Page:A Dissertation on the Construction of Locks (1815).pdf/24

 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, may render the passage to the bolt so intricate and perplexed, as to exclude every instrument but its proper key; a skilful workman having access to the entrance, will be at no loss to fabricate a key which shall tally as perfectly with the wards, as if the Lock had been open to his inspection. And this operation may not only be performed to the highest degree of certainty and exactness, but is conducted likewise with the utmost ease. For the block or bit, which is intended to receive the impression of the