IMPROVEMENTS' IN AND IN THE MANUFACTURE OF LOCKS AND FASTENINGS, AND KEYS FOR THE SAME
Year: 1858

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Michael Henry at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 9th November
1858. A communication from Mr. Rebour.
I, MICHAEL HENRY, of 84, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent
Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS'
IN AND IN THE MANUFACTURE OF LOCKS AND FASTENINGS, AND KEYS FOR THE
SAME," communicated to me by Mr. Rebour, a foreigner residing abroad, to
be as follows:-
Many locks as at present constructed involve the use of springs, and a
number of insecure and expensive parts, and resembling each other in internal
arrangement may be opened by the same key, or even picked by a bent skewer;
from their size they necessitate the cutting away of a large portion of the
woodwork of a door, &c., (thus reducing its thickness), while they present
protruding angular projections liable to tear ones garments, &c.
Now, according to this Invention locks or fastenings are so constructed
that their volume may be greatly reduced by causing the key to act on an inter-
mediate piece moving in the curved recess of a piece or plate carrying the
bolt, so as to bring this piece forward or backward, in order to open or close'
the lock or fastening.
The various component parts are manufactured by mechanical means,
namely, by cutting, stamping, or punching out in a cold state, and are fitted'
and combined together by adjusting over them stationary or moveable plates
or caps of different thicknesses, formed of iron, copper, zinc, or other metal.

page_text: The "bits" or wards of the key turn the chambers (gorges) in which the
key works, instead of raising them.
Numerous modifications of cheap safety locks may be formed by combining in
various different ways a number of fixed and moveable parts made on the same
pattern. Fastenings may be so constructed that they cannot be opened by
hooks or bent skewers, but only by the proper key. The forms, dimensions,
and proportions of the keys are contrived according to the shape, arrangement,
and combination of the parts of the lock or fastenings. These constituent
parts being often separately similar, may be very variously combined when
fitted together, so that no one key will open two locks, nor can they be picked
by hooks, bent skewers, &c.
The following are additional more detailed particulars of the Invention :-
According to this Invention the bolts of locks and fastenings are attached
to or dependent on a moveable piece or carrier, by actuating which, as by rack
and pinion, or by an intermediate appliance, the bolt may be moved, propelled,
and withdrawn, and hence the lock or fastening opened or closed. A pin, stop
piece, bolt, or catch may be so fitted, that by moving it into one or other of
recesses or notches formed in the bolt carrier, the travel thereof may be regu-
lated, that is to say, the bolt carrier, and hence the bolt may be stopped in
either direction, and the lock or fastening prevented from being opened even
with the key, or doubled locked, &c.
More fully to exemplify the Invention, I proceed to describe one arrange-
ment on this improved principle.
The bolt may be in a piece with a sliding plate, having a space or recess
cut away from its area, in which travels a suitably shaped piece or appliance
which holds a spring (connected to the spindle pin or gudgeon), and on which
the key bit or ward acts, causing it to turn in the space, and bear against the
plate and thereby draw it back, and with it the bolt, and so open the lock or
fastening if not otherwise prevented; but notches may be formed at the top or
edge of the plate, and a pin or stop piece provided and caused to take into one
of these, and thereby stop the plate's backward motion, and prevent the lock
being opened even with the proper key or knob until the stop piece be
removed from such notch and allowed to drop into another, when bolt carrier
and bolt may easily be withdrawn, but prevented from being double locked,
Such an arrangement is exemplified in Figure 1, in which the bolt a is con-
nected to a plate b, having a space cut away at c, in which travels an appliance f
holding a spring fitted to the pin gudgeon or spindle e, on which piece facts
the bit g of the key h (either directly or through a washer under the spring
formed with a stud entering into f.) and which moves f until it reaches the

page_text: end of the rounded part when it draws the plate 6 and bolt a along with it,
provided the pin k be first removed by its handle 1 from a notch & (cut at the
top of the plate 6), as when there it prevents the bolt and carrier from being
withdrawn on dropping k into the notch d', the fastening may be opened
but not double locked. This lock cannot be forced were it attempted to push
back the bolt by any instrument, because the appliance fon on which the
carrier b abuts when in the position shewn would resist the backing of plate
and bolt.
Figure 2 is a modification in which a toothed wheel and rack are used.
Figure 2, another modification.
Of course I do not confine myself to these arrangements, which are merely
shewn as examples, for it is evident there may be various forms or modi-
fications constructed on the same principle of action. The forms of the keys
are contrived correspondingly to and are dependant on the peculiar shape and
arrangement of the pieces or parts on which they have to act (examples are
given in the Drawings). Padlocks may be so constructed as to render it
impossible to pick them, by fitting in the box a number of plates of different
thicknesses one above the other, so that a certain number of them may have
to be raised by the key in order to open the lock, the key being suitably
constructed for the purpose.