CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF LOCKS, KEYS, LATCHES, AND OTHER FASTENINGS, PART OF WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE APPLICABLE TO TAPS AND COCKS FOR DRAWING OFF FLUIDS
Year: 1841

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
HANCOCK, late of Sidney Square, Mile End, in the County of Middlesex, now
of Battersea, in the County of Surrey, Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Sixth day of May, in the fourth year of Her reign, did, for
Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said James
Hancock, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I,
the said James Hancock, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, and such others as
I, the said James Hancock, my exors, admors, or assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within that part of Her Majesty's United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, Her Dominion of
Wales, Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in all Her Majesty's Colonies
and Plantations abroad, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF LOCKS, KEYS, LATCHES, AND OTHER FASTENINGS, PART OF WHICH
IMPROVEMENTS ARE APPLICABLE TO TAPS AND COCKS FOR DRAWING OFF FLUIDS;" in
which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said James

page_text: Hancock, shall cause a particular. description of the nature of my said Inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in
Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next
and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent,
as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at
large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
James Hancock, do hereby declare that the nature of my said invented
improvements, and the manner in which the same are to be performed, are
fully set forth in the following Specification thereof, reference being had to
the several Drawings hereunto annexed, and numbered Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, and
5, that is to say:-
Figure 1 is a front view, and Figure 2 a side view, partly in section, of a
cabinet or drawer lock and key, embodying my said improvements in one of
their simplest forms of application. From the front plate a, a, of the lock
projects a round nosel or staple b, through the centre of which, from end to
end, runs a spiral channel, or which forms what may be called the keyhole.
The key K, k, consists of a single thread screw stripped from its axis or core
(similar to a corkscrew) which is made to correspond exactly with the spiral
channel by casting the one upon the other. On the key being inserted in the
keyhole, and turned round till the point of it reaches to the inner end of the
spiral channel, it there presses upon the heel c of the bolt d, and on being
further turned unlocks the bolt. On reversing the motion of the key, so as to
withdraw or unscrew it from the lock (a spring, not shewn in the Drawings)
throws up the bolt. The peculiarity by which the said lock and key are dis-
tinguishable from all others is, that the keyhole or entrance to the lock, and
the key, are of spiral forms, bearing one to the other the relation of male and
female screws, and that a key of any other thread than one corresponding
exactly with that of the keyhole will not obtain admission into the interior of
the lock. The point of the spiral or screw key, when once passed through
the spiral keyhole, forms a lever, by which the bolt of the lock may be acted
upon
in a variety of ways, and which may be effectually combined with any of
the known combination of wards, guards, tumblers, or other contrivances. For
the sake of greater safety, latches and other fastenings may have also my
improvements applied to them by the addition of keys and keyholes on the
same plan as these before described. The extent to which and the mode in
which these improvements may be applied to taps or cocks, are exemplified in
the sectional view, Figure 3. E, E, is the body of the tap, and f' a solid
plug or valve, by moving which, backward or forward, the orifice in the

page_text: passage of the tap for the escape of the fluid is opened or closed, the inner
end of this plug being of a conical form and kept in close contact with the
conical termination of the passage by a strong spiral spring 9. K, k, is a spiral
key, which takes into a corresponding worm in the centre of the plug f (but
only penetrating a short way into it) by turning which till its shoulder b abuts
on the face of the cock h, and then still continuing to turn the key in the
same direction as before, the plug is drawn back and the orifice L opened to
the escape of the fluid; by reversing the action of the key the tap is again
closed. Instead of the key being of the form of a male screw, and the key-
hole of the form of a female screw, as in the exemplification before given of
my said improvements, the key may consist of a cylinder or pipe with a male
screw cut on its external surface and made to fit exactly (by casting as before
directed, or otherwise) a female threaded keyhole, but for the better effecting
such a change in the relative forms of the key and keyholes, arrangements
should be adopted such as are represented in Figures 4 and 5, the former of
which is a longitudinal section, and the latter an end. view of a padlock, con-
structed according to this modification of my Invention. M, m, is the bolt of
the padlock, and N the hasp. At the inner end the bolt is of a solid square
form to fit into the hasp, but at the outer or keyhole end it terminates in a
hollow cylinder o, with a male screw thread inside, and a pin q projecting from
the body of the bolt parallel to the sides of the cylinder. k is the key, the
interior of the pipe of which fits on the projecting pin q of the padlock bolt,
while the exterior surface has a male screw thread made to correspond exactly
(in manner before described) with the female screw thread on the inside of
the cylindrical end (o) of the bolt. On introducing the key into the lock, and
turning it round till the shoulder of the key r, r, abuts on the face of the key-
hole, and then turning it still further round in the same direction as before,
the bolt is withdrawn from the hasp, the hollow cylindrical part (o) at the key-
hole end of the bolt, rising from the keyhole into the circular recess s, provided
for it round the pipe of the key in proportion as the bolt is withdrawn from the
hasp. On now turning the key in the opposite direction the bolt is returned into
the hasp, and in order the better to secure it in its locked position a strong spiral
spring t is coiled round the cylindrical end, o of the bolt, between the shoulder
w and the face of the keyhole. In the arrangement thus described, which I
recommend as particularly applicable to taps and cocks, as well as to padlocks,
the inale threaded or spiral screw key acts directly on the bolt, but such a key
may be equally well adapted to a cabinet or other lock, with wards, detents,
guards, tumblers, or other contrivances, by using the point of the screw as a
lever to put in motion the peculiar combination of locking and unlocking

page_text: means employed in each case. The spiral or screw keys and keyholes before
described are all single threaded, but they may also be double threaded, and
in either case they may be of any number of turns and the threads of any
degree of divergency deemed expedient.
And having now described my said Invention, and the manner in which the
same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim exclusive right to under
my said Letters Patent is, the employment for locks, latches, and other
fastenings, and also for taps and cocks of keys made of a spiral or screw form;
taking or working into keyholes of a corresponding spiral or screw form,
whether the said keys are of a male threaded screw form and the keyholes of
a female threaded screw form; or vice versa, and whether spirals or screws of a
single or a double thread are employed, and howsoever such spirals or screws
may be varied in the number of turns thereof or in the degree of divergancy
given to the threads, and whether also such keys are made to act directly on
the bolts, or other analagous parts of locks, latches, and other fastenings;
or through the medium of any combination of springs, levers, wards, tumblers,
or other similar contrivances.