell key in pictures 5.
My Questions:
- Is this the type of Lock Thomas invented for Pentonville in 1842?
- Thomas - who was he? Is there som more information to find about him? What was his Role when building Pentonville?
- Is it possible to say who made these Locks? I have been thinking James Gibbons & Sons in Wolverhampton (they have this lock as object number BIMW210 in Wolverhamptons Art Gallery's website). After reading in this Thread, however, I am now wondering if it can be Charles Smith of Birmingham. The Locks are simple, but the Quality impressive!
I have written three books about some of the "1860-Prisons" in my Country. By doing so, i have wanted (if possible) to find out who made these locks. I would ble grateful if someone could help me here.
Best Regards
Knut Even Isaksen
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Cell door locks in Norwegian Cell Prisons in 1851 and the 1860's
Hello!
Thank you for you kind reply, Shammon.
I would surely like to have the opportunity to see your exhibition! Hope you'll post pictures of your exhibition, so I at least can experience it digitally. Als the "art" of escaping - interesting for me! Going through history and prison records for 250 years, I have seen some variants of those in the prisons I know - sawing ironbars with soap to reduce noise, digging through brick walls etc.
Also thank you for your interest in my books. They each describe one of three (in my district) out of 56 local cell prisons all over this country (800 cells in all - mostly small prisons) - built in a reform in the 1860's. Norway is a relatively large country with a small population - even more so in the 1860's. In my books I try to describe this reform. One of our local 1860-prisons is still in use, one was destroyed by German bombing during the invation in april 1940 and the smallest one was terminated as a prison in the autumn of 2005. The latter is now renovated, and an integrated part of the the newly built cultural school i Molde opened in the autumn 2016. The earlier cells are meetings rooms and offices for the school master and teachers. This is a success - the staff, children and youth thrive!
The books contain a lot of pictures - but the text is of course Norwegian. Text scanning and Google Translate should make it possible to understand.
If you want the books, I will be happy to send them to you. Just send your postal adress to my e-mail:
kisakse@online.no
Best regards
Knut Even
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