Читать книгу Rudimentary Treatise on the Construction of Locks онлайн

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There are many allusions to locks, apparently belonging to the letter or puzzle principle, in authors who flourished two or three centuries ago. Thus, in Beaumont and Fletcher’s play of the Noble Gentleman, written in the early part of the seventeenth century, one of the characters speaks of

“A cap-case for your linen and your plate,

With a strange lock that opens with A·M·E·N.”

And in some verses by Carew, written about the same time, there is an analogy drawn, in which one of the things compared is—

“A lock

That goes with letters; for till every one be known,

The lock’s as fast as if you had found none.”

In the Memorabilia of Vanhagen von Ense, written about the middle of the seventeenth century, a commendatory notice is given of a letter-lock, or combination-lock, invented by M. Regnier, Director of the Musée d’Artillerie at Paris. “Regnier,” we are told, “was a man of some invention, and had taken out a patent for a sort of lock, which made some noise at the time. Every body praised his invention, and bought his locks. These consisted of broad steel rings, four, five, or eight deep, upon each of which the alphabet was engraved; these turned round on a cylinder of steel, and only separated when the letters forming a particular word were in a straight line with one another. The word was selected from among a thousand, and the choice was the secret of the purchaser. Any one not knowing the word might turn the ring round for years without succeeding in finding the right one. The workmanship was excellent, and Regnier was prouder of this than of the invention itself. The latter point might be contested. I had a vague recollection of having seen something of the sort before; but when I ventured to say so, my suspicions were treated with scorn and indignation, and I was not able to prove my assertion; but many years afterwards, when a book, which as a boy I had often diligently read, fell into my hands, Regnier’s lock was suddenly displayed. The book was called Silvestri a Petrasancta Symbola Heroica, printed at Amsterdam in 1682. There was an explanation at p. 254, attached to a picture; these were the words:—Honorius de Bellis, serulæ innexæ orbibus volubilibus ac literatis circumscripsit hoc lemma—Sorte aut labore.ssss1 However, neither luck nor labour would have done much more towards discovering the secret of opening Regnier’s locks, from the variety of their combinations; and their security seemed so great, that the couriers’ despatch-boxes were generally fastened with them.”