Page:A Dissertation on the Construction of Locks (1785).pdf/16

 key can reach; and which may be ſo applied, as not only to defy the art and ingenuity of the moſt ſkilful workman, but to render the utmoſt force ineffectual, and thereby to ſecure what is moſt valued as well from diſhoneſt ſervants as from the midnight ruffian,—I think myſelf at liberty to declare (what nothing but the diſcovery of an infallible remedy would juſtify my diſcloſing;)—that all dependence on the inviolable ſecurity of Locks, even of thoſe which are conſtructed upon the beſt principle of any in general uſe—is fallacious. To demonſtrate this bold and alarming propoſition, I ſhall firſt ſtate the common principles which are applied in the art of Lock-making; and, by deſcribing their operation in inſtruments differently conſtructed, and poſſeſſing different degrees of excellence, prove to my intelligent readers that the beſt conſtructed Locks are liable to be ſecretly opened with great facility; and that the Locks in common uſe are calculated only