A LOCK FOR FASTENING DOORS, GATES, DRAWERS, DESKS, TRUNKS, BOXES, PORTMANTEAUS, AND OTHER THINGS REQUIRING FASTENINGS
Year: 1816

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
RUXTON, of Dublin, in that part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
called Ireland, Esquire, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Fourteenth day of May, in the fifty-sixth year of His reign, did give
and grant unto me, the said Thomas Ruxton, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, His special licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, during the
term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and vend, within that part of the United Kingdom called England, Wales, and
the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "A LOCK FOR FASTENING
DOORS, GATES, DRAWERS, DESKS, TRUNKS, BOXES, PORTMANTEAUS, AND OTHER
THINGS REQUIRING FASTENINGS;" in which Letters Patent there is contained a
proviso, obliging me, the said Thomas Ruxton, under my hand and seal, to cause
a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of
Chancery within two calendar months next and immediately after the date
of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same (relation being there-
unto had) may more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, 1, the said
Thomas Ruxton, do hereby declare that my said Invention is particularly
described and ascertained as follows (that is to say):-
The lock and key about to be described have in common with many others
the properties of strength, neatness, durability, lightness, convenience of form,
and simplicity. They require no knack nor dexterity, they cause no trouble,
and they are not apt to get out of order. Among other more important
properties which this lock possesses are these:-An attempt to violate it must
fail; an attempt to violate it must be detected; it is as little violable by
the maker of it as by any other person.
Part the first. This lock is applicable to every purpose for which the
fastening by a lock may be required. For the sake of clearness, let it be
supposed that the thing to be secured by this lock is a drawer. Number 1 of
the annexed Drawing represents the lock in shape and size, with its cap on.
The cap is a plate that protects the interior of the lock; 1, 2, 3, are rivets by
which the cap is fastened to what is called the cheek, and which rivets are
part of the cheek; a, b, c, are screws, that fasten the cap to the main plate of
the lock; s, s, is the key-hole; n is a spike, technically termed the pipe of
the lock, issuing from and fastened to the main plate, and which spike enters
into the pipe of the key; A, A, A, A, are screw holes, through these the screws
are put which fasten the lock to the inside of the front of the drawer; B is the
bottom of the bolt of the lock which passes through the cheek. Number 2
gives a view of the same lock without its cap. 2 is the spike, which enters
into the pipe of the key; 3, 3, is à ward, the two parallel lines below n, and
apparently connecting the ends of this ward; 3, 3, are two other wards, the
key passes these wards, having apertures (technically termed wards) for this
purpose in its bit. The bit of a key is that part which enters into and acts
upon and within a lock. These wards are fastened to the main plate of the
lock. A, A, A, A, are the screw holes, through which the screws are put that
fasten the lock to the drawer; B is the bolt, which has a cap or metal cover,
being a plate that is screwed on by the screw; a, c, is a steel fence, to guard
against the effects of any instrument that might be introduced at the key-hole.
Number 16 represents the thickness of the lock. This is the lapped part of
the main plate, which lapped part is at right angles with the rest of the main
plate, through which lapped part the bolt moves, and which, on opening the
drawer, appears on a line and level with the upper edge of the front of the
drawer. Number 3 represents the inside of the lock when the cap of the
bolt is removed. This cap in Number 2 conceals from view what here appears.
C is a thin flat piece of metal, which I shall call a tumbler, turning on a

page_text: pivot a, and acted on by the spring 2, 2; B, B, is the bolt, the motion of
which up or down is not hindered by the pivot a, nor by the spring 2, 2; 2 is the
hole into which the screw goes that secures the cap of the bolt.
This screw
is seen in number 2, where, likewise, the cap of the bolt is seen. The pivot a,
5 number 3, projects from and is fastened to the main plate of the lock; the
upper end of the spring 2, 2, is also fastened to the main plate. The bolt B, B,
can move up and down. Its upper part moves through the lapped part of the
plate (that appears in Number 16), and its bottom moves in the cheek of the lock.
The cheek incloses and protects the interior of the lock. After the operation
of locking has been performed the bolt B, B, appears as it does in Number 3.
In the tumbler C is a slit n, and unless this slit be placed under what I shall
call the blade (r), which is a part of the bolt, the bolt cannot descend.
Number 4 is seen the bolt after the operation of unlocking has been performed,
and here the blade of the bolt appears in the slit of the tumbler.
represents the cap (seen in Number 2) of the bolt, and under it is a seperate
view D, of the bottom of this cap, with a dovetail. Number 8 is a view of
the bolt detached from the lock, without a tumbler and without its cap; at the
bottom of the bolt is a dovetail here visible, into which the dovetail D of the
cap of the bolt Number 5 fits. Number 9 shews the bolt with its cap on.
Number 10 gives a side view of the bolt with its cap on. Number 11 gives
In
Number 5
a side view of the bolt without its cap. Number 15 is a front view of the
spring 2, 2, an edge only of which is seen in Numbers 2, 3, and 4. By this
view of the spring Number 15 it is seen that by means of two slits its lower
extremity is divided into three parts; each of these three is itself a spring.
Number 17 gives an outer view of the bottom of the lock as if viewed from
beneath. Here is seen the space through which the bottom of the bolt moves in
Numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4; 2 is a slanting aperture, through which the cap of the
bolt Number 2 can be removed after the screw a, Number 2, is removed; m,
Number 17, is a projection that forms the rivet 3 in Number 1. Instead of
fastening the cap of the bolt by one screw and a dovetail, I sometimes make it
without a dovetail, and I secure it by two screws, one at a, Number 2, and
the other near its lower end, and passing into that part of the bolt which is
marked B, Number 1, and in this case the cheek has not the aperture 2,
Number 17. Number 12 is the tumbler C, which appears in Numbers 3 and 4.
Number 13 is another tumbler B, and Number 14 is a third tumbler A.
These three tumblers are of equal thickness, but their slits n are not similarly
situated, nor are their tails d of equal lengths. The slit of A is nearer to the
middle of the tumbler than that of B, and the slit of B is not so remote from
the middle as that of C. The tail of A is longer than that of B, and the tail

page_text: of B is not so short as that of C. These three tumblers are placed on the
pivot a, Number 3, which pivot passes through their holes 4, seen in Numbers
12, 13, and 14. The tails of the three are concealed from view by the steel
fence C in Number 2. The three tumblers being on their pivot are acted on
by the spring 2, 2, Number 3, or rather each of them is acted on by one of the
three tails which the extremity of 2, 2, forms. The tumblers A and B are
concealed from view in Numbers 3 and 4 by the tumbler C, which is the
uppermost one. The tumbler A occupies the position nearest to the main plate
on the pivot a, Number 3, and is so placed as that its slit is, after the operation
of locking has been performed, immediately under the blade 7 of the bolt B, B,
Number 3; but the slit of the tumbler B is not then immediately under this
blade; to be so it must be moved towards the spring 2, 2, neither is the slit of
the tumbler C then under the blade, as appears by Number 3. The edges
of the three tumblers, when on their pivot, and when the operation of locking
has been performed, present an even smooth surface, perpendicular to the main
plate of the lock for the key to act on in its progress through the lock. In
order to perform the operation of unlocking, the key must be so constructed
that it may not disturb the tumbler A in the least, as that it may move the'
umbler B towards the spring 2, 2, Number 3, and as that it may move the
tumbler C through a greater space towards the spring. When the key has
moved B and C their respective distances, then continuing to turn (but not
moving B nor C further), a part of it enters into the space s, Numbers 2, 8, and 9,
and the bolt having now nothing to oppose it, descends, and the operation of
unlocking is performed. Number 23 represents the key in shape and size of
this lock. On the nose, as it is termed, of this key are projections. This key
performs the operations of locking and unlocking, because the projections on
its nose are adapted to the tumblers that have been described. The shortest
projection on the nose of the key is so short as that it cannot in the key's
progress through the lock move the tumbler A in the least. The middle
projection of the key is just long enough to move the tumbler B its proper
distance, and the longest projection of the key is just long enough to move
the tumbler C its proper distance. Number 24 represents the end of this
key. The three tumblers that have been described form the great and peculiar
protection of this lock. Their positions on their pivot admit of six variations.
Instead of placing them on their pivot in the order that has been mentioned,
namely, in the order C, B, A, the maker of the lock might place them in the
order C, A, B, in the order B, A, C, in the order B, C, A, in the order A, B, C,
or in the order A, C, B, and according to the permutation which he might
choose, he would vary the positions of the projections on the nose of the key.

page_text: For instance, should the permutation A, B, C, be employed, then the longest
projection of the key should occupy the place whence issues in Number 23
the shortest projection, and the shortest projection should be where the longest
one is seen in Number 23. As one of the three tumblers is never to be
stirred by the key, two projections on the key would suffice. The third or
shortest projection in Number 23 might be dispensed with. For greater
security, I sometimes place four or more tumblers within the bolt, all on a
common pivot, and each having a slit in a different situation; according to the
greater or less number of tumblers, the key must have a greater or less number
of projections, and these projections, each of a length different from the length
of every other of them, must be longer or shorter, as the spaces through which
the tumblers are to move, in order that the operation of unlocking may
performed, are greater or less. The number of projections may be always
fewer by one than the number of tumblers.
However numerous may be
the tumblers in my lock, I never have more than one of them like tumbler A
in the lock here described, which tumbler A is never to be moved. Each
tumbler yields to a moderate pressure, and may be moved by such pressure far
beyond its limit. This is an important peculiarity in this lock. On removing
the pressure it regains its former position. For greater security I sometimes
make the steel fence C, Number 2, extend round as far as the bolt B. Three
tumblers admit, as has been shown, of six permutations, four would admit of
twenty-four, five of one hundred and twenty, six of seven hundred and twenty,
seven of five thousand and forty, and eight tumblers would admit of forty
thousand three hundred and twenty permutations. The maker, therefore, has
it in his power to increase the means of security to any extent at pleasure.
But four tumblers, though admitting of only twenty-four permutations, are, in
my opinion, sufficient to defeat every attempt at violation. The person making
the attempt must, in order to succeed, first construct a false instrument that
will
I pass the wards of the lock, then he must ascertain the number of tumblers,
whose edges present, it will be recollected, an even smooth surface to the false
instrument; next he must find out of the twenty-four permutations (which
four tumblers admit) the particular permutation employed. But all this will
not suffice. He must further ascertain the precise distance to which each of
the three tumblers intended to be stirred is to be moved. If any one of those
three be move more by a hair's breadth or be moved less by a hair's breadth
than its right distance, or should the fourth tumbler be moved at all, even a
hair's breadth, he cannot succeed. Besides, those discoveries are to be made
at a spot which he cannot see, which is much confined, and between which and
the key-hole are several impediments By hair's breadth I mean a space so

page_text: small as not to be measured by the eye.
No key made by me will open any
lock made by me except its own lock. Number 29 shews a few of the infinite
variety of shapes which my keys are capable of receiving. I purpose that to
each purchasor of a lock a Drawing of his key be given, so as that another
key may be made should the original one be lost. My lock, in its simplest
form, is such as I have described it, and in this form I have to observe the
tumblers may be made without tails. This lock, as I have described it, though
simple as a common spring tumbler lock, I hesitate not to offer to the publick
as superior to every other heretofore invented. It is inviolable.
Part the second: An attempt to violate this lock must be detected. For
this purpose I employ the following means:-The fence C, Number 2, conceals
from view the tails of the tumblers A, B, C. The same fence prevents their
being seen in Numbers 3 and 4, but they appear in Number 33, or rather the
tail of C here appears, for under this lie the tails of B and A. The ends d of
the three tails come close to a smaller and thin plate of metal, which I call
the prop I, Number 33. The outer edges of the tails touch the check 4, 5.
Number 19 represents this prop more fully. It has two pivots 3 and 2, and
part of it C is lower than another part of it, I. In Number 33 the edge of
this prop is seen at I; its pivot 2 turns in a piece of metal 's, s, which is
rivetted to the main plate of the lock, and its pivot 3 turns in the cheek 5, 4, 5,
of the lock; on its step or lower part, C, Number 19, presses the spring a, b,
Number 33. By means of this step of the prop, the end a of the spring a, b, is
removed from the main plate of the lock. This spring is rivetted to the main
plate at its end b. The end 6 of this spring appears in Number 1. The cheek
is made with a space or cavity large enough to admit the spring a, b, to act; in
other words, the cheek does not interfere with it. The prop I, Number 33,
thought it turns on pivots, cannot turn towards the tails d of the tumblers further
than to be perpendicular to the main plate of the lock, but it can turn from
the tumblers so far as to lie flat against the main plate with its edge I removed
from the tumblers. To prevent the prop turning too far forward towards the
tumblers, the spring a, b, that presses on it has what I shall term a shoulder,
against which shoulder the prop rests. Number 20 represents this spring with
its shoulder n. Number 33 is the lower termination of what I shall call the
detecting bar, the only support for which is the spring a, b. In Number 2 the
whole of this detecting bar is seen. It is there marked with the letters n, m, n,
and it moves in a piece of metal a, rivitted to the main plate of the lock; a
portion of the upper part of the detecting bar is larger than the rest of it, in
order to prevent its passing down too far through a, and likewise to prevent its
rising too high. Its upper end is, except when violation is attempted, on a lino

page_text: and even with the upper surface of the lapped part of the main plate of the lock,
which lapped part is represented in Number 16. In Number 16 w, marks the
spot occupied (except when there is an attempt to violate) by the upper end of
the detecting bar. In Number 16, the end of the detecting bar is not to be seen,
but only its place. An attempt at violation is to be supposed to have occurred,
and such an attempt would cause the detecting bar to fall, as shall presently
appear, as far as x, Number 2, would permit it. If the prop I, Number 33,
should be pushed or stirred by the tails d of the tumblers, or by any one or more
of them, it must turn so as to lie flat against the main plate of the lock. The
spring a, b, must press upon, that is, lie flat upon the prop, and the detecting
bar, losing its only support, must fall down. The lock being screwed to the
front of a drawer, the detecting bar is perpendicular to the plane of the horizon,
and therefore, losing its support, it must fall. It was mentioned in Part the First
that the tail of the tumblers A, B, C, were of different lengths; they are so
placed, and the prop I, Number 33, is so placed as that if the tail of tumbler A.
should move in the least, if the tail of tumbler B should move in the slightest
degree beyond the space, through would it would be moved by the action of the
legitimate key; or if the tail of tumbler C should at all exceed the bound to
which it would be moved by the operation of unlocking, in any one or more
of those three cases, the prop would be pressed upwards, the spring a, b, would
press it so as to make it lie closely to the main plate of the lock, and the
detecting bar, wanting the support of the spring which would have followed the
prop, would fall, leaving to the view of the proprietor of the lock, when he
should next open his drawer, a hole in the upper part of the lock, as in
Number 16, which hole, had there been no attempt at violation, would be filled
to its upper edge with the detecting bar. The key in performing the operation
of unlocking sends the ends of the tails of the tumblers B and C as far as the
end of the tail of the tumbler A (which at all times is to be stationary), so
that in this operation all the tails are within a hair's breadth of the prop I,
Number 33, but in this operation none of these tails can touch it. A false key
that should stir the tumbler A in the least, or should move B a hair's breadth
more than its due distance, or C a hair's breadth more than its proper path,
would cause the prop to be touched, and therefore would move the prop so
as to make it lie closely to the main plate of the lock, and with the prop the
spring a, b, which would lie flat upon the prop. The detecting bar would then
fall, having no support, and thus an attempt to violate would be indicated.
Number 18 gives a side view of this spring, the prop, and the detecting bar;
1, 2, is the spring; s is the prop; and n, m, is the detecting bar which moves
through . A portion is visible of the lapped part of the plate of the lock,

page_text: through which lapped part the detecting bar n, n, moves. To obtain a purchase
(to use a technical term) on the prop, I sometimes make a little chamber in
the main plate of the lock, and in this chamber I cause the prop to turn on its
pivots, in order that the pivots may be further removed from the ends of the
tails of the tumblers than the pivots are according to the annexed Drawing.
I sometimes give to the end of the tail of each tumbler the shape represented
in Number 34. When I make the ends of the tails of the tumblers of this
shape, I place nearly on a line with the prop, and between it and the rim of the
steel fence C, which fence is seen in Numbers 2, 3, and 4, a small thin plate of
metal, which I shall call a lever, Number 35, it is bent so as to be at right
angles at 5, 6; at 5 it has a pivot which plays in s, s, Number 33, and at six
it has a pivot which plays in the steel fence. This lever is so placed as that
the end of the branch 2, Number 34 of the tumbler comès closely to its lower
part 9, Number 35, which part 9 is perpendicular to the main plate of the
lock. The end 7 of this lever is behind the lower end of the detecting bar.
When this addition to the detecting apparatus is employed, the détecting bar is
made so as that a small portion of its lower end rests on the prop, which cannot
be made to lie flat against the main plate unless it be disengaged from this
small portion (of the detecting bar) that rests on it. When I employ this
addition to the detecting apparatus, I attach to the lower end of the detecting
bar a weak spring that presses gently against or rather touches the inside of
the cap of the lock. When this addition to the detecting apparatus is adopted,
the detecting bar cannot descend unless each of two things happen, that is,
unless the prop be pressed upwards by one or more of the tumblers' tails, and
unless the lower end of the detecting bar be moved so near to the cap of
the lock as that its lower end will be disengaged from the prop. If
these two things should happen simultaneously, the detecting bar will
fall and not otherwise. But they will happen simultaneously, or not at all,
because, should a tumbler press the prop by its termination 1, Number 34, it
must of necessity by its branch 2, Number 34, move the part 9, of the
lever 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, Number 35, and the part 9 of the lever being thus pressed,
its other part 7, 8, will be removed further from the main plate of the lock,
inasmuch as the lever turns on the pivot 5, 6, which pivot is parallel to the
main plate, and also horizontal. If 7, 8, be thus removed, the detecting bar
will by it be removed from its rest on the prop. If the tail of any one of the
tumblers should the
press
the lever at the same time must remove the
lower end of the detecting bar from its rest on the prop by placing it nearer to
the
cap of the lock. The detecting bar cannot fall unless the spring a, b,
Number 33, be removed; the spring a, b, cannot be removed unless the prop
prop,

page_text: on which it rests be removed, and the prop cannot be removed unless the
detecting bar be removed. Now, all this is done by the slightest impulse of
any one of the tails of the tumblers, but the legitimate key cannot produce such
an impulse-a false key will.
In order to facilitate the re-adjustment of the detecting apparatus after an
attempt to violate, I sometimes make a part of the main plate of the lock
moveable up and down in grooves, which moveable part when withdrawn
brings with it the detecting bar, the prop, and the lever, if there be a lever.
This moveable part is kept steady by a bolt, like that represented in Number 21,
and like the bolt in Number 21, this bolt is on the outer part of the main plate
of the lock. The simplicity of the lock is not affected by this apparatus for
betraying clandestine efforts to open it, the operations of locking and unlocking
being quite independent of such apparatus, and therefore the lock may be
considered to be independent of it. Number 30 represents in shape and size
a padlock made on the foregoing principles. The dotted line 2, 4, is that part
which by turning on a pivot at 2 can be made to embrace part of the thing to
be fastened, and which part so turning is technically termed the shekel. The
dotted part 4 goes into the body of the lock at an opening at 3, and there is
a hole at 4 to receive the bolt of the lock when the part 4 is introduced into
the lock; the Drawing likewise represents the shekel as it would appear when the
lock was locked. 1 is the key-hole. Number 31 is another view of this padlock.
An attempt at violation causes a bar to descend, which is not here visible.
If this bar should lose the support of a spring and a prop within the padlock,
and which spring and prop resemble a, b, and 1, Number 33, it (that is, the
letecting bar,) falls into the lock as far as 5, leaving visible a hole. (which,
were there no attempt at violation, would not be) in a part of the lock under
the shekel and near to the pivot 3; an attempt to violate this padlock will
therefore be discovered. The indication of an attempt to violate this lock
when securing a cupboard or a gate (in which situations the bolt moves
horizontally) is produced by the bar n, m, n, Number 2, falling not per-
pendicularly, but obliquely into the lock, leaving visible a cavity in that part
of the lock which is level with the edge of the door or gate, and which cavity
can never appear unless violation be attempted.
Part the third This lock is as little violable by the maker of it as by any
other person. To this end I make certain parts of the lock and of the key
moveable. Number 21 represents the outside of the main plate of the lock.
A, A, A, A, are the holes through which it is fastened on the drawer. 2, 2, 2, is
a bolt, on withdrawing which a part a, a, a, may be withdrawn. An inner
view of this moveable part, is given in Number 6. Number 22 is a view of

page_text: the inside of this moveable part without bolt or tumbler. Along with this
moveable part, Number 6, there are removed the bolt B, B, the spring 2, 2, and
the tumblers on their common pivot 4. The tails d only of the tumblers can
be seen here; Number 7 is another view of the inside of this moveable part,
and in this view the cap of the bolt being removed, the whole of tumbler C
appears. No. 6 represents the bolt as it would appear after the operation of
locking; Number 7, as it would appear before the operation of unlocking.
In Number 16, 2, 2, represents the upper part of this moveable piece. This
moveable piece fits nicely in rabbets in the main plate of the lock, and by
means of these rabbets and the bolt 2, 2, 2, Number 21, it is as firm as any
other part of the lock. The moveable part being withdrawn, and the cap being
removed from the bolt, the tumblers can be taken off from their pivot 4,
Number 7, and shifted into new variations of positions. To prevent the action
of the spring 2, 2, while shifting the tumblers, there is a small hole in the main
plate of the lock, into which hole a pin being inserted, the spring is restrained
from its action, and thus the tumblers may without difficulty be removed and
shifted. That part of the pivot 4, Number 7, on which the three tumblers turn
is divided into three portions marked 1, 2, 3. The portion nearest to the
main plate of the lock is marked with 1, and the portion furthest from the
main plate with 3. The middle portion is marked with 2. A permutation
being chosen for the tumblers and they placed accordingly, the cap of the bolt
being restored so as to make the inside of the moveable part resemble
Number 6, and the moveable part being put in its place and secured by the
bolt 2, 2, 2, Number 21, the key is to be adapted to the chosen change.
Number 25 is.a view of the key, fit for a choice of permutations of tumblers;
B, C, are projections on its nose, and on the side of its bit are the
figurers 1, 2, 3. Number 26 is a view of the end of this key; 2 is a dovetail.
Those parts of the bit which are not occupied by the projections C, B, are the
parts of the key which touch and act on the plate, and the cap of the bolt in
the operations of locking and unlocking. The part of the bit next to the
projection C acts in the plate of the bolt, and the part of the bit next B.acts
on the cap of the bolt. The projections B, C, on the key, Number 25, are
moveable. Number 27 is a view of the projection C. of Number 25. This
projection, as well as the projection B, has a dovetail which falls into the
dovetail 2 of Number 26. Number 28 is a side view of this projection C.
The dovetail in the nose of the key extends no further than where the
projection C is placed in Number 25. The projections B, C, on the key,
Number 25, can be removed from the key or put upon it at pleasure, and
their positions on the nose of the key can be always varied. At present the

page_text: projection C occupies the position 3 of the key, because the tumbler C
occupies the position 3 on the pivot in the lock, and the projection B of the
key occupies the position 2 of the key, because the tumbler B occupies the
position 2 on the pivot. There is no projection from the position 1 of
the key, Number 25, because the tumbler A, which occupies the position 1 of
the pivot, is not to be stirred at all, and any projection on the position 1 of the
key would have the effect of stirring the tumbler A. When the projections are
placed in their proper stations on the key, they are secured by a screw, the
head of which appears in Number 25. Theso moveable projections of the
key are as steady and as strong as any other part of the key. Thus the
key and the lock, however numerous the projections and tumblers, can always
be varied and always be made to correspond, by adopting a new permutation
of projections on the key and a corresponding permutation of tumblers. This
lock is not violable by its maker. Number 31 represents a padlock made on
these principles. The part 1, when the padlock is unlocked, when the bolt
is withdrawn, and when a screw that appears in Number 31 is removed, can
be turned on a hinge at 6, and being turned over so far as that 2 reaches 7,
any desired permutation of tumblers may be made; they, and their spring, and
the bolt of the lock being fastened to, and turning out with, the part 1. The
part 1 being restored to its place, in which place it is kept fast by a screw
and the bolt a, its end 2 presents a hole for the part of the padlock to
enter into when the operation of locking is to be performed, and thus not only
is the padlock locked, but the part 1 is by the same operation likewise locked,
the bolt of the padlock passing through 4, and also through the end 2 of the
moveable part 1. Number 32 gives a side view of this padlock.
Part the fourth: The thing to be secured by a lock is often so ill finished
or so ill constructed as that the bolt securing it is accessible to a file or a saw
or to a corrosive substance. To guard against these dangers, I sometimes
make my bolt of steel, and insert into it one or more pieces of flint (enveloped
with a thin coating of lead to resist fluoric acid), or I insert into it one or
more pieces of Mr Wedgwoods porcelain, such as that of which mortars and
pestles are made.
Part the fifth: In order further to deter from any.attempt at violation of
this lock, I sometimes construct it so as that such an attempt must produce an
alarming noise; this is effected by the action of the spring a, b, Number 33, when
it is disengaged, which can only happen on an attempt to violate. The noise is
made by a rattle, a clapper, a plate of metal striking a flat board, a bell, or by
condensed air (within a tube) bursting a leather cover of this tube, which

page_text: cover is protected from such disruption by a metal cap, but only so protected
until the action of the spring a, b, Number 33, may happen to remove this
cap. Here I shall observe, that according to the principles already explained,
an attempt to violate this lock will always afford a moving power by which
many objects may be effected.
Part the sixth I sometimes construct this lock so as that an attempt to
violate it causes to be exhibited an indication that such an attempt was made
to every person who may chance to look at the thing secured, as, for example, a
drawer. This is effected by the disengagement of the spring a, b, Number 33,
letting fall a bar within the lock, the end of which bar is, until an attempt to
violate be made, on a level with the outer surface of the front of the drawer,
but falling, a cavity appears in the front of the drawer.
Part the seventh: I sometimes construct this lock so as that where local
situation does not forbid, the person making the attempt will, without
sustaining personal injury, be caught and detained; the means by which this
is effected I think it better not to publish.
:
Part the eighth I sometimes construct this lock so as that an attempt to
violate it must cause the false instrument used in the attempt to be detained.
When this effect is produced, the lock becomes unopenable by any means, even
by its legitimate key, and recourse must be had to the sledge, the saw, or the
chisel. Such being its character, an attempt to violate this lock will seldom be
made, but this effect will not be produced till after a continued, dexterous, and
determined effect at violation. If inviolability is the first object in the formation
of a lock, the more serious, the more terrible the consequences of an attempt
to violate it are made, the better. I produce this effect thus: When the spring
a, b, Number 33, is disengaged by an attempt at violation, it releases a spring
that throws out of the main plate of the lock a piece of steel into the lock,
which piece of steel, when thrown out, occupies the space through which only
the false instrument employed to violate could return to the key-hole.
Part the ninth I sometimes construct the key for this lock so as that if
lost or carelessly kept, a person finding or procuring it shall not be able to
perform the operation of unlocking. This object is attained thus: In some
spot of the nose of the key, from which should issue no projection, I insert a
mock projection so contrived as to be removeable in a moment and without
trouble.
Part the tenth I sometimes construct this lock and its key in such a
manner as to obviate the danger which might arise from the key being
negligently left in the key-hole after the operation of locking. This end is

page_text: attained by having within the pipe of the key a spike, one end of which passes out
into the handle (or as it is technically termed, the bow of the key. The spike
of the lock which enters into the pipe of the key is, when the lock is to be
opened, pressed by the spike in the pipe of the key a certain distance, known
to the proprietor of the lock, and which distance is indicated to him by a weak
spring on the spike in the pipe pressing into a notch in the shank of the key.
In performing the operation of unlocking, the end of the spike which enters
the bow is to be pressed by the finger until the weak spring enters the notch.
The pressure continued further would hinder the operation of unlocking. With
the spike of the lock is connected a bar, at the end of which is a projection.
In order to permit the key to reach the bolt, the projection at the end of this
bar must be sunk within the main plate of the lock. This is only to be effected
by pressing the spike in the key to its proper distance. To do this, a knack
acquirable by some practice is requisite. Should the spike of the lock be
pressed too much, it would throw out of the main plate an impediment to the
progress of the key.
Conclusion: All the properties described in the second, fifth, sixth, seventh,
and eighth parts of this Specification depend on mechanism which adds no
complexity to the lock, properly so called, every part of this mechanism being
dormant unless brought into action by an attempt at violation. It may be
proper, however, to state that the locks which I employ for my own use have no
properties and no parts save those described in the first, second, third, and
fourth parts of this Specification; I have contrived means to produce the effects
and to yield the properties described in the other six parts in order to gratify
as great a variety of tastes as possible. A.purchasor can obtain a lock large
or small for the fastening of anything which may be fastened by a lock simply
as it is described in Part the First, or he can procure one possessing further the
properties described in the other nine parts, or in any one or more of those
nine parts. This lock deters from attempts at violation; it not only secures
property, but it prevents crimes; it merits therefore perhaps some attention.
I have presumed to call it the Inviolable Perfect Lock.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Ruxton, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of June, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixteen.
BHAMAS
DIYTON

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Twenty-eighth day of
June, in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Thomas Ruxton, by the said
John Wyatt, his Attorney, came before our Lord the King in His Chancery,
and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein
contained, in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was
stamped according to the tenor of the Statute in that case made and provided.
Inrolled the same Twenty-eighth day of June, in the year above written.