THE YOUTH’S CABINET. 381

 

A Visit to the Locksmith’s.

 

BY THEODORE THINEER.

 

pon’r know but I am behind the

age, so far as mechanic arts and

manufactures are concerned. I think

so every time I go to the fair of the
American Institute. I had such a suspi-
cion, too, the other day, when, in accord-
ance with the invitation of a friend, I paid
a visit tw the factory of Messrs. Day and
Newell, the celebrated locksmiths that
you have heard so much about. I went
all over the establishment, and one of the
partners was kind enough to explain
everything to me that I could understand.
I must confess that, before this visit, I
had not the faintest idea of the perfection
to which the business of lock-making was
carried in our city. Nor had I any con-
ception of the peculiar feature in the most
approved locks of this establishment, in
which their excellence consists. Why,
reader, these manufacturers make a bank-
lock, called the “ parautoptic bank-lock,”
so adjusted, that you can change the
form of the whole inside of the lock, by
simply thrusting in the key, after an al-
teration in it, which can be made in less
than two minutes; and not only so, but
the lock, so changed, can then be opened
only by that key. This, even, is not all.
The key is so made, that you can trans-
pose the separate bits of which it is com-
posed in hundreds of thousands of differ-
ent ways; and you can change the form
of the whole interior of the lock every
time it receives the key with the bits so
transposed. Nobody can open the lock,
after the new alteration, except by the
very key that altered it, or by an exact
duplicate. Suppose, now, that a rogue

 

wants to get into a bank, which is pro-
vided with one of these locks, capable of
one million of alterations. He takes a key
of the general form of that which was
used in the lock. But as he does not
know, of course, what particular form the
key took, when it turned the bolt of the
lock, he must guess at it. Well, he may —

as well guess one form as any other. He
adjusts his key, thrusts it into the lock, and
tries to open it. Now, unless he has hit the
exact combination, he cannot open the lock ;
and he has only one chance in a million of
hitting the combination. One would sup-
pose such a lock was secure enough for
all practical purposes. But these enter-
prising men have made locks, where the
chances against the success of the bank-

‘robber are increased to an almost infi-

nite extent. [ saw a splendid lock, just
completed, which was intended as a pres-
ent to the Emperor of Russia. The com-

capable, if my memory is not faulty,
amount to upward of four hundred and
seventy-nine millions! You can easily
see, that the burglar who should attempt
to rob a. building, secured by one of these
locks, would stand a pretty poor chance
of getting in by means of the lock. One
man has the same chance of entering as
another—that is, he has practically no
chance at all. The lock is just as secure
against the manufacturer as against any-
body else.

tion of the time it would occupy to go
through with all the changes in the key
of the largest of the locks manufactured

binations of which the key in this lock is —

I have been making a bit of a calcula-

at ee a ee eS