Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 6.djvu/406

 394, FEDBilAL RBPOBTEE. �in 1866 proved that the knowledge of a combination could be obtained from the possessor of the key by intimidation or vio- lence, and that when thua obtained the contents of the vault were open to the burglar. The public became alarmed, and demanded a remedy for the unexpeeted inefficiency. Sargent answered the demand, and placed upon the door a time look which dogged the boit work, and prohibited mechanical open- ing till a predetermined hour in the morning, and placed aleo, in connection with the same boit work, an independently acting combination lock, so that although the lock was unlocked during the period when the time lock was in opera- tion, the boit work could not be retracted, and during the day, when time locks were not demanded, the key lock securely guarded the safe. This new devioe met the wants of the pub- lic. The triple combination, as it was termed, went largely into use, and its efficiency was tested and demonstrated on the occasion of the attempted burglarly of the banks in Great Bar- rington. The tick of the time lock proclaimed to the burg- lars who had compelled the uulocking of the combination lock that another obstacle must be Burmounted before the door could be opened, and the scheme of robbery was abandoned. Much of the commercial success of the Sargent combination is undoubtedly attributable to the fact that he put into actual use a time lock which was far superior to its predecessors, and which had the confidence of the public. The resuit is that by the use of both time and combination locking mechan- ism upon the same boit work of one door, the expense of an additional door and of boit work is avoided, and both the advantages of time locks and of combination Icpks are had, and the most important disadvantagesof ea,ch are avoided. The presence of the time lock supplies strength to the weak- ness of the combination mechanism, while the use of the com- bination lock removes one of the disadvanta,ges of the time lock. ., �The argument is most strongly and skilfully pressed that each of these locks furnishes its own independent resuit; that each bas its own separat© and independent grip upon the boit; that although they produce a combined resuit in ��� �