Door bolt

“ When a person who was outside wished to enter, it was necessary for him to insert the key in a little hole and to raise the bolt; and in time this species of fastening was improved by the insertion of the bolt in an iron frame or rim permanently attached to the door by a chain, and fastening the door by the insertion of the hasp, through the eye of which was forced the bolt inside the lock by applying the key. ”

“ A bolt is to be affixed to a modern door. Instead of being applied with a plate of iron or brass, in itself a decorative feature on a blank space like that of the surface of a door, the carpenter cuts a piece of wood out of the edge of the door, sinks the bolt out of sight, so that nothing shall appear to view but a tiny meaningless brass handle, and considers that he has performed a very neat job. ”

“ The novelty consists in the particular combinations whereby a new and useful result is produced. I think an angle door is old; have never seen them in jails; have seen angle doors and curved doors and illustrations of them in books many years ago,-before 1859. Locks and bolts upon doors are also old; and to put a lock or bolt on a door would not be novelty or invention. The operation and effect of the lever in moving the device which locks and unlocks the cell doors are precisely the same without or with a wall or grating interposed between the lever and the door locked. ”

“ We thought we had solved the mystery thus:—The servants only closed the door by pushing up the upper bolt, at night the wind would shake the door and the bolt would come down. So this time we took good care to use the lower bolt. Three of us pushed the door with all our might and one man thrust the lower bolt into its socket. ”

“ Door locks are made so that the bolts may be reversed to fit either right or left hand doors. This is accomplished by removing a screw in the side of the box and carefully lifting the bolt, replacing it in reversed position. A right hand door is one which swings to the right when pushed open. ”

“ But the cold fact is that there is scarcely any locking device which affords less protection than the ordinary spring lock. It is the simplest thing in the world for a sneak thief to slip a thin knife between the door-casing and the strip, push back the bolt, and walk in.
Fortunately, it is equally easy to block that trick. Take a narrow piece of tin 3 or 4 in. long, bend it at right angles throughout its length, and tack it firmly in the angle between the casing and strip, so as to make it impossible to reach the bolt without tearing off the strip. ”

“ The lock-bolt or bearing of the combination-lock may be of a circular, segmental, or other desired form, provided said lock-bolt is arranged and adjusted so as to turn upon a suitable axis or bearing, and is so constructed that, in one position, it will prevent the retraction of the bolt-work, so as to retain the safe or vault door locked, while, in another position, it will admit of the bolt-work being retracted for the purpose of allowing the safe or vault door to be opened. ”

“ When it is desired to leave the door locked, after it is closed, push the nail into the latch-string hole so that only the head will be visible from the outside. When the nail and string are arranged in this manner, a stranger will see no means of opening the door, and, as there are many nail-heads in all rough doors, the one to which the latch-string is attached will not attract the attention of any one who is unacquainted with the Deming twin bolt. ”

“ The principle on which all common Locks depend, is that of applying a lever to an interior bolt by means of a communication from without, which moves it in such direction as the lid, drawer, or door to be secured may require. The security of such Locks therefore, and their comparative excellence, are determinable by the number, variety, and disposition of the wards, or other impediments inserted in the passage, by which the lever or key is conveyed to the bolt ”

“ The same requirements must be satisfied in burglar-proof safes. In addition, the body and door must be of such material and of such thickness that it is impossible to cut a sufficiently large hole to extract the contents, and so constructed that they cannot be dismembered; the framing and attachment of the bolts to the door must be able to resist the action of wedges or forcing screws; the vital parts of the lock and bolt-work must be further protected so that it is impossible to attack them by drilling, and this protection must not be liable to be destroyed by the action of heat ”

“ After half an hour I rose again and thoroughly examined the bolt, when my suspicion was increased by a strange discovery. In my absence the socket of the bolt had been removed, the screw holes enlarged and filled up with bread kneaded into a paste; into this the screws had been placed so that although I had bolted the door I could not secure it, for the smallest pressure from outside would break the fastening from the woodwork!
The dodge was one often practised by hotel thieves. But what proof had I that the lawyer from Burgos had prepared that bolt? ”

“ I felt along, seeing a bit now, and was soon passing my hands over the barricading planks of that door.
I might have lit a match, but I preferred to find [Pg 112] out what I could by feeling around, and that cautiously. I discovered that the door had been broken in, the top panels shattered to kindling wood, the force of the assault having burst a hinge, so that the whole thing sagged drunkenly behind the heavy planks that propped it, while a strong bolt, quite useless, was still clamped into a socket which had been torn, screws and all, from the inside casing. ”

“ If, on standing outside, the door opens from you, or inwards, it takes a lock with regular bevel bolt; if it opens outwards, it takes a lock with reverse bevel bolt.
5. A door is beveled when its edge is not at a right angle with its surface, and in this case the front of a mortise lock must be beveled to correspond. This bevel is expressed by stating the thickness of door and the distance that one edge drops back of the other. The standard bevel is 1⁄8 inch in 21⁄4 inches, as shown in Fig. 136.
Fig. 136
6. ”

“ The place of a lock or bolt is taken by a series of little holes, like needle-pricks, arranged in a circle around the side of the door opposite the hinge. When the trap is down, the closing is so exact that the most delicate instrument can not be introduced into the interstice without danger of injury. ”

“ The chief parts of a lock are: the bolt, its essential feature, the selvage, the plate which appears at the edge of the door or drawer, the box, which contains the mechanism including the tumbler, ward, spring, etc., the key-pin, into or around which the key is inserted, the strike, the plate attached opposite the selvage, (often left out as in drawer-locks, but essential in hook-bolt locks, and self-locking locks,) and the escutcheon, the plate around the keyhole.
Locks may be classified: (1) According to their uses, of which there are two types. (a) , Fig. ”

“ Details of Rowntree’s tumbler-lock.
A A is the plate which encloses the whole mechanism of the lock, and fastens it to the door; B B is the bolt, guided in its motion by sliding under the bridges C D; E E are pillars [51] which support a plate covering the works; F are the circular wards surrounding the centre or key-pin; and a shews the position of the key, which, in turning round, acts in a notch r in the bolt, and propels it; G, the tumbler, is a plate situated beneath the bolt, and moving on a centre-pin at d ”

“ These doors, or valves, were not hinged to the side-posts, as with us, but were, as has already been stated, pivoted to the lintel above and the threshold below. The fastening usually consisted of a bolt placed at the base of each valve or half-door, so as to admit of being pushed into a socket made in the sill to receive it. The doorways in some of the houses at Pompeii still shew two holes in the sill, corresponding to the bolts in the two valves. ”

“ We then hammered the bolt in with bricks. In doing this we broke about half a dozen of them. This will explain to the reader how much strength it required to drive the bolt in about an inch and a half.
Then we satisfied ourselves that the bolt could not be moved without the aid of a hammer and a lever. Afterwards we closed the window and the other door and securely locked the last. Thus no human being could open the haunted door.
Before retiring to bed after dinner we further examined both the doors once more. They were all right.
[Pg 38] The next morning we did not go out for fishing ”

“ It was a lock belonging to a coffer or strong [33] chest; all the works being sunk below the level of a carved architectural moulding or ornament. There is a secret opening near the part C, forming a portion of the ornamental design; it allows a bolt, shewn at D, fig. 14, acted on by the spring E, to be touched, by which a doorway opens upon the hinges at B B. A A are a sort of pilasters, which aid in forming a hold for the bolts. The little ornament at C is drawn down by the hand, opening the secret door and revealing the key-hole G. S S, O O, Z Z, are ornaments fastened on at b c d, fig. ”

“ Henley had soon dug away a great segment of decayed wood, exposing the bolt clearly to view. Then taking the hinge which he had brought with him, and slipping the small end between the bolt and the frame of the door, he used it as a lever to pry against the bolt within. The iron was so old and rusty, and his purchase so poor, that he only succeeded in making a rasping sound where the two metals scraped against each other, and so stopped, discouraged. ”

“ I instantly wrung it from the wall, and inserting the point between the planks of the door into the bolt, and working it backwards and forwards, I had at length the unspeakable satisfaction to perceive that the beam was actually yielding to my efforts, and gradually sliding into its berth in the wall.
I have often been engaged in struggles where great bodily strength was required, and every thew and sinew in the system taxed to the uttermost ”

“ Reversing the ordinary mortise, or rim, lock requires no special ability on the part of the workman, as the operation consists of merely taking off the cap and turning over the latch bolt. Where, however, a mortise lock is to be applied, care must be exercised so that it will work properly. First fit the lock into the door at the proper height from the floor, making the mortise large enough for the lock to enter easily. Bore the holes for the knob and the key, and insert the screws in the lock face and drive them home. ”

“ If parties do not know your letters, nothing but violence, applied by some means or other, can enable them to get into your safe; for the lock will not open to any thing but its talisman. Take off all the large wheels and open the lock: you will see that the large wheels have a number of false chambers; if you get the spurs of the bolt into three real chambers and one false, you are as fast as ever, for all four must be right.
“Having placed your key and pointer outside the door to point to W on brass-plate No. ”

“ F, the cells; G, the small door of the safe or box, J; H, the crank which operates the drum, p; I, bolt or lock to the angle door, D; a, a bar connected with the bolts, S, which are operated by the levers, b, for the purpose of fastening the cell doors, j; c, fulcrum of the lever, b; d, levers for operating the sliding doors, l; e, wire rope or endless chain which operates the levers, d; f, hinge joints to levers, d; g, support of pulleys for chain or wire rope; h, pulleys over which the chain or wire rope, e, operates; i, the grated partition; j, cell doors ”

“ The folding leaves of the inner door—that which divided the marble-paved vestibule from the carpeted entry—against one of which I had been leaning, I well knew worked to and fro on pulleys which obeyed the drawing of a cord and tassel hanging at one side, and thus they could readily be closed with a touch by any one standing in the vestibule as they opened out into the hall on which side was the latch and bolt. ”

“ Guards
Two guards, A and B (Fig. 208) , made as in Fig. 216, protect the bolts and act as guides to keep them from swinging out of position; two springs C and D (Fig. 208) , made of well-seasoned hickory and attached to the battens on the door by nails or screws, force the bolts down and up into the bolt-holes (Fig. 208) . To release the bolts, the spring must be drawn back as shown by the dotted lines in Fig. ”

“ As to the fastening of such safes, the bolts are two or three in number, thrown to the front of the door, while at the back of the door are what are called ‘dogs,’ that is, immovable bolts, of little or no use, and put in merely to make the fastenings look stronger. The hinges, too, which ought to be well-made and of the best wrought-iron, are of cast-iron, so that not only does the movement of the door quickly wear them away, but a sharp blow would at once smash them in pieces. ”

“ The next is that the workmanship of every part of the safe be first-class: not that there be merely a moulded door with a showy lock and a trumpery brass-plate upon it, but that every corner and joint of plate with plate in sides and back be effectually united and jointed in the best manner, and that the fitting of the hardened edges of the door shall be like those of a valve, and not even let a watch-spring be got in between. ”

“ In addition to this Chatwood’s (and we believe other makers’) safes have bolts so constructed, as seen in the figure, that they hook or lock into the bolt recesses in the frame in such a manner as to hold the opposite sides of the frame together, so that, independent of its own proper stiffness, it cannot be bent anywhere, unless by tearing asunder the end on the iron bar constituting each cross-bolt. ”