ON THE MODERN LOCKS.

585

tions the principal object has been to render thelocks perfectly secure against the tentative processof manipulation. The methods adopted are various,and in the majority of cases it has been sought toaccomplish it by the most complex movements.The prevailing contrivance will be found to be theadoption of false notches in the gatings of thelevers and the notches on the ends of the levers, asin Strutt’s lock. (See page 387.) We shall noticethese and the other peculiarities of construction aswe proceed, simply remarking here that nine-tenthsof the patented locks are the inventions of thoseunconnected with their manufacture, and, with fewexceptions, the movements are the very reverse ofwhat we have before laid down as the object whichall inventors should have in view and endeavour toattain, viz., simplicity of construction. The dia-grams annexed to some of the specifications in thefollowing list of patents are more like the drawingsof a steam-engine than the illustrations of thesimple piece of mechanism a lock should be; andthe descriptions of many of them are so long inconsequence, that we have been compelled to aban-don our intention of noticing all of them; but hadwe have done so, it would have been more from theircuriousness which might have acted as a cautionto others not to follow in the same path of com-plicated constructions, which could never be madeuseful, than from any intrinsic merit they possessin themselves. Inventors should always, bear in