IMPROVEMENTS IN LOCKS AND KEYS
Year: 1861

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Ferdinand Hirschfeld at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 24th July
1861. A communication from abroad by Jean Baptiste Haffner and
Jean Pierre Haffner, of Paris, in the Empire of France, Manufacturers.
I, FERDINAND HIRSCHFELD, of the Firm of Hirschfeld, Peraire, and Com-
pany, of 24, Cannon Street, West, in the City of London, Leather Cloth
Manufacturers and Importers of Foreign Goods, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN LOCKS AND KEYS," a communication
to me from abroad by Jean Baptiste Haffner and Jean Pierre Haffner, of
Paris, in the Empire of France, Manufactures, to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to certain peculiar constructions and arrangements of
safety locks and keys, and consists, according to one arrangement, in the employ-
ment of a key having no "bit," but provided, in lieu thereof, with one or more
circular projecting rings or collars of different diameters formed upon the stem
or shank near the end thereof, whilst the extreme end of the key is provided
with a square or other suitably-shaped projection intended to fit into a corre-
sponding hole in a guard plate in the lock and to turn the same partly round.
The rings or collars act upon corresponding moveable notched plates or tum-
blers, two of which, when three are used, are hinged to a lifting plate, which
is raised by the action of the guard plate before referred to, whilst the third
moveable plate or tumbler is situate between the other two, and is hinged or
pivotted to the main lock plate. This third tumbler carries a projection
which, when the lock is ready to open, coincides with and enters the notches
in the edge of the two other tumblers, which are pressed by springs against

page_text: the rings on the key. It is thus evident that if these rings be not respectively
exactly of the proper diameter the lock cannot be opened. The main bolt is
acted upon by pins in the guard plate, and also operates the spring bolt through
the intervention of a bell-crank lever carried by the main bolt itself.
According to another arrangement of safety lock and key, suitable either for
small articles or for large safes, and which are constructed somewhat after the
principle of the Bramah lock and key. The key itself is provided with a small
"bit," and is formed with a series of slits of different depths in the end of the
stem, and in the centre of these slits there is a hole or bore extending some
distance down the stem from the end thereof. In the barrel of the lock there
are two safety plates, one at or near the top, and the other at or near the
bottom thereof; and round the barrel are arranged a number of rods or spindles
held up by helical springs, so as to keep their upper ends in corresponding
holes in the upper safety plate. In the centre of the barrel there is a main
rod or spindle, provided at its lower end with a notched "bit," the width of the
notch corresponding-with-the-thickness-of-the-lower safety plate. The upper
end of this central rod or spindle enters the bore of the key, and it is depressed
on inserting the key by coming against the end of the bore in the key, such
depression bringing the notch of the "bit" thereon into a position coinciding
with the edge of the safety plate. During the insertion of the key the ends of
its several slits push forward the several small rods or spindles through the
intervention of "bits" or projections formed thereon, which "bits" or projec-
tions enter the slits in the key. This forward movement of the several rods
or spindles releases them from the holes in the top safety plate, and when the
key is rotated the "bit" formed upon it turns the barrel, and the "bit"
the main or central rod or spindle gives motion to the mechanism which shoots
back the bolts. In locks for large safes the central rod or spindle is dispensed
with, and a rod having a "bit" formed upon it is fixed to the lower part of
the barrel.