History of Locks
What Every
Locksmith
Should Know
The very nature of being
a modern day locksmith is
to answer your customer’s
present locking security
needs but without never
really knowing what’s
coming next, (but is
more often than not
going to be a repair,
replacement or upgrade).
» » ONE ASPECT OF THE WORK THAT I
have always particularly enjoyed is when
I’m called to a property or indeed to a
safe or even a piece of furniture, where
the lock has failed or the key is lost.
The first challenge is to identify the
problem from the presented situation;
a locked door, safe or cabinet. Before
any of the tools or skills that have been
learnt can be applied, you first have to
call upon another set of skills, arguably
more important than physical dexterity
skills and that is to identify the presented
problem and the exact version of the
locked or failed device in order to apply
A close up of the lever pack in the
detected state; note how the check lever
is held up. A reverse turn, as if locking,
with the correct key lifts the remaining
levers allowing the stump to enter
into a small gating seen on the right
of the lever giving the bolt sufficient
travel to release the detector. Note also
these locks are false notched however
if you want to spend more time than
is viable on this and similar models
the lever bellies might be an option!
62
Milner ‘A’ type safe lock which is
both fitted on its side in relation
to the springing and also where
the keys is turned in a clockwise
direction when unlocking.
the correct instruments and skills. This
is no mean feat; but can save a lot of
hard work if part of your rationale was
to familiarise yourself with the locks of
the past.
Locks and keys have been in everyday
use for millennia. They are also very
enduring; it’s not uncommon to find
locks still in everyday use that were
made a 100 or even 200 years ago and
sometimes even older. The variety is
staggering as is the range of designs.
Many of these locks also had quirks or
a ‘secret’ in their design or operation.
Therefore if your customer service
Chubb’s’ detector mortice lock
from the middle of the 20th century
in the normal locked state.
The same lock with the IDB and
levers removed showing how the
bolt thrower extension and talon
is opposite to the key bit.
also includes a field/workshop service
component it also follows that part of
a locksmiths continuing training and
learning ought to be at least a basic
understanding of earlier locks and their
configurations. Therefore we explore
here a few examples from the past.
Everybody has heard of the Chubb
detector lock, first patented by Jerimiah
Chubb in 1818 some 200 years ago,
and still found in cabinet and box locks
up to the 1990s. Mortice locks with
detectors were produced more or less
continuously until the 1960s when the
Security Range locks featuring detainers
became the norm for high security. The
Detector lock is the one where even the
original key stops working if a wrong
key, or an instrument, is tried. In normal
circumstances’ a reverse turn of the
original key resets the detector and all
is working fine again. Not all users are
aware of this feature, particularly with
changes in key holders over the years. If
the lock keeps tripping it might be that
the keyhole has worn oval, the key is
worn or even duplicate keys can cause
problems, the remedy is to ream out the
lock case keyhole back to true and make
new keys on the next gauge blank.
If mortice and domestic locks are
enduring so too are safes. Very often there
is reluctance to upgrade particularly if the
safe is built into the fabric of the building.
This is frequently the case in churches
JUL/AUG 2019
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