CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN LOCKS
Year: 1817

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
MONTAGUE HIGGINSON, of Bovey Tracey, Chudleigh, in the County of Devon,
Lieutenant in the Navy, 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 First day of February, in the fifty-seventh year of His reign,
did give and grant unto me, the said George Montague Higginson, my exors,
adiñors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said George Montague Higginson, my exors, adñiors,
and assigns, during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN LOCKS;"
in which Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said
George Montague Higginson, under my hand and seal, to cause a par-
ticular 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 inmediately 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
George Montague Higginson, do hereby declare that the nature of my
said

page_text: Invention is described by the annexed Drawings and the description as follows
(that is to say):
My improvements in the construction of locks of various sorts applicable to
fastenings, consist in the adoption of a cylindrical roller in particular and novel
manner attached, so as to prevent the introduction of picklocks for opening
the works, and is described by the accompanying Drawings and following
description :-
Figure 1 represents the interior of the works of a lock, differing little if any
from those of common construction.
Figure 2 is the cap plate for covering the works as usual.
Figure 3 is a representation of the external part of a cylinder box to be
attached to or upon the cap plate, as seen by the dotted lines, Figure 2, the
keyhole of the box being reversed to that of the cap plate.
Figure 4 is a roller to be placed within the cylindrical box, with a slight
spring only for the purpose of tightening it within the box. The object of
this roller which revolves (by turning the key) is to cover the keyhole from
the introduction of a picklock; for when the key is out of the lock this roller
prevents all communication with the heyhole, and consequently with the
interior, until by its revolution the aperture for the key to pass is brought
opposite to the keyhole of the cap plate.
Thus it is evident my apparatus is an additional security to locks of the
common construction, and does not so far alter the works of the interior or
deviate from the present arrangement of the interior of locks, but in the
adoption and action of the cylindrical roller to the purpose of preventing such
locks from being picked. Another mode which I adopt for the purpose of
preventing the possibility of picking the lock is described in Figure 5, and
consists, first, of a cylindrical piece (a) sliding upon the circular ward, and
closing or preventing all access to the works from the centre, having an
aperture for the introduction of the key, by which the cylindrical piece is
carried round, and upon withdrawing the key the aperture remains opposite to
the hole of the cap plate; or by the adoption of a revolving cross fitted to and
acting within the wards, so as to exclude all passage to the inner works repre-
sented at (a) Figure 6. To preclude the introduction of a picklock through
the outer channel of the wards I place a projecting piece marked (6), bearing
against the circular ward and supported by a spring lever to admit the passage
of the key. This piece (6), if attempted to be raised by a picklock or any other
force, would recede into the notch (c) and prevent the bolt from returning; or,
instead of attaching this projecting piece to a spring, it may be suspended as
(b) Figure 6, against which a spring acts for the same purpose as the former,