Patent ID: 6891458

Claim:
A lock, comprising: a housing bearing an interior recess containing a pair of axially aligned and spaced apart detents, said housing being positionable to control access by alternately assuming a locked state and an unlocked state; a mechanism removably intersertable within said recess, said mechanism comprising: a single annularly wound coil of insulated wire forming a circular cylinder surrounding a central axially oriented bore, said wire terminating in a single pair of leads with axially opposite base ends of said coil being perforated by said bore; a pair of armatures each exhibiting a distal end, said armatures being made of a material that is movably responsive to magnetic force, and being slidably positioned at axially opposite ends of said bore, in coaxially aligned axial opposition; and means coaxially aligned with said armatures, biasing both of said armatures to extend said distal ends axially outwardly beyond axially opposite base ends of said coil; said housing holding said mechanism with said bore being axially aligned between said detents, with said detents providing simultaneous engagement of different ones of said distal ends and maintaining said locked state; and said distal ends both withdrawing axially away from said engagement and towards said bore to place said lock in said unlocked state in response to application of a potential difference across said pair of leads.