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On the Construction of Locks and Keys by John Chubb
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34 CONSTRUCTION OF LOCKS AND KEYS,
Mr. OWEN said, there were one or two incidents connected with the early history of Mr. Chubb's lock which might be interesting.
A convict on board one of the prison-ships, at Portsmouth dockyard, who was by profession a lock-maker, and who had been employed in London in making and repairing locks for several years, and subsequently had been notorious for picking locks, asserted that he had picked, with ease, one of the best of Bramah's locks, and that he could pick Chubb's locks with equal facility. One of the latter was secured by the seals of the late Sir George Grey, the Commissioner, and some of the principal officers of the dock-yard, and given to the convict, together with files, and all the tools he stated to be necessary for preparing false instruments for the purpose ; as also blank keys to fit the pin of the lock, with a lock exactly the same in principle, so that he might examine it, and make himself master of its construction: promises of a reward of £100 from Mr. Chubb, and of a free pardon, were also made to him in the event of his succeess.
After trying for two, or three months, to pick the sealed lock, during which time, by his repeated efforts, he repeatedly overlifted the detector, which was as often undetected, or re-adjusted, for his subsequent trials, he gave up the attempt, saying that Chubb's were the most secure locks he had ever met with, and that it was impossible for any man to pick, or to open them, with false instruments. anvil fire . com
In order to compare the merits of Bramah's and of Chubb's locks, Mr. Owen had suggested a mechanical contrivance, which was applied to one of Bramah's six-spring keyed padlocks, belonging to the Excise. It was hung upon a nail, in a vertical position, secure from side oscillation; a self-acting apparatus was then applied, consisting of a pipe with hexagonal grooves, and a stud, or bit, corresponding with the divisions of the lock, and secured to it by a spring; in the grooves of this pipe, small slides were inserted, which pressed against the spring keys of the lock; to these slides were attached levers, acted upon by eccentrics, moved by a combination of wheels, whose teeth varied in number by one (or a hunting tooth) so as to perform the permutation required for the different depths of the spring keys, corresponding with those of the proper key to the lock ; when, by the automaton machine being set in motion from a weight and line over a barrel, and so left, the combinatiito was attained, which occupied from half an hour to three hours, according to the state of permutation, the position of the eccentrics were in, at the time of the introduction into' the lock, of the pipe, or false key, to which was attached a rod and weight at
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On the Construction of Locks and Keys by John Chubb