IMPROVEMENTS IN LOCKS AND KEYS
Year: 1854

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Reuben Button at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 9th December 1854.
I, REUBEN BUTTON, of Hackney, in the County of Middlesex, Upholsterer,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
LOCKS AND KEYS" to be as follows:--
My improvements consist, first, in so constructing locks that access to the
interior thereof is cut off to all except the proper key.
Second, in so constructing locks, that should access by possibility be gained
to the interior, none but the proper key can shoot the bolt.
Third, in constructing locks with an additional spring catch to the bolt.
And my improvements in keys consist in constructing the body thereof
in two parts, held together when out of the lock by a spring or springs.
The curtain, whereby access is gained to the lock by the proper key, consists
of a fixed ring, the outside of which is made excentric with the inside, for
which purpose it is formed of two parts, or of sufficient thickness to allow of
the excentricity being produced. In the centre of the inner ring is the pin,
for receiving the barrel of the key, and around this pin a solid disc works,
which communicates at bottom through a plate or false back to the lock with
the bolt, which it shoots after the tumblers have been acted on by the proper
key. A shield rises round the pin to the upper cover of the curtain, and is

page_text: just of the shape of the key. Round the excentric part of the ring is another
ring, free to move round it when propelled by the key; it is provided with
two jambs or uprights for receiving that part of the body of the key on which
the wards are cut. On this curtain is a moveable disc, which forms a cover,
with a hole cut in it large enough to admit the key. This opening corre-
sponds with that made by the shield, before alluded to, rising from the disc
which shoots the bolt, and that left between the two uprights in the travelling
ring; it extends further than the two uprights, to allow of the expansion of
the key when travelling round the excentric ring. This disc is notched out in
one or two parts, to receive one or two sets of guards, which are moveable
only by the proper key. The fixed ring in the curtain will always present itself
between the interior of the fixed ring and the uprights of the moveable ring,
and in order that a key may be made to act upon both, it is necessary that it
should be divided. For this purpose, the key is so constructed, that so long as
out of the lock the two parts of the body shall keep together, but on being
put into the lock, a spring or springs shall allow of one part of the key
travelling round inside, while the other part, that carrying the wards, travels
round the outside and excentric part of the ring; and when it reaches the part
of greatest excentricity, it lifts the tumblers, when the bolt disc, moved by the
inner part of the key, simultaneously shoots the bolt. An additional spring
catch fits into notches both at top and bottom of the bolt, and should any
attempt be made to force the bolt back, the springs force the catch into one
or other of these notches, and so hold it fast until liberated by the proper key.
My improvements in keys consist, as before named, in dividing the body
thereof in two parts, either connected when in the lock by a permanent spring,
or entirely disconnected when commencing to work, on being placed in the
lock, and again connected and held together by a spring catch or catches on
leaving the lock. To suit the latter key, some modifications are required in
the lock herein-before described, but the lock being substantially the same,
these modifications may be reserved for the final Specification.