If your safe says Meilink, it comes from Toledo, Ohio, and from a firm that started out making bicycle parts before it became one of America’s best-known makers of light steel home and office safes. Here’s the story, pieced together from patents, trade journals and the company’s own adverts, and how to work out roughly when yours was made.
1897
Meilink Manufacturing Co. organised in Toledo
75 lb
the $8 Home Deposit Vault of 1902
500,000
combinations set by one Meilink locksmith, 1909–1959
1991
FireKing takes over the Meilink line
Key takeaways
- The founder was Charles F. Meilink (1867–1940), a Toledo bicycle maker. His Meilink Manufacturing Company dates from 1897 and sold its first home safes around 1900; the company later celebrated 1899 as its founding year.
- The name on the safe dates it roughly: “Meilink Mfg. Co.” or “Meilink Manufacturing Company” means before about 1920; “Meilink Steel Safe Co.” means 1920 to the 1970s; “Meilink Safe Company” or “Meilink Industries” means the late 1970s or later.
- Meilink specialised in light sheet-steel safes for homes and offices: wall safes, money chests, record safes with Underwriters’ Laboratories (UL) A, B and C fire labels, and insulated filing cabinets.
- No Meilink serial number register has been published. FireKing International of New Albany, Indiana, took over the Meilink line in 1991.
In This Article
Meilink at a glance
| Country | United States (Toledo, Ohio) |
| Founded | August 1897 as the Meilink Manufacturing Company; making safes from about 1900; incorporated 1901; the firm itself later dated its start to 1899 |
| Founder | Charles Frederick Meilink (1867–1940) |
| Trading names | The Meilink Mfg. Co. (1897 to about 1920); The Meilink Steel Safe Company (from about 1920); Meilink Safe Company, a division of Meilink Industries, Inc. (by the late 1970s); Meilink, a division of FireKing International (from 1991) |
| Works | 232 Cherry Street (1898); Jackson Street (1902–1903); Oakwood Avenue, Toledo (from 1912); Industrial Parkway, Whitehouse, Ohio (by 1978 to 1991); New Albany, Indiana (FireKing, from 1992) |
| Known for | Home safes and “home deposit vaults”, wall safes, filing safes, UL-labelled record safes, money chests, insulated files, typewriter stands |
| Key patents | US 735,588 (1903), 960,982 (1910), 1,020,652 (1912), 1,473,117 (1923), 1,796,385 (1931) |
| Owners | Charles F. Meilink; Stanley R. Akers (control from 1942); M-H Group of Toledo (shortly before 1991); FireKing International (1991) |
History of the Meilink Steel Safe Company
From bicycles to safes
Charles Frederick Meilink was born in Toledo on 25 October 1867, the son of Bernard Meilink, one of the city’s early merchants and manufacturers. He went to the parochial schools and the Jesuit college, worked in machine shops as a boy and spent several years in Toledo’s bicycle industry.1 In 1896 and 1897 he patented designs for bicycle-fork thimbles and tube bushings.2 His trade-journal obituary adds a few more strings to his bow: it says he had studied for the Catholic priesthood, invented the Dauntless bicycle and raced professionally.3
In August 1897 he organised the Meilink Manufacturing Company to make “specialties”, starting with ten men.1 A Toledo souvenir programme of September 1898 places it at 232 Cherry Street, making bicycle parts and doing machine work, plating and enamelling, with Meilink as manager.4
Every account says a fire pushed him into safes. They just don’t agree on the fire. According to the 1940 obituary, his bicycle factory burned down on the Saturday before he was due to sign papers selling it, and he was underinsured. The company’s own history of 1959 tells it differently: the fire was in 1899, at a bicycle shop, and it destroyed the safe holding all the firm’s papers, which convinced Meilink he could build a better one.3,5 Even the year isn’t settled, as a family memorial page gives 1898.6
The Home Deposit Vault
Meilink’s first market was the home. A trade report of 1912 says the company put its first home safes on the market early in 1900, at a time when “no attention had been paid” to safes for private houses, and began with a single size. Keeping the inside dry was the hard part: hundreds of safes were scrapped before it found a fireproof filling that didn’t make papers damp.7 The 1923 biography says the company was incorporated in 1901 and began making safes then.1 Meilink itself later counted from 1899, the year it said Charles Meilink founded the company, and celebrated its 60th anniversary in 1959.8
By 1902 Meilink was advertising nationally. Its “Home Deposit Vault” cost $8, weighed about 75 lb (34 kg) and had a four-tumbler combination lock, but the space inside was small: 10¼ × 6½ × 5¾ inches. The pitch was simple. Why rent a safe deposit box at the bank when a safe at home cost less?9 By March 1903 there were 15 styles and sizes, from $8 to $23.50.10 Two patents filed in 1902 by Meilink and William H. Reynolds cover a packed door joint and a door-closing lock for safes meant to stay waterproof.11
Office safes and the Oakwood Avenue works
Early in 1907 Meilink added its first safes for general business use, and it doubled that range in 1911. Security boxes followed in 1910 and steel filing safes in March 1912. In September 1912 the company moved into a new plant beside the New York Central Railroad tracks on Oakwood Avenue, with 65,000 square feet of floor space on 3½ acres. It was by then making more than fifty sizes of safe, together with desk stands, telephone brackets and copy holders, and sold through exclusive agents in the office-supply trade.7 That’s the works in the picture at the top of this page, with “Meilink’s Home, Office, Wall Safes” painted on the building.
Inside the plant, frames were electrically spot-welded and butt-welded rather than riveted. The paint got just as much attention: each safe was spray-painted and baked six times before being polished, fitted with its lock and bolt work and finished with striping.7 Meilink’s patents of these years show the direction: wall safes in 1910, a safe-cabinet in 1912, and in the 1920s double-walled fire-proof safes with interlocking door ribs and an insulating filler between inner and outer steel housings.12,13,14,15
Timeline
- 1897 Charles F. Meilink organises the Meilink Manufacturing Company in Toledo.
- 1900–1902 First home safes; the $8 Home Deposit Vault is advertised nationally.
- 1907–1912 Business safes, security boxes and filing safes; new works on Oakwood Avenue.
- About 1920 Renamed the Meilink Steel Safe Company.
- 1926 Thermo-Cel insulation, by the company’s account.
- 1940 Charles F. Meilink dies.
- 1942 Stanley R. Akers buys control; war work follows.
- By 1978 Meilink Industries, Inc., at Whitehouse, Ohio.
- 1991 Reorganisation, then FireKing International acquires the Meilink line and moves production to New Albany, Indiana.
The Meilink Steel Safe Company
The 1923 biography dates the change of name to the Meilink Steel Safe Company to 1920, when the firm employed 150 people and claimed to be the largest maker of steel fire-proof safes in the world.1 Meilink’s own 1959 history puts the renaming as early as 1903, which doesn’t hold up: patents of 1910 and adverts of 1916 still use “Meilink Manufacturing Company”, so 1920 fits the evidence better.5,12,16
In 1927 Meilink advertised “50,000 Meilink Built Steel Safes in use and only one known fire loss”. That’s the company’s own claim, and it was an advert, so read it as one. By 1928 it sold three lines, “Hercules”, “B” label and “A” label, with UL A and B fire labels and the UL “T-20” burglary label, and it opened a New York office.17,18 The company later said it developed its vermiculite-based Thermo-Cel insulation in 1926 and that Meilink pushed for industry-wide fire testing, which began in 1915 and passed to Underwriters’ Laboratories in 1917; these dates come from Meilink’s own 1959 account.5
Charles Meilink suffered a severe stroke in 1937 and died in Toledo in October 1940. His obituary credits him with helping to write the federal Bureau of Standards specifications for safes and with obtaining the T-20 insurance rating for the industry.3,6 The 1959 history says he retired in 1933, although the obituary still calls him president.5
The Akers years: war work, files and television
In 1942 Stanley R. Akers, a steel production executive, bought control. He took Meilink into insulated filing cabinets, then into war production: about 10,000 field safes for the armed forces, plus tank parts, bazooka shields and tent hardware. After the war, employment nearly tripled, the dealer network grew from 500 to more than 5,000, a plant at Flat Rock, Michigan, made business-machine stands from 1947, and in 1957 Meilink began making “Giantview” large-screen television projectors.5 Every safe was still sold through dealers, never direct.
One employee had seen most of the company’s history first-hand. In 1959 Walter Rosenberger, the locksmith hired in 1909, was about to set his 500,000th Meilink combination.5
“Patrons must guess only the final number.”
Lobby stunt with a Meilink safe, United Artists pressbook for The Thief, 1952
A Meilink safe even got a film part. It appears in a tense scene of the 1952 spy film The Thief, starring Ray Milland. Meilink ran a full-page Saturday Evening Post advert with Milland and offered cinemas a lobby game: the local dealer lent a safe full of prize envelopes, gave the manager the combination, and patrons won if they guessed its last number.19
Whitehouse, reorganisation and FireKing
By 1978 the firm was Meilink Industries, Inc., at 6245 Industrial Parkway, Whitehouse, near Toledo, making record safes, home vaults, insulated files and money safes as the Meilink Safe Company.20,21 Its later patents range from night depository doors to containers for pneumatic tube systems.22 In 1988 its composite safes, already listed by UL as TL-30 burglary safes, also passed UL’s one-hour fire test.23
In late 1991 Meilink Industries and its sister company Hercules Stamping filed for Chapter 11 reorganisation, together with their parent, the M-H Group of Toledo, which had bought them shortly before as part of an effort to revive Toledo industries. On 27 November 1991 FireKing International of New Albany, Indiana, acquired the main operating assets and the Meilink product line and moved production to its New Albany plant.24,25 FireKing’s own website gives the year as 1990.26 FireKing has sold safes under the Meilink name ever since, so if yours is one of those, it’s a FireKing product and not the work of the Toledo company.
How to identify and date a Meilink safe
We’d love to point you to a serial number list, but no register of Meilink serial numbers has been published, and we haven’t found the company’s production records in any archive. A serial number on its own won’t date your safe. The name, address and labels do far more of the work. Our general guide on how to date an old safe explains the methods that work for any maker.
Clue 1
The company name
“Meilink’s Home Deposit Vault” or “Meilink Mfg. Co.” means about 1900–1920. “Meilink Steel Safe Co.” means about 1920 to the 1970s. “Meilink Safe Company” or “Meilink Industries” means the late 1970s to 1991, and “FireKing” alongside Meilink means 1992 or later.1,21,25
Clue 2
The fire labels
By 1928 Meilink record safes carried UL fire labels. A mid-century brochure shows a numbered Meilink plate marked Class A (four-hour), B (two-hour) or C (one-hour), often with a Safe Manufacturers National Association label and a UL “relocking device” plate.18,27
Clue 3
Hinges, handle and lock
A 1970 safe technicians’ guide says Meilink used Yale combination locks in about 90% of cases, and that hexagon-nut hinge tips, large boxy hinges and a handle with hex-nut styling “always identify” a Meilink.28
Clue 4: addresses
Labels, catalogues, invoices and dealer papers often give an address, so it’s worth keeping any paperwork that came with the safe. These are the years we have found each one recorded.4,9,16,29,20,25 A postal zone number after the city, as in “Toledo 6, Ohio”, means 1943 or later: the Post Office introduced zones in large cities in May 1943, and ZIP Codes replaced them from 1 July 1963.30
| 232 Cherry Street, Toledo (bicycle parts, before safes) | 1898 |
| 1022 Jackson Street, Toledo | Adverts of 1902–1903 |
| Oakwood Avenue, Toledo (1605 and 1613 Oakwood in adverts) | From September 1912 |
| 1672 Oakwood Avenue, Toledo 6, Ohio | 1950s; zone number means 1943–1963 |
| 6245 Industrial Parkway, Whitehouse, Ohio 43571 | By 1978 to 1991 |
| New Albany, Indiana (FireKing) | From 1992 |
Clue 5: a Meilink under another name
The same 1970 guide warns that many Meilink-built safes carry Shaw-Walker labels, with Meilink’s hinges, hinge tips and handle unchanged.28 That fits the trade press: in 1928 Meilink’s new New York manager had first met the Meilink product while running Shaw-Walker’s fire-proof safe department.18 So if your “Shaw-Walker” safe has those hex-nut hinge tips and that handle, Meilink probably built it.
Meilink safe sizes and weights
Meilink’s steel safes were lighter than the cast-iron safes of the 1800s, but lighter isn’t the same as light. Both double-door models in the table below weigh more than a ton. The undated mid-century brochure gives shipping weights, empty, for each model. These are some of them:27
| Model | Outside size (H × W × D) | Approximate weight |
|---|---|---|
| Home Deposit Vault, 1902 | about 10¼ × 6½ × 5¾ in inside | 75 lb (34 kg) |
| Class C one-hour No. 4 | 27⅜ × 21⅞ × 22¾ in | 390 lb (177 kg) |
| Class C one-hour No. 10 | 50⅜ × 25½ × 22⅞ in | 700 lb (318 kg) |
| Class B two-hour No. 20 | 31¼ × 25½ × 24⅛ in | 545 lb (247 kg) |
| Class A four-hour No. 532 | 47 5/16 × 30½ × 31½ in | 1,390 lb (630 kg) |
| Class C one-hour No. 16, double door | 75 1/16 × 53⅜ × 36 13/16 in | 2,450 lb (1,111 kg) |
| Class A four-hour No. 546, double door | 74⅞ × 56⅜ × 39½ in | 3,700 lb (1,678 kg) |
The Home Deposit Vault figures are from the 1902 advert.9 A higher fire rating means thicker insulation and more weight for the same size. To estimate yours, get out a tape measure, take the outside height, width and depth and try our safe weight calculator.
Myths and mix-ups
Charles Meilink invented the fireproof safe in 1899.
Fire-resisting safes were being made in Britain and America decades earlier (see inventing the fireproof safe). The 1899 date is Meilink’s own later founding year, still repeated by FireKing today; Meilink’s real contribution was the light welded sheet-steel safe for homes and offices.26,3
Charles Meilink still owned the company when FireKing bought it.
He died in 1940. Stanley R. Akers bought control in 1942, and the M-H Group owned Meilink just before the 1991 sale.5,24
I have a Meilink safe: what now?
Value
What is it worth?
As an informal guide, not an appraisal: most Meilink office safes sell for hundreds of dollars. A 5 ft Meilink Steel Safe Co. safe of about 1,480 lb, with keys and combination, sold for $310 at a government auction in December 2025.31 See are old safes worth anything?
Opening
Combination lost?
Call a qualified safe technician; in the US, a SAVTA member is a good start.32 Expect to show proof of ownership. Our guides to being locked out of an old safe and to old safe combination locks explain your options and costs.
Moving
Moving or disposing of it
Even a small Class C safe weighs around 400 lb (181 kg). Use a professional safe mover, check the floor, and read how to move or get rid of an old safe. Treat old fire insulation as possibly containing asbestos until tested.27
Not sure what you have? Send us photos of the label plates, the dial, the hinges and any serial number, with the outside height, width and depth, and we’ll help you date it. Our page for anyone who has inherited or found an old safe covers the next steps.
Frequently asked questions
Who made Meilink safes?
The Meilink Manufacturing Company of Toledo, Ohio, founded by Charles F. Meilink in 1897, renamed the Meilink Steel Safe Company around 1920 and later Meilink Industries. FireKing International took over the line in 1991.
How old is my Meilink safe?
Check the name and address first. “Meilink Mfg. Co.” means about 1900–1920, “Meilink Steel Safe Co.” about 1920 to the 1970s, and an address with a postal zone such as “Toledo 6” means 1943–1963.
Is there a Meilink safe serial number lookup?
Not a public one, sadly. No Meilink serial list has been published. Note the number on the label plate anyway and send it to us with photos: dated examples from owners are how such lists get built.
How much does a Meilink safe weigh?
From about 75 lb (34 kg) for the 1902 Home Deposit Vault to 390–700 lb (177–318 kg) for small and medium one-hour record safes, and 3,700 lb (1,678 kg) for the largest four-hour double-door model.
How do I open a Meilink safe without the combination?
Ask a qualified safe technician or a locksmith who specialises in safes. They can open it with the least damage and set a new combination.
Is the Meilink Safe Company still in business?
Not as an independent company. FireKing International of New Albany, Indiana, bought the Meilink line in 1991 and moved production there. The name lives on, but on FireKing’s safes.
Sources:
- Biography of Charles Frederick Meilink in Toledo and Lucas County, Ohio, 1623–1923, vol. 3 (1923), pp. 164–165, Internet Archive. ↩︎
- Charles F. Meilink, US Design Patent D26,360, thimble for bicycle-fork ends, 1 December 1896; also D27,104 and D27,105, tube bushings, 25 May 1897. ↩︎
- “C. F. Meilink” (obituary), Office Appliances, November 1940. ↩︎
- “The Meilink Manufacturing Co.”, 232 Cherry Street, in the souvenir programme of the National Letter Carriers’ Association Ninth Annual Convention, September 5–12, 1898 (Toledo, 1898), Internet Archive. ↩︎
- “Locksmith Has Key Role in Meilink’s 60 Years”, Office Appliances, July 1959. ↩︎
- Charles F. Meilink (1867–1940), Find a Grave memorial 32019909, Woodlawn Cemetery, Toledo (contributor transcription of the death certificate). ↩︎
- “New Meilink Factory Ideally Equipped”, Office Appliances, December 1912, p. 112, with a bird’s-eye view of the works; Meilink Security Box advert in the same issue (1605 Oakwood Avenue). ↩︎
- Advertisement, “Meilink Reminiscences on 60 Years of Safe Making”, Meilink Steel Safe Company, Office Appliances, January 1959. ↩︎
- Advertisement, “$8.00 To Protect Your Valuables: Meilink’s Home Deposit Vault”, The Meilink Mfg. Co., 1022 Jackson St., Toledo, The Saturday Evening Post, 13 September 1902, p. 15. ↩︎
- Advertisement, “Meilink’s Home Deposit Vault” (“We make 15 styles and sizes, $8 to $23.50”), The Literary Digest, 21 March 1903. ↩︎
- William H. Reynolds and Charles F. Meilink, US Patent 735,588, “Safe”, filed 31 May 1902, granted 4 August 1903, assigned to the Meilink Manufacturing Company, Toledo; with the companion US Patent 718,878 (20 January 1903), closing and locking device for waterproof safes. ↩︎
- Charles F. Meilink and William H. Reynolds, US Patent 960,982, “Wall-Safe”, filed 12 April 1909, granted 7 June 1910, assigned to the Meilink Manufacturing Company; also US 960,981 of the same date. ↩︎
- Charles F. Meilink, US Patent 1,020,652, “Safe-Cabinet”, granted 19 March 1912. ↩︎
- Charles F. Meilink, US Patent 1,473,117, “Fireproof Safe”, filed 20 September 1919, granted 6 November 1923. ↩︎
- Charles F. Meilink, US Patent 1,796,385, “Safe-Double-Wall Structure”, filed 28 April 1927, granted 17 March 1931, assigned to the Meilink Steel Safe Company. ↩︎
- “Additions to Meilink Organization” and advert of The Meilink Manufacturing Co., 1613 Oakwood Ave., Toledo, Office Appliances, March 1916. ↩︎
- Advertisement, “Meilink Built Steel Safes”, The Meilink Steel Safe Co., Toledo, Credit Monthly, March 1927. ↩︎
- “Meilink Sales Contest Provides Vacation Funds” and Meilink advert, Office Appliances, April 1928; “Meilink Establishes a New York Office”, Office Appliances, July 1928. ↩︎
- “Sat Eve Post Ad Sets Off This Sensational Lobby Stunt With Meilink Safe”, in The Thief, United Artists pressbook (1952). ↩︎
- Letter on Meilink Industries, Inc. letterhead, 6245 Industrial Parkway, Whitehouse, Ohio, reproduced in Technology Utilization in a Non-Urban Region, NASA report 19780026063 (1978). ↩︎
- Advertisement, “Meilink Safe Company, Division of Meilink Industries, Inc., Box 2458, Whitehouse, OH”, Contract, May 1980. ↩︎
- Patents assigned to the Meilink Steel Safe Co., for example US 3,593,948 (1971, container for pneumatic carrier systems) and US 4,063,520 (1977, night depository closure), Google Patents. ↩︎
- “Meilink Passes UL Fire Rating”, The National Locksmith, December 1988. ↩︎
- “Meilink and Hercules File For Re-Organization”, The National Locksmith, November 1991. ↩︎
- “FireKing International” (acquisition of Meilink on 27 November 1991), The National Locksmith, March 1992; “Fire King International Acquires Meilink”, The National Locksmith, April 1992. ↩︎
- “About FireKing”, FireKing Security Group, New Albany, Indiana (accessed October 2026). ↩︎
- Fire Proof Safes, Meilink Steel Safe Co., undated sales brochure (mid-20th century), Class A four-hour, Class B two-hour and Class C one-hour safes with sizes and shipping weights; Ted Nelson junk mail collection, Internet Archive. ↩︎
- “Meilink Safes”, in Safeman’s Guide, vol. 1 (Locksmith Ledger, 1970), section on identifying safes by maker. ↩︎
- “Meilink Promotions” and Meilink B label safe advert (1672 Oakwood Avenue, Toledo 6), The Office, September 1954; Thermo-Cel insulation in The Office, March 1955. ↩︎
- United States Postal Service, The United States Postal Service: An American History (Publication 100), sections on postal zones (May 1943) and the ZIP Code (1 July 1963). ↩︎
- “Antique Meilink Co. Safe”, Municibid government surplus auction ending 19 December 2025: about 5 ft × 29 × 29 in, stated weight 1,480 lb, winning bid $310 plus buyer’s fee. ↩︎
- Safe & Vault Technicians Association, savta.org, “Safe Tech Search” (“Find a qualified technician”). ↩︎
