Page:Walks in the Black Country and its green border-land.pdf/224

210 challenge was kept standing in his window. The very confidence it expressed seemed to repress all attempts to undermine it. In fact, the confidence was mutual in the challenged and challenger. But 1851 came with its great Exhibition in London, and its assemblage of skill and art from other countries. Our American Hobbs came with others of his ingenious countrymen, and one day, passing Bramah's window, noticed this challenge, and took up the glove. He set to work to test the inviolability of the lock, and, to the surprise of everybody, opened it after a few days of persevering labour. The sensation produced by this feat was almost national. Indeed it seemed as if one of the bulwarks of the nation's faith in its safety was broken down. But, as Corporal Trim would say, it was "worth a regiment of horse" to the lock-makers in England. It gave a great stimulus to the trade by bringing into it new science, skill, and genius. Bramah had virtually stopped the way against further improvement. He was supposed to have reached the outer line of perfection, and his lock was regarded as a finality. But Hobbs cleared the track of this heavy and obstructive notion, and the lock trade of the kingdom was greatly benefited by his skill and its feat.

Chubb is another great name connected with the manufacture of locks. Two or three generations of the family have introduced various