Herring-Hall-Marvin Safe Opened! Save hide report. Lovely safe and you found some really neat stuff inside! Bought at an auction but the code they gave was wrong. Need help with any info on the lock or the safe I cant find anything no serial number so I cant call for a replacement code.
Interiors, Herring-Hall-Marvin Safe Co., Offices, Safes, Filing Cabinets. The Herring-Hall-Marvin Safe Co. Metal furniture installation at the Grand Central Depot offices. Herring-Hall-Marvin Safe Co Floor Safe from Circa 1920 in Boston 20' X 17' X 16' $600.00. Antique Herring, Hall, Marvin Safe Co. Floor Safe from Circa 1920 in NE Indiana. Antique MOSLER SAFE w/ Combination Lock 48'x33x25 P/U Zip 02072 Bank Dispensary. Filed: February 14, 1906. Filed: April 7, 1937 Portable and Built In Place Safes, Safety Cabinets, Bank Vaults and Safes, Bank Vault and Safe.
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?
Herring Hall Marvin Safe Age
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?
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.
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.
If you observe the wheels, you'll see that each has a notch in it called
a 'gate'. Somewhere along the circumference of the wheels is a bar
called a 'fence' that is capable of dropping in to the notch if and only
if all of the wheels have the gates lined up directly under the fence.
DO NOT CLOSE THE DOOR!!!
Having a helper or a mirror to observe will be useful. Turn the dial
several times in one direction, make a note if left or right, there's a
50% chance you're starting the correct way. Then stop and turn it in
the other direction. Observe that only one wheel connected directly to
the dial will turn. Keep turning and you'll see the next wheel 'pick
up' and begin to turn. Keep going until all of the wheels are turning.
Stop when the LAST wheel that picked up has its gate directly under the
fence. Write down the number on the dial.
Turn the dial in the other direction. You'll see that the same thing
happens with the wheels. Count the number of turns until the
NEXT-TO-LAST wheel picks up. Stop when the NEXT-TO-LAST wheel to pick
up has its gate directly under the fence. Write down the number of
turns needed and the number on the dial.
Then reverse direction again, keep going until the same thing happens
with the next wheel. Again write down the number of turns and the
number on the dial.
Keep going until all gates are directly under the fence. If the fence
doesn't drop in, try turning the handle to see if it does. If there's a
little butterfly gizmo in the center of the dial, turn back to zero and
try to twist it, see if the fence drops in.
Herring Hall Marvin Safe Co
If all of that fails, then start over, this time turning the dial in the
other direction first.
Once you get it to work, DO NOT CLOSE THE DOOR!!!
Test it at least five times without looking at the mechanism, looking
just at the dial and counting the turns. Put the back cover back on the
lock and test it several more times before you even THINK about closing
the door. Don't close the door until you can open it five times in a
row without fail.
If you want to change the combination, it can be tricky. If there's a
small mark at around 11 o'clock on the dial ring and the back cover of
the lock has a hole that looks like a diamond with a line extending from
one of the points, you can do it yourself with the proper tool which
looks like a square Allen wrench with a flag on it. You will need the
make and model of the lock (not the safe). Instructions vary but
essentially you dial the combination to the small mark, insert and turn
the tool, then dial the new combination to the small mark, remove the
tool and test it several times to the main mark. A well-equipped
locksmith should be able to get the tool for you. As you may have
observed from other replies here, some locksmiths have an attitude about
helping people who want to figure things out for themselves, so don't
get discouraged. Online sources may also be able to help.
If there is no such line on the dial ring and no hole in the back of the
lock, you're better off having a locksmith (a good one who knows safes,
not a slim-jim-jockey) do it for you. Probably a lot cheaper if the
safe is small enough for you to transport it WITH THE DOOR STILL OPEN to
the locksmith.
In case you haven't guessed, it would be a very BAD IDEA TO CLOSE THE
DOOR until you are certain that you can open the lock multiple times
without failure.
Links that may help:
http://analoghacking.com/documents/How%20Safes%20Work.pdf
http://security.ericschmiedl.com/safecracking.pdf
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