“Another description of cylinder-lock was invented, a few years since, by a Mr. Yale of the State of New York, U.S.A.
“The Yale lock has two cylinders, one working within the other; and they are held together by a series of pins reaching through the cylinders into the key-hole, which is in the centre. On the back of the inner cylinder is a pin that fits into a slot in the bolt, and moves it as the cylinder is turned. The pins that hold the cylinders together and prevent the inner one from turning, are cut in two at different lengths. The key is so made, that by inserting it into the key-hole the pins are moved, so that the joint in the pins meets the joint between the cylinders, and allows the inner one to be turned. But, as with the slides of the Bramah lock, should any one of the pins be pushed too far, the cylinder is held quite as firmly as though it had not been touched. Some of these locks have been made with as many as forty pins; and to a person unacquainted with the principles on which locks are picked, they would seem to present an insurmountable barrier.
“Figure 1[11] represents the case of the lock containing the bolt A, having a groove B, to receive the pin C on the cylinder. Figure 2 shews the cap or top-plate of the lock, and the cylinders; D D is the outer cylinder, that is stationary, being fastened to the plate; E E the inner or moving cylinder; F F the four rows of pins, being cut in two at different lengths, and reaching through the cylinders into the key-hole; G G are the springs that press the pins to their places; C the pin that fits into the groove and moves the bolt. Figure 3 is an end view of the key, shewing four grooves. Figure 4 is a side view, shewing the irregular surface of the grooves by which the pins are adjusted.
[11] This and the following figures refer to the diagrams exhibited by Mr. Hobbs.
“For the purpose of picking the lock, an instrument is made that will fit between two of the pins; to that is attached a lever and weight, thereby getting a pressure on the cylinder and causing the pins to bind; then with another instrument the pins are felt, and as they are found to bind, they are pressed in until they are relieved (as they will be when the joint comes to the right place), thereby easily opening the lock. There is a great similarity in the operation and security of this and the lock manufactured by Mr. Cotterill of Birmingham.”
In the Society of Arts Journal for the 24th June, 1853, is a letter from Mr. Hobbs on the subject of the prize lock, which, it appears, he picked, “in the presence of parties connected with the Society, in the short space of three minutes.”
CHAPTER XI.
THE LOCK AND KEY MANUFACTURE.
The manufacture of locks and keys, considered as a department of working in iron, is one that requires, and indeed admits of, very little description. The hammer, the file, the drill, the fly-press, are the chief instruments employed; the iron itself being brought to something like the desired state and form by rolling or casting, or both. But the manufacture is interesting in its social features—in its relation to the persons employed and the buildings occupied. One by one, several departments of industry have progressed from the handicraft to the factory system—from that system in which a man and a few apprentices work in a small shop in the lockmaker’s garret or kitchen, to that in which organisation is maintained among twenty or fifty or a hundred men. Locks have scarcely yet passed out of the first stage, but there is no good reason whatever why they should so remain; there are as many reasons for progress in this as in other arts, and indications are not wanting that some such progress will be made.
So far as England is concerned, the neighbourhood of Wolverhampton is the great storehouse whence locks are obtained. Eminent lock-makers reside in London and in other principal towns; but Wolverhampton is regarded by all as the centre of the trade. This is not a modern localisation, for we have information respecting the locks of Wolverhampton a century and a quarter ago. Among the Harleian Manuscripts is an account of “The Voyage of Don Manuel Gonzales (late merchant), of the City of Lisbon in Portugal, to Great Britain: containing an Historical, Geographical, Topographical, Political, and Ecclesiastical Account of England and Scotland; with a Curious Collection of things particularly rare, both in Nature and Antiquity.” This Ms. appears to have been written about 1732; it was translated from the Portuguese, and printed in Pinkerton’s Collection of Voyages and Travels. With reference to Wolverhampton, Gonzales says: “The chief manufacturers of this town are locksmiths, who are reckoned the most expert of that trade in England. They are so curious in this art, that they can contrive a lock so that if a servant be sent into the closet with the master-key, or their own, it will shew how many times that servant hath gone in at any distance of time, and how many times the lock has been shot for a whole year; some of them being made to discover five hundred or a thousand times. We are informed also that a very fine lock was made in this town, sold for 20l., which had a set of chimes in it that would go at any hour the owner should think fit.” If Gonzales were correct in these descriptions, they indicate an exercise of considerable ingenuity in lock-construction, especially in reference to the lock which keeps a registry of the number of times it has been opened. There is abundant evidence that the old lock-makers were very fond of these knick-knack locks, which would do all sorts of strange and unexpected things; and this may in part account for the great favour in which locks have been held by amateur machinists.