WHEN it is known that cash and securities to the value of upwards of six millions are almost constantly kept in the strong-room of one only of the London banks, it will be understood that the safe custody of valuables is a subject of very great importance. Unfortunately it is a matter that has hitherto been greatly neglected by the general public and professional men; and the ignorance on the part of the majority of people as to what is real security, has given rise to this attempt to place a few facts together that will be of general use. The incidents relating to fires, burglaries, &c. are gathered from authentic sources, and from private records that have been compiled during many years.

Although before the last ten years there were but few persons who employed their skill to foil the increasing attempts of safe-breakers, the subject of locks had long been thoroughly considered. The great interest taken in the lock controversy at the time of the Exhibition of 1851 showed that there were many persons not indifferent to the efforts then made to improve the quality of locks; but it was not until the great burglary at Cornhill, in 1865, that safe-making was fairly investigated by the public. Sufficient proof of this is that in the sixty-four years preceding 1865 only twenty-eight patents for safes were registered, while in the nine years following there were no less than 122. Being myself engaged in the manufacture of locks and safes, I have, of course, some knowledge of their construction; and shall endeavour to state facts that apply to the work of every maker, and my opinions formed by practical acquaintance with this manufacture, and guided by others who have previously written on various branches of the subject.

Locks have, it is said, been in use for above four thousand years in Egypt; anciently these were mostly made of wood, and it is a remarkable thing that the locks that have been in use in the Faroe Islands for many centuries so closely resemble those found in Egyptian catacombs as to be scarcely distinguishable from them. More modern, but considered now to be old-fashioned, are the letter lock and warded lock; later still are the patent locks of Barron, Bramah, Chubb, and others. It is not necessary to describe the variations in all these; it may suffice to say that the most trustworthy are those with levers and tumblers, and protected in other ways from false keys and picks. One chief point of security consists in a lock being so unlike any other that no key but its own will open it; and a 3 in. Chubb’s drawer lock can have no less than 2,592,000 changes made in its combinations. Mr. Tildesley, in an article published in ‘Once a Week,’ mentions a lock which had a chime of bells connected with it in such a manner that no sooner was the skeleton-key of an intruder applied to the lock than the latter began to chime a plaintive air, such as—

A sentiment in which the housebreaker would doubtless concur as he took his precipitate flight.

It is obvious that locks are only secure so long as their keys are properly taken care of. This is of the utmost importance, for some keys can under favourable circumstances be made merely from a wax impression by a clever workman. Numbers of robberies take place through keys being left about, and to the lock is laid the fault which ought rather to be charged to the careless owner of the keys.

Some people expect perfect impossibilities, and imagine that, having obtained a secure lock, they have done all that is necessary. No lock whatever will guard against culpable negligence with regard to its key; or, as in the famous South-Eastern Railway bullion robbery, the treachery of supposed trustworthy servants. It will be remembered that the notorious lock-picker Agar said the robbery on this railway would be impossible unless copies of the keys could be taken. By the connivance of a guard named Tester this was accomplished, and yet the duplicate keys thus made were useless until Agar had travelled seven or eight times to Folkestone with the chests, altering the keys until they fitted.

Since 1851 many improvements have been made and adopted in Chubb’s locks, and more still have been tried and rejected, as interfering with their proper working. Complexity of action in any lock will sooner or later invariably prove fatal to its success. A lock is unlike a

watch or other delicate machine that is treated with a considerable amount of carefulness; it is subject to every day hard wear and usage. Absolute perfection is perhaps as unattainable in locks as in other matters; nevertheless the present is an age of progress, and a more perfect lock may perhaps be invented some day. Lock patents by scores have appeared within the last twenty-one years; some good, others indifferent or bad in principle, and many of them embracing as new ideas certain principles of construction long since exploded or laid aside. Of those practically defunct (and they are many), my opinion of them is that the ingenuity of the inventors has generally been allowed to over-run their perception of the before-mentioned fact, viz., that a lock is a very hardworked machine, and that in its construction simplicity is as necessary an element as security.

A good lock cannot have a key made to it unless another key is available to copy from or the lock itself can be broken open. Of this latter fact London burglars have not been slow to avail themselves, and they have tried it in the following manner. It should first be said, for those not acquainted with the mode of securing warehouse and office doors at night, where the buildings are left unoccupied, that such doors are usually fastened with a large rim or mortise lock of the ordinary kind. When this is locked from the outside a small flat bar, that is secured at one end to the door, is put across the keyhole to a staple thereon, fastened by a padlock. The advantage of this plan is that the inner lock cannot be touched, the keyhole being closed while the outer lock is secure; and this padlock being visible, the police in their rounds can tell by a glance under the light of the bull’s-eye whether or not it has been interfered with. But there is such a thing as forcing a padlock completely open, with proper appliances; and some clever burglar watching the policeman off his round past a warehouse in Watling Street, one night, wrenched the padlock off and supplied its place by a common one, the outside of which in the dark resembled the one previously on. He then took the patent lock away, got one side off, cut out all the works, so that anything like a key would at once open or close the bolt, fastened the side on as neatly as was possible, took it back to Watling Street again, and watching his opportunity took his own lock off and refixed the empty shell of the patent lock. The purpose in all this was that next night he might at once open the padlock, force the inner lock, and enter the place, while a confederate would doubtless

replace the padlock as if all were right. The success of the scheme depended chiefly upon the padlock or its substitute always being on when the police came round; but, fortunately for the owner of the premises, the attempt was frustrated by the mere chance of the patent lock (now without works and found next day to open rather stiffly) being brought to be examined, when the burglar’s attempt was at once discovered. Further revelations of this trick were made to the police by a convict who died while undergoing a long term of imprisonment, and after his disclosures no less than twenty-seven padlocks were found in use in the City the works of which had all been taken out, to await the thieves’ opportunity, and done in such a clever manner that only the closest inspection could detect it. Two of the locks served thus were on a jeweller’s door, which shows the importance of preventing this mode of robbery. Such a well-planned scheme required an improvement to be made in the padlocks, and there is now largely in use what is known as the ‘police padlock,’ a lock which when once forced asunder is so injured that it cannot be repaired without being entirely re-made, so that if one should be taken off its door by a thief it cannot be put back again.

This is but one of the numberless instances that require the attention and thought of the careful lockmaker; and the other instances that will be given show that with respect to safes it requires yet greater skill to foil the cunning of modern burglars.

The whole of Chubb’s locks are made by hand, and differ one from another. The difficulty is not to make them to differ, but when such are needed to make several alike, for a touch of the file will completely alter a lock.

It is so essential for good locks to be totally unlike each other that we continue to make by hand only, although the cost is in consequence high. Machinery would and does produce well-finished and serviceable locks, but the changes and combinations cannot vary as with hand-work. ‘So extensive are the combinations,[1] that it would be quite practicable to make locks for the doors of all the houses in London with a distinct and different key to each lock, and yet there should be one master-key to pass the whole. A most complete series was constructed some years ago for the Westminster Bridewell, consisting of 1,100 locks, forming one series, with master, sub-master, and warders’ keys.

‘At any time the Governor has the power of stopping out the under-keys; and in case of any surreptitious attempt being made to open a lock, and the detector being thrown, none of the under-keys will regulate it, but the Governor must be made acquainted with the circumstance, as he alone has the power, with his key, to replace the lock in its original state.

‘It need scarcely be stated, that Barron’s, Bramah’s, Chubb’s, and most other locks are adapted for all purposes, from the smallest cabinet to the largest prison-doors or strong-room.

‘As has been already stated, various and numerous patents have been taken out. Ingenious, however, as are some of the arrangements, they appear to have complicated, rather than simplified, the general construction.

‘It is submitted that the true principles of perfect security, strength, simplicity, and durability should be combined in every good lock.

‘1st. Perfect security is the principal point to be attended to, as without it no lock can be considered as answering the intended purpose.

‘2nd. The works of a lock should, in all cases, possess strength, and be well adapted, especially in the larger ones, to resist all attempts to force them open; and both in the larger and the smaller kinds the works should not be susceptible of injury, or derangement, from attempts with picklocks or false keys.

‘3rd. Simplicity of action is requisite, so that any person having the key, and being unacquainted with the mechanism of the lock, should not be able to put it out of order.

‘4th. The workmanship, materials, and interior arrangement of a lock should be so combined as to ensure the permanent and perfect action of all its parts, and its durability under all ordinary circumstances.’

Besides the better class of locks made in South Staffordshire there are really trumpery locks made in abundance, and Willenhall enjoys an unenviable celebrity for the cheapness and worthlessness of its wares. There is a familiar saying that if a Willenhall locksmith happens to let fall a lock while in the process of manufacture he does not stop to pick it up, as he can make another quicker. The late Mr. G. B. Thorneycroft, who once lived at Willenhall, is said to have been taunted with the fact that some padlocks made there would only lock once, but when told the price of them was twopence each he replied, ‘It would be a shame if they did lock twice for that money.’ The total weekly production of locks in the whole district was stated in 1866 to be no less than 31,500 dozens. A very large proportion of this enormous supply goes to foreign markets.