Alfred Charles Hobbs

“ In respect to lock-making, there can scarcely be such a thing as dishonesty of intention: the inventor produces a lock which he honestly thinks will possess such and such qualities; and he declares his belief to the world. ”

“ Until the world becomes an honest world, or until the honest people bear a larger ratio than at present to the dishonest, the whole of our movables are, more or less, at the mercy of our neighbours. Houses, rooms, vaults, cellars, cabinets, cupboards, caskets, desks, chests, boxes, caddies,—all, with the contents of each, ring the changes between meum and tuum pretty much according to the security of the locks by which they are guarded. ”

“ And without dwelling on such an auriferous picture as a room full of gold, we shall find ample proof of the commercial importance of lock-making in the ordinary circumstances by which we are every day surrounded. ”

“ The French and Germans, though far below our level as lock-makers, are very superior to us in their descriptions of the construction and manufacture of locks. Take, for instance, the French treatise published more than eighty years ago by the Académie des Sciences, and forming part of a folio series of manufacturing treatises, illustrated very fully by engravings. ”

“ The principles of mechanical science are also appreciated by many lock-makers. The lever, the inclined plane, the eccentric, the cam, the screw, the wheel and pinion, the ratchet, the spring,—all are brought to bear on the internal mechanism of locks, frequently in many novel combinations. ”

“ A commercial, and in some respects a social, doubt has been started within the last year or two, whether or not it is right to discuss so openly the security or insecurity of locks. Many well-meaning persons suppose that the discussion respecting the means for baffling the supposed safety of locks offers a premium for dishonesty, by shewing others how to be dishonest. ”

“ Rogues are very keen in their profession, and know already much more than we can teach them respecting their several kinds of roguery. Rogues knew a good deal about lock-picking long before locksmiths discussed it among themselves, as they have lately done. ”

“ So likewise in respect to bread, sugar, coffee, tea, wine, beer, spirits, vinegar, cheap silks, cheap woollens—all such articles as are susceptible of debasement by admixture with cheaper substances— much more good than harm is effected by stating candidly and scientifically the various methods by which such debasement has been, or can be produced. The unscrupulous have the command of much of this kind of knowledge without our aid ”

“ If others differ from him in opinion concerning those qualities, it is open to them to say 80; and the discussion, truthfully conducted, must lead to public advantage: the discussion stimulates curiosity, and the curiosity stimulates invention. Nothing but a partial and limited view of the question could lead to the opinion that harm can result: if there be harm, it will be much more than counterbalanced by good. ”

“ After this comes a more general account of the details and manufacture of locks, similarly illustrated by engravings.
Whatever may be the merits of the different articles relating to locks in the various English cyclopædias, there are none approaching in length to the article in Prechtl's work. But when we consider that Prechtl devotes twenty large volumes to technological or manufacturing subjects, he is of course able to devote a larger space to each article than is given in English works. Both in England and in America, men are more disposed to do the work than to describe it when done. ”

“ It occupies 290 folio pages, and is illustrated by 42 folio plates. The first chapter gives us an introduction and general principles, in which the choice and manipulation of materials are touched upon; the different qualities of iron and steel; and the processes of forging, founding, welding, stamping, filing, polishing, &c. In the copper-plates representing these smiths' operations and the tools employed, [1] there is a smithy, with about a dozen smiths engaged in all these various occupations, with stockings down, and a due amount of workshop slovenliness. ”