Page:A Dissertation on the Construction of Locks (1785).pdf/20

 that every Lock which ſhall be fabricated on this given ſcale, beyond the number at which the capability of variation ends, muſt be as ſubject to the key of ſome other Lock, as to its own; and both become leſs ſecure as their counterparts become more numerous. This objection is confirmed by a reference to the Locks commonly fixed on drawers and bureaus, in which the variations are few, and theſe ſo frequently repeated from the infinite demand for ſuch Locks; that, if they were formed to reſiſt the picklock, they would be liable to be opened by ten thouſand correſpondent keys. And the ſame obſervation applies in a greater or leſs degree to every lock in which the variations are not endleſs.

But if the variations of Locks in which the bolt is guarded only by fixed wards could be multiplied to infinity, they would afford no ſecurity againſt the efforts of an ingenious lockſmith. For though an artful and judicious arrangement of the wards, or other impediments,