Gosh this lock is neat.
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Here's the patent for it from 1871.
(I know I already posted about this, but here it all is in one place)

@alice do the plates even have springs? Seems like it would be ludicrously easy to pick.
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@alice Can you say anything about how this lock and key would have been made? Would it have been from a big factory, for example?
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Here's the patent for it from 1871.
(I know I already posted about this, but here it all is in one place)
@alice I assume there are additional pages? I would love to read it. The notion of turning patterns of information like the shape of a key into (admittedly fallible) physical security is god damned fascinating! -
@alice do the plates even have springs? Seems like it would be ludicrously easy to pick.
@Wyatt_H_Knott it was. Modern disc-detainer locks don't have springs either (at least the ones I've encountered), but they're a lot more complex and tighter packed.
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@alice Can you say anything about how this lock and key would have been made? Would it have been from a big factory, for example?
@amenonsen it would've likely been cast in pieces in a factory. The key was probably ground down from a cast blank, and the discs would've been inserted from the bottom with spacers in between, then the bottom was inserted and the shell was crimped over it.
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@alice I assume there are additional pages? I would love to read it. The notion of turning patterns of information like the shape of a key into (admittedly fallible) physical security is god damned fascinating!
@me it's a really short patent. One page of James bagging on someone else's design and then saying that flaring the base of the shackle and shortening the posts slightly was a significant improvement.
Which it is, but I think he hyped his improvements a little much, considering it took me like 15 seconds to figure out how to pick it.
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@amenonsen it would've likely been cast in pieces in a factory. The key was probably ground down from a cast blank, and the discs would've been inserted from the bottom with spacers in between, then the bottom was inserted and the shell was crimped over it.
@alice Thanks! Would this have been an expensive lock, for its time?
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Here's the patent for it from 1871.
(I know I already posted about this, but here it all is in one place)

@alice what the heck!!?!?!
Your posting the poor things nudes?
Did you even ask its permission!?!?!?
Lock abuse like this cant be tolerated!!! -
@alice Thanks! Would this have been an expensive lock, for its time?
@amenonsen I don't know, but it's a fancy design for the time.
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@alice what the heck!!?!?!
Your posting the poor things nudes?
Did you even ask its permission!?!?!?
Lock abuse like this cant be tolerated!!!@smolbrain hey, I just found it on the internet. If it didn't want to be posted, maybe it shouldn't have been so sexy. I'm just a nude lock appreciator. If the lock doesn't want to be posted, it can fill out a DMCA request. Besides I didn't break any laws. This lock sent me those photos. We don't live in the same zipcode, so it doesn't count. Whatever, that lock'll open for anyone.
Wow, I feel gross just satirizing that stuff...
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And yes, I'm picking locks in my Care Bears PJs

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And yes, I'm picking locks in my Care Bears PJs

what're the locks doing in your PJs?
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And yes, I'm picking locks in my Care Bears PJs

@alice Something tells me that M. James H. McWilliams would be especially incensed about that.

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what're the locks doing in your PJs?