Improvements in Locks.
Year: 1890

page_text: 'Date of Application, 15th July, 1890-Accepted, 20th Sept., 1890
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Locks.
I, GEORGE FREDERICK REDFERN, of the firm of G. F. Redfern & Co., The General
Patent Office, No. 4, South Street, Finsbury, in the County of London, Patent
Agents, do hereby declare the nature of this invention (a communication from abroad
by Hugo Steinke, of 113, Gneisenaustrasse, Berlin, in the Empire of Germany, Lock
Manufacturer) and in what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
This invention relates to what are known as safety or patent springless tumbler
locks and is illustrated in the accompanying drawings.
Locks of this kind as hitherto constructed could not be successfully used for
street doors, room doors or the like because generally they could only be operated by
means of a key from one side of the door, and when attempts were made to adapt
them to such doors they were unsafe as it was necessary to employ a symmetrical
arrangement of tumblers and a key having a solid stem or to employ double the
number of tumblers. In the first case the safety is reduced by one half, for instance,
when using four tumblers, as illustrated in Figure 1 of the drawings, the upper
tumbler I farthest from the lock bolt a¹ must be made so that it can be properly
operated by the part of the bit of the key which is therefore nearly alike in all
locks.
The lift of the tumbler II must be the same as that of the tumbler IV otherwise it
would not be possible to operate the lock from both sides of the door.
The safety is therefore really limited to two variations in the tumblers, that is to
to the variations which can be made in the tumblers II IV and III.
say,
By doubling the number of tumblers in the lock, the latter will not only be more
expensive to produce but it will be thicker and will certainly be too thick to be
mortised in the door.
According to this invention the before mentioned defects are overcome by
lengthening and shaping the tumblers in such a manner that a barrel key can be used
to operate the lock from either side of the door.
The lock can be operated firstly, by means of a key and a tumbler lifter, as shewn in
Figures 2 to 7, or secondly, by means of a loose key and an undetachable key, as
shewn in Figures 8, 9 and 10, or thirdly, by means of a single loose key only, as
shewn in Figure 11.
Figure 2 is an elevation illustrating the first arrangement the covering plate of the
lock being removed and the parts being shewn in the position they occupy when the
door is locked.
Figure 3 is a vertical section on the line
of Figure 2.
Figure 4 is a similar view to Figure 2 but shewing the parts of the lock in the
position they occupy when the door is unlocked; and,
Figure 5 is an elevation of the key.
Figures 6 and 7 are elevations of the tumblers II and III of the lock.
Figures 8 and 9 are similar views to Figures 4 and 2 respectively but illustrating
the second arrangement.
Figure 10 is a section shewing the application of the undetachable key.
Figure 11 is a similar view to Figure 2 but illustrating the third arrangement.
The improvement in the new springless safety lock for in and out door-locks
consists, as previously stated, in the prolongation of the tumblers from the key-hole
downward, and in the peculiar form to which such tumblers are cut whereby the
tumblers can be brought into the right position for locking or unlocking, this being
effected either indirectly by providing special parts therefor, as shewn in Figures 2
to 9, or directly by the key itself, as shown in Figure 11.

page_text: The lock illustrated in Figures 2 to 7 is operated by means of a barrel-key and a
tumbler-lifter operated by a knob and having a bit formed similarly to the bit of
the key.
To
To open a door, provided with a lock of this kind, from the outside it is only
necessary to introduce the key into the lock and to unlock in the usual manner.
open the door from the inside the key is introduced into the key-hole below the
tumblers and, by turning the key, a weighted stop or catch a engaged in the tumbler-
lifter A becomes disengaged, as shewn in Figure 4. The tumbler-lifter A, provided
with the bit b exactly like the bit of the key for actuating the tumblers I, II, III,
must then be pushed by means of its knob c towards the right hand when the bit b will
bring the tumblers into the proper position (indicated in Figure 4) to allow of the
lock being opened. It is then only necessary, in order to open the lock, to push back
the lock-bolt B by means of the knob d.
To prevent the lock-bolt B from being accidentally shot through slamming the door
it is necessary to bring the tumbler-lifter A back into its former position, shewn in
Figure 2, whereby the tumblers are moved downward, so that the stop pine of the
bolt B enters the slot f. To allow the door to be now locked from the inside
it is necessary first to disengage the catch a by means of the key and then
to push back the tumbler-lifter A towards the right band when the bolt B can be shot
after which the tumbler-lifter is brought towards the left hand. The door can now be
unlocked or locked from without by means of the key.
It may be mentioned that the spring latch bolt C, which is operated by means of a
knob from the inside in the usual way, is opened from the outside by means of the
key; for this purpose the latter after having unlocked the bolt B is turned still
farther to the right hand when by means of the lever D it will open the spring-
bolt.
In the arrangement shewn in Figures 8 to 10 the lock is operated by means of a
barrel-key from the outside and by means of an undetachable rotating key with a
similar bit from the inside, or in the place of the undetachable key a second similarly
made loose barrel key may be used.
In this arrangement the tumblers are elongated downward as hereinbefore described
and the rear end E of the lock bolt B is also extended downwards.
The locking and unlocking of the lock from the outside is effected in the usual
manner by means of a loose barrel key.
To operate the lock from the inside the rotating undetachable lever-key F (Figure 10)
is used. The bit of the key F is made exactly like the bit of the loose barrel key and
fits into precisely the same recesses 91, 9", 1 and 9 provided in the elongation of the
tumblers I, II, III, and in the extension E of the lock-bolt.
g
By turning the lever-key F the tumblers and the lock-bolt are actuated in exactly
the same manner from the inside as when using the barrel-key from the outside
with the exception that the barrel-key operates upon the upper openings h¹, h, h
and whereas the lever-key operates upon the lower recesses and openings g¹, gl, g¹¹¹
and g.
The lever-end of the key F is parallel with the bit and is formed and shaped in
such a manner that by its own weight it brings and keeps the bit of the key always in
a vertical position.
in the tumblers I,
By this means in conjunction with the slots k¹, k¹¹, k
II, III being made longer at their lower ends the tumblers can be lifted from
the outside.
Instead of the key F a second loose key having a bit of like construction can
be used.
The arrangement of lock shewn in Figure 11 adapted to be operated by means
of a single loose barrel-key is the same as that illustrated in Figures 8 to 10 with the
exception that the tumblers are arranged symmetrically as described in the opening
paragraphs of this specification, but for greater safety, a barrel-key is used the down-
ward extension of the tumblers which constitutes an essential part of this invention is
also necessary.

page_text: As a separate pin to receive the barrel or pipe of the key is used for each side of
he lock the key-holes cannot be placed opposite each other.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
ion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
laim is :-
In springless safety or patent locks the extension of the tumblers from the key-hole
ownward in combination with the peculiar shape to which the said extensions
f the tumblers are cut, so as to enable the tumblers to be actuated from both
ides of a door-
a) By means of a barrel-key and a tumbler-lifter as herein before described and
illustrated in Figures 2 to 7 of the accompanying drawings.
b) By means of a loose barrel-key from the outside and an undetachable rotating
key having a similar bit, from the inside as herein before described and illus-
trated in Figures 8 to 10 of the accompanying drawings, or with a second
similar loose barrel-key.
c) By means of a single loose barrel-key in combination with a downward
extension of the bolt having a suitable recess cut therein as herein before
described and illustrated in Figure 11, so as to enable it to be operated in the
manner described with reference to Figures 8 to 11.
Dated the 15th dow of Inl. 1990
G. F. REDFERN & Co.,
4, South Street, Finsbury, London, Agents for the Applicant.