Lock

“ The simple fixed-guard or warded lock is so utterly worthless for security, no matter what amount of good workmanship be bestowed upon it, that it demands but short notice. It was contrived with the intention of making the passage to the bolt intricate; but it will be seen at once that this intricacy does not really offer any security. The wards of a lock are circular arcs of thin metal, so arranged as to require a key of peculiar pattern to pass amongst them, the shape of the cuts in the key being a section of the wards. ”

“ But he heard the jingle of many keys in her hand and the creak of the lock, as she tried each key ... and failed!
“Oh, this one will open it,” she whispered, each time. “Oh, this one must!”
Then, at last, she came to the last key in her hand. She thrust it into the hole: it fitted perfectly. She turned it—snap! The lock flew open. ”

“ There are no machines more common than locks: they are sufficiently complex to merit the name of machine; but I know of no others the structure of which is so little understood by those who use them. It is rare to find any one who knows wherein the goodness of a lock consists, or the degree of security that he can attach to it. The outside of a lock is usually all that attracts attention. ”

“ ON TUMBLER, OR LEVER LOCKS. Security being the primary object in all locks, any considerations as to mechanical ingenuity and graceful decoration give place to those which relate to safety. A spring lock may be ingenious and even beautiful in its construction, but an imitative key will easily open it. Hence arose the invention of wheels or wards ”

“ The key therefore may be formed and perfectly fitted to the lock without any extraordinary degree of genius or mechanical skill. It is from hence evident that endless variations in the disposition of fixed wards are not alone sufficient to the purpose of perfect security. I do not mean to subtract from the merit of such inventions, nor to dispute their utility or importance. Every approach towards perfection in the art of lock-making may be productive of much good, and is at least deserving of commendation ”

“ Flint locks, whether as applied to the fowling-piece or the musket, will soon be forgotten, or remembered only to give a romantic interest to some tale of other times, as the arbalast and long-bow serve only to remind us of our Norman and Saxon ancestors! It requires some mechanical knowledge and some experience, to decide on the merit of a lock. ”

“ That a very large and strong lock on this construction only requires a very small key. 2. That no key is required to lock it, although it is free from the inconvenience pertaining to spring-locks, viz. that the door cannot be shut without locking itself. Moreover this lock is more secure than any spring-lock can be. 3. That it cannot get out of order from the usual causes of the tumblers sticking together or their springs breaking, inasmuch as the action of the tumblers does not depend on any thing but the key and the handle, and there are no tumbler-springs. ”

“ And if it were possible to [26] collect all the by-gone specimens of lock-oddities, we should probably find among them many highly-ingenious letter-locks; for supposing a man to have a mechanical turn of mind, a lock is by no means an unworthy medium for displaying it; the pieces of metal are so small as to be easily manageable at a small work-bench in a small room. ”

“ A curious superstition about iron locks prevails in Styria and Tyrol. If you procure from a locksmith a brand-new lock and carry it to church at the time of a wedding ceremony, and if, while the benediction is being said, you fasten the lock by a turn of the key, then the young couple’s love and happiness is destroyed. Mutual aversion will supplant affection until you open the lock again. ”

“ These are very good little padlocks, with an excellent lever action, 'dogged against detent,' as the technical phrase goes; so that only the key properly made for each lock will open it. They are so good, indeed, as locks, that it would be a waste of time to try picking them, when, because of their small size, it is so very easy to break them apart, just as you have done yourself, and just as I could probably have done in half the time, having had rather more experience. Now that is what has been done with your lock by the person who has your bonds. ”

“ It's the big trunk that holds the things I don't often use, and if I can't unlock it no one else can, that's certain. So I shall rest easy until I need something out of it, and then I'll get a locksmith to pick the lock. ”

“ The gate is strong and high, and the lock is sufficiently powerful to defy the assaults of anybody who has not been educated either as a locksmith or burglar. We passed under the eye of a custodian as we entered, and he followed us at a respectful distance to see that we did no damage. ”

“ 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.
The literature of lock-making is, as we have implied, very scanty, both in England and America. 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. ”

“ The commercial importance of locks—though of course never seriously questioned when once fairly brought before one's attention—has been recently rendered so apparent as to have risen to the position of a public topic. If a strong room, containing gold and silver, notes and bills, books and papers—if such a room be necessarily shielded from intrusion, it becomes no less necessary that the shield should be really worthy of its name, trusty and reliable: a good lock is here nearly as indispensable as a faithful cashier. ”

“ For if a lock of any given size be furnished with wards in as curious and complete a manner as it can be, those wards being necessarily expressed on what is termed by locksmiths the bit or web of the key, do not admit of a greater number of variations than can be expressed on that bit or web; when, therefore, as many locks have been completed of the given size as will include all the variations which the surface of the bit will contain, every future lock must be the counterpart of some former one, and the same key which opens the one will of course unlock the other. ”

“ Both in England and in America, men are more disposed to do the work than to describe it when done. In the Encyclopædia Britannica, in Rees’ Cyclopædia, in Hebert’s Engineers’ and Mechanics’ Cyclopædia, in the Encyclopædia Metropolitana, in the Penny Cyclopædia, and in other similar works, locks are described as well as can be expected within the limits assigned to the articles. Mr. Bramah’s essay on locks, and on his own lock in particular, is one of the few English pamphlets devoted expressly to this subject. ”

“ The carcass of the lock is of cast iron; the casting, like all the small American castings, is simply perfect; bosses are cast round the follower and keyholes; the box staple is one piece of metal, neat and strong.
But there is another point, and, to my mind, the most important one. Whatever opinions may be held as to the relative quality of this lock, whether it is better or worse than an English one, it is at least an honest article. It makes no pretensions to be any better than it is. ”

“ PREFACE. The reader is entitled to know the origin of the small work which he holds in his hands.
In August 1852, being about to write a short article on Locks for a Cyclopædia of Useful Arts, of which I am the editor, I consulted my esteemed and lamented friend, the late Professor Cowper, of King’s College, as to the desirability of explaining to the general reader the defects of some of our English locks, which, previous to the celebrated “lock controversy” of 1851, had borne a high character for skilful construction, beauty of workmanship, and undoubted security. ”

“ The lock intended for burglar-proof purposes is heavy and made to resist violence, while the other locks are smaller, simpler, and cheaper, intended only to secure the door against ordinary intrusion. ”

“ Reuter, Aulic Councillor and Secretary of the Institute, directed your attention to a newly invented lock of Mr. Newell, of North America, which was represented as excelling all other changeable combination-locks hitherto known, and as being without a rival. ”

“ I asked her."
"Some one might have got into the house without her knowing anything about it. The lock is a very common one. There are plenty of keys that will open it."
"If we could find some one that saw a person with a bundle go up the steps, that would give us a clew." ”

“ Rogues knew a good deal about lock-picking long before locksmiths discussed [3] it among themselves, as they have lately done. If a lock—let it have been made in whatever country, or by whatever maker—is not so inviolable as it has hitherto been deemed to be, surely it is to the interest of honest persons to know this fact, because the dishonest are tolerably certain to be the first to apply the knowledge practically; and the spread of the knowledge is necessary to give fair play to those who might suffer by ignorance. ”

“ 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. ”

“ We shall have occasion to shew presently, that if the number of tumblers (and consequently the number of bits in the key) be small—not exceeding six, for instance—the possession of the true key gives any one the power of opening the lock, provided he has time and patience to go through a few hundred changes of the bits of the key; for, as some one arrangement must have been that by which the lock was locked, it must again occur if the user takes care to make all the arrangements in turn, and tries the lock after each. ”

“ We never pretended that it was anything but a common key. It is a common key to unlock a common lock. You remember that evidence, the lock was hanging onto the hasp, showing that they had not a key to unlock it. It does not matter whether it was a common lock or a common key or not. The key that unfastened that lock had blood upon it and it was found in the Carlson cottage, with paint upon it, or what seemed to be paint, of the same color as the paint that was upon the floor. ”

“ No, no, my friend Jonathan, you go take the lock off a hundred empty house in this your London, or of any city in the world; and if you do it as such things are rightly done, and at the time such things are rightly done, no one will interfere. I have read of a gentleman who owned a so fine house in London, and when he went for months of summer to Switzerland and lock up his house, some burglar came and broke window at back and got in. Then he went and made open the shutters in front and walk out and in through the door, before the very eyes of the police. ”

“ The combination of a time-lock and a combination or key lock, both constructed to be applied on a safe, vault, or other door, so as to rest against the bolt-work, and provided with a lock-bolt or obstruction having an opening or offset, which is automatically brought into and out of coincidence with the tongue of the bolt-work, whereby the bolt-work may be retained in the unlocked position for shutting the door, and prevented from being retracted when locked, until both locks have been unlocked. ”

“ Chu-Chu was at work up there. I wondered that he went to the trouble of blow-lamp and drill when in his wonderfully sensitive hands the lock of a country-house safe would have been a mere child's puzzle, to be solved in a couple of minutes at most. I decided that the safe must be a very ancient one, with a heavy, rusty old lock—the meanest sort, by the way, for the cracksman. ”

“ By another contrivance it is rendered impracticable to move a pick or picks round in the lock more than a small distance, unless the tumblers could previously be all lifted to their right positions, which can only be done by the right key. ”

“ To demonstrate this bold and alarming proposition, I shall first state the common principles which are applied in the art of Lock-making; and, by describing their operation in instruments differently constructed, and possessing different degrees of excellence, prove that the best constructed Locks, with fixed wards, are liable to be secretly opened with great facility; and are calculated only to induce a false confidence in their effect, and to throw temptation to dishonesty in the way of those who are acquainted with their imperfections. ”

“ 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. ”

“ There is a mechanism of springs and levers to shoot the bolt when the pins in the plate are rightly adjusted. The arrangements in respect to the key are singular and somewhat awkward. The teeth which lock the bolt are not the same as those [63] which unlock it, the user having to change ends and adjust the bit to a socket-handle. This is one among many examples in which a lock embodies several principles, the inventor having set himself the task of combining the excellences of many diverse locks. ”

“ With each of the dials are combined adjusting disks or arms, O, or some equivalent mechanical device, each of which carries a stud, or a pin or projection, which acts upon a yoke or lever, which connects with and guards the combination-lock the number of hours or time for which it is designated said lock is to remain locked, and thus controls the action of its lock-bolt or bearing while the same is in a locked condition. ”