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SCIENCE MUSEUM South Kensington London SW7 2DD
The Locks and Fastenings Gallery This gallery contains a fine representative collection of locks and is in the basement adjoining the Children's Gallery. The wall cases contain panels showing the whole history of locks. There are examples of all periods, from the ancient Egyptian ones (incorporating the principle used in today's Yale locks) to those of the present day. In the centre of the room are displayed a series of large working models of the different types of lock, so that visitors can work these locks for themselves. A full size shop window similar to that in Piccadilly occupied by Bramah and Company, the famous lockmakers in the mid-nineteenth century, has been built by the Museum's workshops. In the window of the shop is shown what is probably the most famous lock in history. It is the original Bramah padlock (made by Maudslay, then working for Joseph Bramah but later one of our greatest engineers) which rested there for fifty years with the offer of a reward of £200 to anyone who could pick it. Not until the American locksmith A.C. Hobbs came to this country in 1851 and succeeded, was the reward paid. The lock involved in the Great Train Bullion Robbery of 1855 is on show, and also the unpicked Parautoptic Lock which was one of the great treasures of the Great Exhibition of 185' (held close by in Hyde Park). There are other displays of keys, safes, and a reconstruction of a locksmith's workshop such as would have been used by a Willenhall craftsman in the last century. Egyptian Lock (a) European Padlock (b) Screw Action Padlock (c)
		The Simple Lever Lock The key raises the spring lever-catch allowing the bolt to be pushed to the closed position. The lever then falls and fixes the bolt.
		Chubb Lock (a) The true key lifts the lever so that the stump passes through the gate. (b) The false key has lifted the lever too high and the stump is caught in the gate. The lever has also raised the detector catch which is trapped by the spring. The lock is now fixed.



		The key raises the lever and the stumps End from the bolt. A false key could tilt the clearthegate allowing the bolt to slide. The lever too much thereby engaging its Right stumps then fall immobilising the bolt. End in the notch. Parson's Balance Lever Lock Barron Lock The key tilts the lever disengaging its Left



COMBINATION LOCKS Combination locks contain a series of disks or rings, each with a slot in its periphery. These slots have all to be set in line before the bolt can be moved. The security rests on the extreme improbability of being able to find the exact "correct position" of each of the disks or rings. The dial is moved clockwise and counter-clockwise until the disks inside the lock are aligned. Another handle then shoots the bolt.
		(a) Key enters lock. The radial slides are held up by the spring and engage the notches in the vertical circular plate so that they cannot be turned. (b) Key fully depressed. The slides are all forced down different distances and notches in them coincide with the notches in the circular plate - so that the key is free to turn.


		Yale Cylinder Lock The Yale lock has a number of springloaded pin-tumblers, each in two parts, set in line with the key. The flat key is inserted and its serrated upper edge raises each pin to the correct height so that the inner cylinder can be turned. Linus Yale Junior (1821-1868)


		N. T. Magnetic Lock (a) Key enters. Note the magnetized pins. Some locking the cylinder, some being repelled. (b) Key in. All pins repelled and the cylinder is free to turn.

		Kaba Lock Showing the four sets of pins and the indented flat key.


		Abloy Lock (a) Rings in random positions and the bar up (preventing the cytinderfrom turning). (b) Rings aligned by the key. The bar has dropped into the notches and the cylinder is free to turn.