Page:A Dissertation on the Construction of Locks (1815).pdf/30

 being accomplished, the key will of course bear upon the tumbler, which is most remote; and being formed by this process to tally with the face, which the tumblers present, acquires as perfect a command of the Lock, as if it had been originally made for the purpose; and being thus brought to a bearing on all the tumblers at once, the benefit arising from the increase of their number, if multiplied to fifty, must inevitably be lost; for, having but one motion, they can act only with the effect of one instrument.—But nothing is more easy than to remove this objection, and to obtain perfect security from the application of Mr. Baron’s principle.

If the tumblers, which project unequally, and form a fixed tally to the key, were made to present a plane surface, it would require a separate and unequal motion to disengage them from the bolt; and consequently no impression could be obtained from without, that could give any idea of their positions with respect to each other, or be of any use even to the most skilful and experienced workman, in the formation of a false key.

The correction of this defect would rescue the principle of Mr. Baron’s Lock, as far as I am capable of judging, from every imputation of error,