Matchlock

“ The lever x, which is firmly attached to the barrel, represents the web or bit of an ordinary key, and which being carried round with the barrel, takes hold of the bolt in the notch, which it releases by lifting up the tumbler, and projects or withdraws in its revolution. But as circumstances might, by possibility occur, where ingenuity could gain access to the tumbler and release the bolt without attempting the principle of security, Locks are now fabricated in the manner shewn at Figs. ”

“ The ordinary single latchkey is sometimes sufficiently puzzling to the late comer at his own home who has dined not wisely but too well. Try and imagine the effect in similar circumstances of a fourfold key, each arm, or barrel, call it what you will, looking exactly alike, but each quite different, in that only one of the four is designed to unlock whichever particular lock you may be at the moment negotiating, the odds being, of course, exactly four to one against your picking out the right barrel in the first instance. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Are they loose in a drawer or on a shelf, or are they in a covered box or dish of metal or earthenware? Sometimes uncovered matches are ignited by the sun's rays shining through a lens-forming bubble in a window-pane.
Do you carry matches on your person? A child should never be allowed to do this. He may be careful, but some careless child may ask him for a match. Always be on the safe side. A grown person should never permit himself to carry loose matches in his pocket. The State Fire Marshal of Iowa says:
Some men, especially smokers, are in the habit of carrying matches around with them. ”

“ If these outworks do not secure the bolt from the intrusion, and application of every instrument but its proper key, the Lock is inadequate to its intended purpose; and however intricate or difficult, the passage to the bolt may be rendered by a skilful and judicious disposition of the wards; yet, if any access to the bolt is practicable by a workman of equal skill with its maker, the Lock is defective in the main point of excellence, which is effectual security; and is entitled to no higher claim than comparative merit. ”

“ The puzzle-lock is generally in the form of a padlock, which is opened and closed without the use of a key, and which has certain difficulties thrown in the way of its being opened by any one who is not in the secret of the person who closed it. It is, in fact, one of the locks in which the doctrine of permutation is made to contribute to the means of security. The key to open it is a mnemonic or mental one, instead of one of steel or iron. Two centuries ago, the puzzle-lock attracted far more attention than any other. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Request some one to select one end of the row and to take one, two, or three matches from it, you having the same privilege at the other end; and you guarantee he will be compelled to take the last match no matter how he may vary the number he takes.
The secret is to remove four matches each time between you. For instance, if your opponent takes three you take one; if he takes two you take two; if he takes one you take three and so on. It is obvious if four matches are taken six times one match will be left on the table, which your opponent must take. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In a complex Bramah lock, and in locks on the combination principle, the difficulty of picking is almost insuperable, so long as what may be termed the arithmetical method is adopted. It is perfectly true, as has been so often stated, that the varied combinations in the arrangement of the slides amount to millions and even billions, when the slides are in any degree numerous; and if a person attempt to pick the lock by ringing the changes on all these combinations, it would very likely require the lives of a dozen Methuselahs to bring the enterprise to an end. ”

“ With this end in view he had allowed salary to accumulate in Matlock's hands until it had attained very respectable proportions. Upon this little hoard Matlock had long had designs, and one night he seduced Braun—who was a mere boy—into a game of cards where with the assistance of one of his confederate creatures he had deliberately robbed him of every cent. This in itself would have aroused but little comment; every man must protect himself in card play and any means that can be enforced to one's end in poker are admissible. ”

“ The heavy match-lock of three centuries ago was almost as dangerous to him who used it as to the enemy against whom it was directed. It would be almost impossible for a person to injure himself by the repeating rifle except by deliberate intention. Skilful military men advised the abandonment of the match-lock for the bow. ”

“ These are a kind of grapple, by which the bolt is confined as well in its active as its passive station, and rendered immoveable, till set at liberty by the key. One of these instruments is commonly introduced into all Locks that are of any use or value; it is lodged behind the bolt, and is governed by a spring which acts upon the tumbler, as the tumbler acts upon the bolt. The application therefore of any force to the tumbler, which is superior to the force of the spring, will cause it to quit its hold, and set the bolt at liberty. ”

“ The only elements are the two locks and the bolt-work, no other element being hinted at, even; and the arrangement of said elements is that the locks rest against or connect with bolt-work, and are used independently of each other. To recite in the claim that the 'key-lock is controllable from the outside,' and the 'time-lock upon the inside only,' is entirely unnecessary; for all key or combination locks of safes are controlled only from the outside, and all time-locks, as a matter of course, upon the inside, are automatically unlocked. ”

“ Baron’s Lock the case is otherwise. He hath not only improved upon the practised method of applying the tumbler, but hath given it an office which is perfectly new, and of more importance to its security, than any impediment which art can oppose to the introduction of a false key. Instead of leaving his tumblers liable to be forced to an indefinite distance from the point at which they cease to controul the bolt; he hath confined their action within a circumscribed space, cut in the center of the bolt, of a dimension barely sufficient to the purpose they are intended to answer. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The particular construction of my lock is that the two time movements rotate a graduated dial so arranged that its motion oscillates, at certain regular, determinable intervals, a pivoted bent lever, which in turn, in one instance, for automatic locking, lifts the free part of, and thus oscillates on its stationary pivot a metallic dog or obstruction, so as to cause it to rest in the way, and prevent the retraction, of the sliding bolt-work ”

“ The object of the invention is stated to be to have a time-movement guard, and operate in conjunction with a combination-lock, to prevent the action of the combination-lock until a time previously appointed by the setting of the time-movement shall have arrived, in the ordinary running of the time-movement, at which time, and not before, the combination-lock will come into action, when operated in the usual way, as if there were no time-movement. ”

“ Naturally, each one plays for himself and for his own advantage, therefore there is no partnership as in whist; and yet in the course of playing one has often to form a sort of alliance for a moment with a second player in order to prevent the common calamity against the probable stratagem of the third player. I may also add, that as each one plays on his own account, he has the option of standing out for one game, as I have already indicated, in which case, however, he has to pay a certain penalty. ”

“ His next remark on the subject is a sensible one: “Notwithstanding the large size of these locks, and all the apparatus with which they are provided, they correspond but ill with the solidity of the rest of the coffer. If we have given a representation of one, it is chiefly to shew how little confidence one could have in such a lock, and what are its defects, in order that we may avoid them.” It is not difficult, by tracing the action of the several levers, to see how one movement of the key, in the centre of the lid, would act upon all the bolts. ”

“ Any player during the play of a trick, or after the four cards are played and before they are touched for the purpose of gathering them together, may demand that the cards be placed before their respective players.
If either of the dealer's adversaries, prior to his partner's playing, should call attention to the trick, either by saying it is his, or, without being requested so to do, by naming his card or drawing it toward him, the dealer may require that opponent's partner to play his highest or lowest card of the suit led, or to win or lose the trick. ”

“ And there, scattered over the surface of my desk like surprised conspirators, feigning ignorance of one another’s presence, were twelve yellow Match-boxes!
How they mastered the combination of the door and got into the room, I shall not attempt to explain. I am only an amateur Detective.
All I know is that Match-boxes, though they be scattered to the ends of the house (or World) , always get together in some one place. ”

“ The O-O brand is not owned, as you suppose, by Mr. Wistar, but by a side partner of Matlock's named Coogan, a saloon keeper and tin-horned gambler in Gunniston. Their game has been to not only alter your C— into O-O, but to have your own men, confederates of Matlock's and working under his directions, brand your calves in that brand, killing the mothers when necessary. I figure that your losses have been at least one thousand head. I have discharged every man implicated or under reasonable suspicion, retaining only four whom I deem dependable. ”

“ That a man cannot open his own lock with his own proper key, until the lock gives permission by assuming a particular state or condition, certainly strikes one as being susceptible of many useful applications, where time is an element taken into the account.
A curious alarum-lock was invented by Mr. Meighan, in 1836, in which the bell or alarum is not placed behind a door, as in many alarum contrivances, but within the lock itself. Two or more studs are placed on the bolt, which press against the lower end of a small tumbler; the movement of the tumbler elevates a hammer ”

“ One stack is fixed as the dule or goal, and one person is appointed to catch the rest of the company, who run out from the dule. He does not leave it till they are all out of his sight. Then he sets out to catch them. Any one who is taken, cannot run out again with his former associates, being accounted a prisoner, but is obliged to assist his captor in pursuing the rest. When all are taken, the game is finished; and he who is first taken, is bound to act as catcher in the next game. This innocent sport seems to be almost entirely forgotten in the south of Scotland. ”

“ Rackets.—The choice of a racket is an important matter, and it is also a difficult one. Young players seem to take pleasure in selecting the most extraordinary rackets in a shop. Let me strongly advise them to avoid all unusual handles, heads, or methods of stringing. All these eccentricities are useless at the best. Nothing is so good as the simplest form of racket, possessing an octagonal handle, and strung in the usual way. Such a racket is used by all the better match-players in England. ”

“ 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. ”