Herring Hall Marvin Safe Company Serial Numbers



Safe

I read up on the basic safe cracking and learned there are more intelligent, statistical methods to find the combination than brute force. This seemed like it might be a good activity when not packing moving boxes. The only marking on the safe were the company that manufactured or distributed it - Hall’s Safe & Lock Company. Description: Consists of correspondence, drawings, specifications, blueprints and photographs from the Herring-Hall-Marvin Safe Company, the Remington and Sherman Company, the Diebold Safe and Lock Company, and the Mosler Safe Company, to Joseph E. Uihlein, and Alfred C. Newlander of the Wisconsin Food Products Company.

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Herring-Hall-Marvin Safe Co

Herring-Hall-Marvin Safe Co., 1550 Grand Boulevard, was welcomed to Hamilton with a 100-gun salute during groundbreaking ceremonies Sept. 1, 1896. The firm was a consolidation of Hall's Safe & Lock Co., Cincinnati; Marvin Safe Co., New York City; and Farrel & Co. and Meyers & Smith, Philadelphia, according to Stephen D. Cone in A Concise History of Hamilton, published in 1901. Cone said the Hamilton plant 'has a floor space of 100,000 square feet in the main factory building, exclusive of the boiler and engine room. The main building is 300 by 352 feet in dimensions, fronting on Grand Boulevard.'
The company was persuaded to relocate to Hamilton by the Hamilton Improvement Syndicate, headed by Lazard Kahn, Oakey V. Parrish and Moses Mosler. The company prospered and expanded in Hamilton. During both world wars, Herring-Hall-Marvin produced equipment for the armed services. During World War II, it built gun mounts for the U. S. Navy and was engaged in projects related to the atomic bomb. The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency said 'during the 1940s this company machined uranium slugs under subcontract with a prime Department of Energy contractor. The uranium slugs were machined from uranium billets.' Ohio EPA said 'the radiological cleanup was initiated in December 1994 and completed in February 1995,' at a cost of about $1 million.
The assets of H-H-M were purchased by Diebold Inc., based in Canton, Ohio, in September 1959. The sale was challenged as a violation of anti-trust laws in a suit brought by the U. S. Department of Justice, but a federal court in Cincinnati cleared the sale in March 1961. Three years later, employment at the Hamilton plant totaled 350 people. In October 1990, Diebold announced it would be begin a phased shutdown of the 200,000 square foot Hamilton plant in January 1991. Diebold came back to Hamilton in October 2001 when it purchased the closed Mosler facility at 8309 Berk Blvd. Diebold in 2003 activated a service and sales operation in the building that Mosler. Aug. 3, 2001, Mosler Inc. closed its Hamilton offices and service center on Berk Boulevard as it began liquidating the corporation. Aug. 6, 2001, Mosler Inc. filed for bankruptcy protection. April 2, 1996, production had ended at Mosler's 104-year-old Grand Boulevard plant in Hamilton. 'Safe Capital of the World' was a City of Hamilton slogan for several decades. The combination of Mosler and Herring-Hall-Marvin 'gives Hamilton nearly 50 percent of the world's safe and vault production,' noted They Built a City: 150 Years of Industrial Cincinnati by the Federal Writer's Project of the Works Progress Administration, published in 1938. (See Mosler Safe Co. and Macneale & Urban Co.)

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Q-I have an old safe made by the Herring-Hall-Marvin Safe Co. It was removed from a warehouse on Chicago`s South Side, where I`m told illegal whiskey was stored during Prohibition. How can I find out its value, and where can I sell it?

A-The Herring-Hall-Marvin Co. of Cincinnati and Chicago manufactured fine and fancy safes and was located in Chicago at 225 W. Lake St. Some safes made to order by the company were beautifully decorated with hand-painted pictures and designs. One covered with sailing ships was made more than 100 years ago for bakery mogul Henry Piper; it can be seen at That Steak Joynt restaurant, 1610 N. Wells St., which was once the Piper Bakery building. For more information on the safe, phone the restaurant`s owner, Billy Siegle, at 943-5091. Siegle says he`ll give you a free bottle of wine with your dinner if you bring in any piece of Piper Bakery memorabilia.

Bob McCown buys old safes and vaults, as well as time clock combination locks for safes and vaults. You can reach him at Fink Safe & Lock Co., 2307 N. Western Ave., Chicago, Ill. 60647 (phone 486-2030). Keith Mulford collects cutaway locks (salesmen`s samples with a section cut away to show how the internal mechanism worked), unique padlocks and old safes measuring less than 30 inches high. He can be contacted at 1017 N. Gibbons, Arlington Heights, Ill. 60004 (phone 870-7372). To have an old safe appraised in the south suburbs, write to Harvey Sass, Elmer & Son Locksmiths, 3001 Chicago Rd., Steger, Ill. 60475 (phone 755-5273), enclosing a photo of the safe along with its height, width, depth, inside and outside measurements and any wording it has. Or write to the National Antique Safe Association, Box 110099, 16507 E. 13th Ave., Aurora, Colo. 80011, requesting a safe appraiser`s name and address near you.

The value of an old safe depends on its type and rarity. Some years back, a reader of this column, Felix Gremmo, took my advice and contacted the Smithsonian Institution in Washington about a 5-foot-high and 4-foot-wide black 'cannonball' safe he bought at a warehouse in 1974 for $45 and for which, nine years later, the Smithsonian paid him $2,500. The four-ton round safe, made by the Corliss Mfg. Co., sits on a short steel pedestal and is painted black with fancy ornamentation and the date 1872 in ornate gold lettering. The safe (which is most rare and unusual) is a steel ball made to rotate on an axis inside a larger steel shell and is fitted with three drawers (in which valuables were placed), a timer lock that must be cranked to set the time and two combination locks and two key locks. Warning: If you find an old safe, do not attempt to force it open. It may be booby-trapped, as many were, to discourage thieves.

Q-Where can I find a record by Cary Grant entitled 'Did I Remember'

that he recorded around 1935?

A-The World`s Biggest and Best Annual Antique Music Fair attracts collectors from all over the U.S. and features 78 rpm records, cylinder records, phonographs, sheet music, vintage radios, jukeboxes and everything else relating to music memorabilia. It will be held from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and next Sunday at Seven Acres Antique Village & Museum, 8512 S. Union Rd., Union (phone 815-923-2214). Admission is $4; children under 5 admitted free. For information or a search service to obtain the recording you want, write to Randy Donley at the museum.

Q-Where can I get glass replacement parts, pieces and lids for my old set of Guardian Service Waterless Cookware?

A-Ivan Bernstein deals in new and used pieces of Guardian cookware and is looking to buy Guardian Ware cookbooks. Contact him at 6304 Green Meadow Pkwy., Baltimore, Md. 21209 (phone 301-358-2444). Various shapes and sizes of glass lids for Guardian cookware to fit dome cookers, casseroles, fryers, kettles and roasters in oval, triangular and round shapes can be ordered from the Painted Lady Antiques Catalogue, available for $2.75 postpaid from the Painted Lady Antiques Inc., 4712 W. Diversey Ave., Chicago, Ill. 60639. The catalogue also offers a multitude of hard-to-find parts, pieces, hardware, display domes, lighting fixtures and a variety of cleaning products and polishes, including the delightfully scented and fast-working Conrad`s Wood Youth Food Oil, which cleans, enhances, feeds and preserves all wood and iron items. A 16-ounce size is $14.70 postpaid, 32-ounce size is $23.45 postpaid, and 128-ounce size is $84.75 postpaid. For more information, phone Paul Peshkin at the Painted Lady Antiques at 282-5116.

Q-My grandfather, Herbert R. Smiley, manufactured druggists scales in Chicago from 1890 to 1895. Some had the name 'Smiley' imprinted on them, while others were manufactured under the name of 'Druggists Scale Works.' So far I`ve had no luck in trying to locate any of the scales he manufactured. Is there a source?

Herring Hall Marvin Safe Company Serial Numbers Number

A-Write to the International Society of Antique Scale Collectors, Bob Stein, 111 N. Canal St., Suite 380, Chicago, Ill. 60606.

Q-Are old wrenches worth anything? I have several types that belonged to my grandfather.

A-Send for a copy of 'Antique Wrenches,' by Larry Finch, available for $9.95 postpaid from L-W Books, Box 69, Gas City, Ind. 46933 (phone

317-674-6450). For a dramatic rustic effect, try an arrangement of different wrenches on a stark white or bright red wall to perk up a dull den or ordinary office.

Herring Hall Marvin Safe Company Serial Numbers 2020

Because of the volume of responses, when writing sources listed in this column, you must enclose an addressed, stamped envelope for replies. Anita Gold can be reached by writing Anita Gold, The Chicago Tribune, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, Ill. 60611. However, the mail volume precludes a personal response.