Hall's Safe & Lock Co, Cincinnati, Ohio - 1 mvt.

Single movement by this company that was the predecessor of the Consolidated Time Lock Company c.1878. Time locks made under the Hall name are rare as this company was only in business a few years before being merged into the Consolidated Time Lock Co. in January of 1880 to insulate his successful safe and lock business from his risky and untested time lock business.¹ Actually, only the name changed as the time locks themselves were identical. All of Hall's and Consolidated's single movement time locks were designed to be operated with Hall's Infallible lockout protection system which allowed the safe owner to open the safe should the single movement fail. A rare but very real possibility. One would call the Hall company for a "secret combination" that when dialed in along with the regular combination would override the stopped time lock. This was done to lower the cost associated with another movement. Soon, however, timer redundancy of two or more movements replaced the single timer obviating the need for extra override features.

Compare to the same style Hall lock, with hand engraving of outdoor scenes here or floral patterns under the Consolidated name. The example above has a case with it's plating in excellent condition and a rare art deco design rather than the floral or outdoor scenes or the common machined geometric guilloche scroll work found in later movement cases. Even the inside of the door is decorated, not seen on any other example. Interestingly, the top of the case has a curious hand engraved pattern that is not an art deco motif. No case number. Movement #1963, one of the earliest numbers this author has seen on a the single movement model. 3 5/8"w x 3 1/8"h x 2 5/8"d. file 364

(1) American Genius Nineteenth Century Bank Locks and Time Locks, David & John Erroll, pp. 166-168.