684

ON LOCKS AND KEYS.

of the circumstances connected with Mr. Smith’s rather confidentchallenge and its inconclusive termination. Mr. Hobbs has, inevery instance in which any person came forward to attempt topick his lock, acted with the greatest fairness and liberality, andhas at the present moment no less than seven of his locks in thehands of adventurous experimenters who wish to make themselvesacquainted with the principle before attempting a task the suc-cessful accomplishment of which would be attended with so muchglory and so much pecuniary advantage. The lock, however, hasup to the present time remained invulnerable ; and although wedo not hesitate to say that we should feel extremely proud if anyingenious mechanic of this country could be found to turnBrother Jonathan’s flank and establish our mechanical and scien-tific superiority in this particular, we are bound to say thathitherto the American lock has maintained the reputation its pro-prietors claim for it as one of the most perfect combinations forsecurity yet invented.”

About this time Mr. Hobbs read a paper beforethe Society of Arts on locks and keys, when a dis-cussion arose, in Avliich it was stated that the parau-toptic lock had been picked in London , the truthof which statement Mr. Hobbs thought it his dutyto deny. It appears the report was published inthe Observer, and many of the other London journals, which called forth from Mr. Hobbs aletter, dated April 2nd, 1852, addressed to theeditor of the above paper, and containing the fol-lowing paragraph:—“ Early last autumn I lent toMr. Potter, of South Molton Street, one of mylocks, for the purpose of giving him an opportunityto make himself acquainted with its principle andconstruction. After he had had the lock in his