Thomas Milner
1791 Thomas Milner was bound as an apprentice to his father in the trade of tinsmith and brazier for eleven years. In those eleven years he was not allowed to marry, take a drink or take a day off without permission. He was provided with meat, drink, washing, lodgings and wearing apparel. His wage was sixteen pence a year. He learned well and began to manufacture iron coffers and strong boxes.
1824 He secured orders for coffers and strong boxes from the Duke of Wellington, as well as an official contract to supply the War Office.
1830/5 Thomas moved from Sheffield to Liverpool and set up the firm of Thomas Milner and Son, where he was a pioneer in the development of fire resistant safes and much involved in taking out patents, demonstrating the excellence of his safes by placing them in the centre of huge bonfires.
1834 Invented the "patent safety-box," as safes were originally called.
1840 Milner was granted his most important patent, on the utilization of the water of crystallization of various salts as a means of protecting documents, etc. This patent covered the principle still used by manufacturers of safes throughout the world.