Page:A Dissertation on the Construction of Locks (1815).pdf/29

 construction of the Lock may be, whilst the disposition of its parts may be ascertained, and their impression correctly taken from without. I apprehend the use of additional tumblers to have been applied by Mr. Baron, as a remedy for this imperfection, because a less object would not have been worthy the exercise of his great ability; and, because (if such were his intentions) he did not over-rate the effect, which the cause was capable of producing. He seems evidently to have conceived the principle, but hath certainly failed in the execution. For, by giving an uniform motion to the tumblers, and presenting them with a face which tallies exactly with the key, they still partake in a very great degree of the nature of, and the security of his Lock is thereby rendered in a proportionable degree defective. To make these remarks more intelligible, I must entreat my readers to suppose the key with which the workman is making his way to the bolt, (by the process above described) to have passed the wards, and to be in contact with the most prominent of the tumblers. The impression which the slighest touch will leave on the key, directs the application of the file, till sufficient space is prepared to give it a free passage. This