The times., 1900-12-23
THE ART OF LOCK PICKING.
Ordinary Bolts Yield Readily, others
Are Easily Persuaded.

ordinary Bcits Yield Readily, Others
Are Easily Persuaded
QFrom the Chicago Chronicle)
When the householder gets ready tC
| turn out the gas for the night prepara-
tory to turning in he makes the rounds
| OF the house, turns all the keys to assure
| himself the outer doors are locked. and
goes to bed confident that no burglar car
get in unless be saws hole in the door
| But the householder is mistaken. Moth
| ing, unless IL be an open door, gives an
| expert burglar less trouble than the
average lock. Picking a lock has come
to be such fine art that there are only
q Few locks. and those specially made to
| order, which cannot be picked by a man
who knows his business Some people
| think they can fool the lock picker by
leaving the key in the lock on the inside.
| so the burglar cannot insert skeleton
| key. This only makes things easier The
man who knows how and has the proper
| tools can turn key just as easily from
| the outer side of door as though he
| were on the side where the handle Of the
key projects. A slender strong pair CT
steel pliers properly applied will clutch
| the little end of the key which extends
below the notches and turn it easily and
silently.
But that is not lock picking. That is
child's play. To open door which has
been locked and from which the key has
| been removed is a different proposition
but old policemen declare there are very
few If any doors on ordinary dwellings
and fiat buildings which are secured by
LOCKS able to resist the advances of the
burglar. What are known as skeleton"
Keys are made like ordinary doorkeys,
only the guards. which in regular keys
contain several notches of different
depths, are very thin and delicate. In
! n 1-nr-c u, hoe ord
just shade wider or longer than the next
one, and the burglar tries them one by
one until he usually strikes one which
Will do the business, raise the proper tun-
blers in the lock and shoot the bolt back.
Where the old-fashioned rim locks are
used, the sort which are screw
| ed to the door and are now
found only in very old frame
buildings or in cheaper class of hotels,
this is easy. Any one who has ever lost
the key to one of these locks must have
discovered that almost any old key he
borrowed from the Deighbors would turn
the bolt. A buttonhook will usually do
1t. Any slight projection on a slender rod
which will raise the simple tumbler in
the lock will allow the bolt TO be re-
moved Fnv
But "mortise" locks. the variety in use
In all modern buildings, which are fitted
ing showing but the brass plate on the edge
and the two Eeyholes are a bit more intri-
cate in their mechanism and are likely to
mold the burglar for a moment or two
longer. But they will eventually yield TO
Inc gentle movements of the expert lock
picker. When several skeleton keys have
been tried and none is found TO be the
proper one the Picks, which give the art
Its name are. introduced, These are slen--
der bits of steel with one end turned up at
right angle. resembling buttonhook
with the hook Strengthened out to form
an L. The long end in the hand of the
burglar, is so slender that several OF these
can be inserted at once into the circular
psf Of the keyhole, and they are put in
one by one, each one raising tumbler and
holding it up until the proper number of
tumblers are raised, when the bolt moves
back and the door is open
There is scarcely lock in town on which
an expert cannot perform this trick-that
is, of the common variety Of locks which
can be opened through a keyho,e from
either side of the door. With spring locks
or night latch" locks, as they are call
ed-the work is bit more difficult some
times. and is more often performed with
a skeleton key than with picks. The ex-
pert burglar is provided with a pocketfuI
of night latch keys cut from steel or iron
blanks" and each one having notches a
shade different from the Others In the
cheaper grade of night latches one of these
keys is almost certain to prove a duplicate
of the one on the key ring of the house
holder, snugly asleep inside in perfect con-
fdence in his lock.
And after the house has been robbed and
no one disturbed the folks say:
Il can't see how they got in. for the
door was locked, and We found il locked
this morning."
The wise burglar takes care to close the
door behind him SO as TO avert suspicion
as long as possible.
Not all of the lock-picking is done by
criminals, however. Some of the most ex-
pert men in that line are practical lock-
smiths and emplores of the big safe-mak-
ing firms who have spent years in peering |
into locks and devising methods for MAX |
ing them proof against all attacks save |
those of the keys intended for them. The |
battle constantly raging between the MAX |
ers of highpower shells and the makers of |
armor plate is no more steadily waged |
than that between lockmakers and bur- |
glars-that is, makers of locks which cost |
a barrel of money and are intended to |
guard yaluables. The so-caIled burglar |
proof safe Of twenty years ago would be |
laughed at by the safe-blower of today. |
The time-lock doors OF a safe deposit |
vault, with their ponderGus cranks and |
type of the lock experts art. They are
supposed to be absolutely proof against
except earthquakes and prop
erly applied dynamite. But when they
get out of order and refuse to open at the
appointed time the lock expert is sent for
and after an hour or two of gentle turning
and twisting and listening to the interior
he swings open the door and the
trick is done.
Ordinary Office safes are easy" for the
expert from the safe firm or even an old
timer in the locksmith's business. Quite
often. through some inadvertence, the
of a safe is unknown to the
office force. Perhaps the one man who
knew it has forgotten it, or has died sud
denly. without imparting the secret The
safe must be opened without destroying
the lock and the expert comes After |
more or less twisting Of the knob and lis
tening to the tumblers together with deli
cate feeling of the resistance to the knob
rs it turns under his fingers, ka throws
back the bolts and opens the door.
Roll-top desks are frequent cause of |
trouble in this regard, as the owner often
locks his keys inside the curtain" when
he draws ii down for the night Next
morning he sends for a locksmith, and
when he sees how easily that deft indi-
vidual opens the desk he begrudges him
he half dollar charged for the job In
stead of bringing With him an armful CT
keys to try on the lock the expert takes
from his pocket a pair of pliers made of
very thin fiat steel. These he slips un-
der the roll top, Immediately below the
keyhole, the jaws being open. A alignt
pressure on the handle brings the jaws
together and as they press in the little
which keep the thing locked
he desk is opened.
The night latch is often opened by bur
glars in a similar manner. Usually the