THE DIAL LOCK.

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the parties using the lock may please, and it canbe changed as often as they wish. There is a verygeneral belief, that as these locks are susceptible ofso many changes, they must necessarily be secureagainst any skill or ingenuity that can be broughtagainst them ; but by a little further investigation,it will be apparent, that they alford no furthersecurity than the Egyptian and the warded locks.

A dial lock was invented some years ago byWilliam Brown, Esq., M.P., and was described ina paper read before the Architectural and Archaeo-logical Society of Liverpool, in 1852. The follow-ing is an abridged account of it from a Liverpoolpaper of that period.

“ As your Society are desirous of seeing anyimprovements or attempts at them, I send you astock-lock for inspection. The idea for its con-struction I took from a letter-padlock. I had alock of this description made by Mr. Pooley twenty-five years ago, which has been in use ever since onBrown, Shipley, and Co.’s safe. * *

“Its advantages I conceive to be — First, , itcannot be picked, for there is no key-hole. Second,it cannot be blown up by gunpowder, for the samereason. Third, you cannot drill through the doorso as to reach the lock, for you are intercepted bya steel plate on which your tools will not act; thusyou cannot introduce gunpowder that way to forcethe lock off. Fourth, you cannot bounce off thewheels in the interior with a muffled hammer, for