Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1892-04-23
ALL ABOUT LOCKS,
Ancient and Modern Devices Graph.
ically Described.
ROCK Islands Expert Locksmitb
writes OF the Mechanism which
Has Been His Lire's
Study.
Written for The ARansl

eince Time immemorlal. History does not
say anything about Adam having locks
other than those of hirsute nature-snd
coming home in the evening from the
lodge and trying to unloc the front door
with the wrong end of the latch kew. but
history in locks re aches very close IN to
Adam. The first knowledge we have of
locks is at the time of the old Egyptisns.
who had wooden locks, and KEYS made of
the same material.
In some countries of the Orient
wooden lock similar to the old Egyp,ian
lock is still IN use. 1t consists of a ..olt
made out of wood with several movable
pins and key with projections to fit
these. When the key is inserted it raises
the pins to proper height and will al
low the bolt to te Withdrawn. The next
class OF locks we have knowledge of were
used about A. d. 400 and were made of
metal, some of bronze and some of iron.
These locks had springs in them and the
Key had to tit in an intricate system of
wards. Thumblers were not in use.
The bit OF the key and the key hole were
make in number Of odd shapes. and
some of these old keys are really artfully
and deliberately made. The locks were
mostly of the class we call spring locks,
and were OF course very large and heavy,
and so were the keys.
NOVEL USE OF LOCKS.
At the time of the crussdes when the
Christian Knights went to the holy land
to fight the Turks, some of the Italian
warriors carried with them KEYS,
the locks of which remained at
home and served in mechanical
| ha 80
These locks are now to be seen in s3me
of the museums of Europe. These sP-
| pliaDces were made of steel and were
quite deliberately designed.
| In the middle ages locks were for the
most part made OF iron and were of course
altogether made by hand. They were
large std the Keys were correspondingly
heavy and large but the locks of those
days had some security about them, and
some were nicely made and were gener,
ally finished in elaborate grille work. The
locksmith did not class himself with the
common mechanic, but called himself
an artisan and really there was just cause
for this, as with the tools at his command
in those days it required more than ordi-
nary skill to make lock The tum blers
were unknowI and the secu>
rity of Jock depended al,
together upon the wards and the cor
responding intricate fitting of the KEYS
and the different shapes of the key holes
which were of all conceivable Did shapes,
hence if person succeeded in making a
wax impression of the key hole, this wa
almost all that was nee essary to secure a
counterfeit key.
MANY SECRET DEVICES
were resorted to TO cover up the KEY hole.
and it was often necessary to touch a
number of secret springs and knobs be
fore the plates which covered up the KEY
holes, would move and the kew hole
would be revealed As there were no
factory made locks in those days, KEYS Of
course were ali different
1t is interesting to note to what ex-
tremes of key making the lccksmith of
that time resorted. A lock was also
made which was called "Vexer lock-
for the reason that it WAS supposed to
vex any burglar to get into it. IL was
made somewhat on the combination
principle and Was mostly used on strong
boxes, as safes were only known by that
name. 1t consisted of number of cir.
cular disks, generally fine, which were
connected with rosettes on the outside.
The setting of all of these into certain
position would open the lock, but the
security as such lock would offer would
amount to very little, and the burglar to-
day would make short work of them.
There seems 10 have been very little
improvement in lock making for several
hundred years, and while locks were bet
ter made it cannot be said that they Of
fered any more security.
NEW ERA IN LOCK MAKING
was started by Brahma and Chubb, the
first German and the latter an English
man. The Brshma lcck has hollow
key which is slit at the end, and the
seven slots of different depths will shove
forward the slides of the lock, SO that the
barrel OF the lock can be turned and the
lock opened. Brahma and his associates
d, jn London were 50 well convinced of the
impossibility to pick this lock that they
offered 1000 pounds sterling to anyone
who could pick 1t. A young American
by the name OF Hobbs differed, however,
in opinion with them and constructed q
picking tool with which he succeeded IN
picking the B:ahma lock in II hours
| This was like a brand of wild fire as the
Brahma lock was then the best, aud is d
good lock yet, but it is not considered by
locksmiihs now to be such an astonishing
performance to be able t. pick it.
The Chubb lock is the lumber lock
of today, and the ward filing of q
tumbler lock is IN the end of the bit in
stead of the side; thus by observing this
you can distinguish tumbler locks from
ward locks. The security of this lock
depends upon the raising o! the different
tumbler or levers to certain height so
that the slots in them will come even, SO
that the projection on the bolt known as
the fence can pass through them. This
principle is used on good many locks of
today. The next lock invented is the
pin lock, invented by some poor lock-
smith and improved by Linus Yale.
With this lock comes the
ADVENT OF THE SMALL FLAT KEY,
such as is used now with the msjority of
locks. The large clumsy key of the past
al.