Читать книгу Rudimentary Treatise on the Construction of Locks онлайн

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fig. 13. Exterior of an old secret lock.

fig. 14. The same, with a portion of the front let down, shewing the key-hole.

From the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries locks were made in France, on which a vast amount of care and expense was bestowed. They were, in an especial degree, decorative appendages as well as fastenings. They were of three kinds: room-locks, buffet-locks, and chest-locks; they were fixed on the outside of the door or lid, so as to be fully visible. The key had a multitude of perforations which bore no particular relation to the wards of the lock, but which were regarded as tests of the workman’s skill. The honorary distinctions awarded to apprentices and aspirants in the art depended very much on the number and fine execution of these perforated keys. The locks, considered as fastenings, had slender merit; although usually throwing four bolts, they were not very secure. Fig. 13 represents the exterior of a lock made about the year 1730, by Bridou, a celebrated Parisian locksmith. It was a lock belonging to a coffer or strong chest; all the works being sunk below the level of a carved architectural moulding or ornament. There is a secret opening near the part C, forming a portion of the ornamental design; it allows a bolt, shewn at D, fig. 14, acted on by the spring E, to be touched, by which a doorway opens upon the hinges at B B. A A are a sort of pilasters, which aid in forming a hold for the bolts. The little ornament at C is drawn down by the hand, opening the secret door and revealing the key-hole G. S S, O O, Z Z, are ornaments fastened on at b c d, fig. 14, by nuts and screws, intended to display the skill of the workman. The lock itself, access to the keyhole of which is obtained within the secret door, has nothing very remarkable about it.