Im- PROVEMENTS IN LOCKS AND KEYS
Year: 1871

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Henry Edward Hutchins at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
8th June 1871.
I, HENRY EDWARD HUTCHINS, of Great Grimsby, in the County of
Lincoln, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "Im-
PROVEMENTS IN LOCKS AND KEYS," to be as follows
--
My improvements in locks and keys are as follows:-The bolt of the
lock is retained in its back or unlocked position by a lever and spring,
the former being formed at one end with a rounded nose, which takes
into a shallow rounded indent in the lower edge of the bolt, just deep
enough to offer a moderate resistance to the key. When the bolt is in
its outer or locked position, the aforesaid nose at the end of the lever is
pressed into a slot in the bolt and retains it firmly there. The other
end of the lever is formed with a slot, wherein works a pin on a screw
catch or block, which can slide in the key tube without turning. The
latter has steadying pins fitting in the bottom plate of the lock, and is
formed with a set off or shoulder on which the top plate rests. The top
plate is fastened to the lock by rivetting, or in any other well-known

page_text: manner for such purpose. The bracket carrying the fulcrum pin of the
lever is wider between its jaws below the place of attachment for the
lever in order to admit a wide strong spring. The lever may have its
fulcrum at or at about the centre, or it may be on one side, or in any
other position, according to the description of lock to which it is applied;
thus for a thin lock the fulcrum might be on one side so as to give a
smaller travel to the key end of the lever than the other. The lever
may be either straight or cranked as found most convenient. The key
consists by preference of two parts, one part within the other part, or it
is as it were composed of two keys.
According to one arrangement the inner key has a screwed socket
which fits the screw on the before-named screw catch; its other end is
formed with an eye or crutch to take hold of. The outer key takes into
the wards, the key tube forming the innermost ward.
On inserting the double key to open the lock the inner key has first to
be turned one or more times (its screwed socket thereby raising the screw
catch, the pin on which works in the slot of the lever), thereby raising
the slot end of same, and lowering or depressing the other or nose end,
the nose being simultaneously withdrawn from the slot in the bolt,
which can now be freely drawn back by turning the outer key. The
inner key may be formed with a screw, and the screw catch with a
corresponding socket instead of vice versa, as before described.
Or, according to another arrangement instead of one key within the
other I use a key consisting of the key proper of usual construction, and
on the end of the key I make a slit or notch or a catch on the same.
The notch or catch on the key pipe fits over and on to a spring catch in
the inside tube. This tube is placed inside the other tube, and the
former jointed to the end of the lever, which serves to release and to
retain the block as before described, so that when the key is turned
round to a certain position it (the key) will then slip off the spring
catch, and the lever will spring back again to its former place.
According to another improvement I make an aperture or slot through
the block to admit the end of the lever, with sufficient space in the slot
to allow room for the lever in all its varying positions, and a corre-
sponding slot in the key tube.
And by another improvement I make the larger tube near the lever
end slanting at the top, and then I have a flat ring fixed round the tube;
and instead of the lever I place a tube inside the larger tube, with a

page_text: spring catch thereon; the same tube is joined on to the lever end. At
the end of the key there is a slit which extends a part of the way round
the end of the key, and fits over the spring catch; when the key is
turned partly round it raises the lever through the slanting collar, and
; when the key gets near the wards, it slips off the catch, and the lever
returns to its former position.