: Rudimentary Treatise on the Construction of Locks by Dodd George Hobbs A C Tomlinson Charles Editor - Locks and keys

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ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF LOCKS.

ON LOCKS AND LOCK-LITERATURE.

The manufacture of locks, and a consideration of the mechanical principles involved in their construction and security, have never yet been treated with any degree of fulness in an English work. Lock-making has occupied a large amount of ingenuity, and lock-patents have been obtained in considerable number, though not always, we are satisfied, with a commensurate return for the expense incurred,--but lock-philosophy has not been largely attended to.

And yet it may safely be said that much which is both mechanically and commercially important is comprised in a lock. Every improvement in the manufacture of iron, steel, and brass--that is, in the tool-making and machine-making processes--may be made to reflect its light on the lock-manufacture; the stamping, the casting, the planing, the slotting, the screw-cutting, the polishing of metals,--all, in proportion as they are improved, impart some of their aid to the lock-maker. Then, in the finer kinds of locks, the works are so delicate as to approach to the nicety of clockwork; thereby combining the manipulative skill of a talented artisan with the rougher mechanical work of the smith. 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.

It is worthy of remark, that the tools described are the same as those which are used by the locksmith at the present day; shewing how little improvement has been made in the means of producing locks.

That chapter of the work which has reference to locks is the only one with which we have to do here. It is arranged in a systematic manner, beginning with the simpler locks, without wards or tumblers, and proceeding thence to others of more complex construction. The period at which the work was written was too early to lead us to expect to find a tumbler-lock described and delineated: there are, however, numerous examples of single tumbler-locks, many of them of great ingenuity. The use of multiple bolts, that is, of many bolts shot at once by one action of the key, seems to have been familiar enough to the locksmiths of those days. One lock represented is remarkable; it is attached to a strong and ponderous coffer or chest. The chest is open; and the whole under or inner surface of the cover is seen to be occupied by a lock of intricate construction; there are no less than twelve bolts, three on each long side, one on each short side, and one in each corner; these bolts are so placed as to catch under a projecting rim fixed round the top of the coffer. The collection of keys, exhibited on a separate plate, is remarkable for the great variety of forms given to them. We shall by and by copy some of the drawings of this curious work.

ANCIENT LOCKS: GRECIAN, ROMAN, EGYPTIAN.

Locks and door-fastenings have not, until modern times, been susceptible of any classified arrangement according to their principles of construction. They have been too simple to require it, and too little varied to permit it. That some such fastenings must be employed wherever doors of any kind are used is sufficiently apparent; and there is a little information obtainable, which shews the nature of the fastenings adopted in early times. The bolt, the hasp, the chain, the bar, the latch, the lock, all were known, in one or other of their various forms, in those ages which we are accustomed to consider classical. Travellers, generally speaking, do not descend to locks, or rather they do not think about them; otherwise they might have collected much that would have been novel and applicable to the present work; and, indeed, there is some ground for the assertion, that a notice of the door-fastenings of all nations would reveal to us something of the social and domestic habits of various members of the great human family. Be this as it may, however, we may profitably make a little inquiry into the locks of ancient times.

An examination of the Roman keys in the British Museum sufficiently attests this fact.

"Whilst to his couch himself the prince addressed, The duteous nurse received the purple vest: The purple vest with decent care disposed, The silver ring she pulled, the door reclosed; The bolt, obedient to the silken cord, To the strong staple's inmost depth restored, Secured the valves."

Most of the other great nations of antiquity resembled either the Egyptians or the Greeks and Romans, more or less closely, in their domestic and domiciliary arrangements; or, at any rate, so far as such humble matters as locks and keys are concerned, we need not seek far from those nations for examples. The Nineveh and other Assyrian explorations have, however, revealed many curious and unexpected facts; from the temples and the palaces we may by and by penetrate into the houses and rooms of the citizens sufficiently to know how their doors were fastened. In the mean time ancient Egypt awaits our notice.

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