Inventions in the Century Part 29

"Loud as a bull makes hills and valley ring, So roared the lock when it released the spring."

The castles, churches and convents of the middle ages had their often highly ornamental locks and their warders to guard and open them. Later, locks were invented with complex wards. These are carved pieces of metal in the lock which fit into clefts or grooves in the key and prevent the lock from being opened except by its own proper key.

As early as 1650 the Dutch had invented the Letter lock, the progenitor of the modern permutation lock, consisting of a lock the bolt of which is surrounded by several rings on which were cut the letters of the alphabet, which by a prearrangement on the part of the owner were made to spell a certain word or number of words before the lock could be opened. Carew, in verses written in 1621, refers to one of these locks as follows:--

"As doth a lock that goes with letters; for, till every one be known, The lock's as fast as though you had found none."

The art had also advanced in the eighteenth century to the use of _tumblers_ in locks, the lever or latch or plate which falls into a notch of the bolt and prevents it from being shot until it has been raised or released by the action of the key. Barron in England in 1778 obtained a patent for such a lock.

Joseph Bramah, who has before been referred to in connection with the hydraulic press he invented, also in 1784 invented and patented in England a lock which obtained a world-wide reputation and a century's extensive use. It was the first, or among the first of locks which troubled modern burglars' picks. Its leading features were a key with longitudinal slots, a barrel enclosing a spring, plates, called sliders, notched unequally and resting against the spring, a plate with a central perforation and slits leading therefrom to engage the notches of the slides simultaneously and allow the frame to be turned by the key so as to actuate the bolt. Chubb and Hobbs of England made important improvements in tumbler locks, which for a long time were regarded as unpickable.

Most important advances have been made during the century in _Combination_ or _Permutation Locks_ and _Time Locks_. For a long time permutation or combination locks consisted of modifications of one general principle, and that was the Dutch letter lock already referred to, or the wheel lock, composed of a series of disks with letters around their edges. The interior arrangement is such as to prevent the bolt being shot until a series of letters were in line, forming a combination known only to the operator. Time locks are constructed on the principle of clockwork, so that they cannot be opened even with the proper key until a regulated interval of time has elapsed.

Among the most celebrated combination and time locks of the century are those known as the Yale locks, chiefly the inventions of Louis Yale, Jr., of Philadelphia. The Yale double dial lock is a double combination bank or safe lock having two dials, each operating its own set of tumblers and bolts, so that two persons, each in possession of his own combination, must be present at a certain time in order to unlock it. If this double security is not desired, one person alone may be possessed of both combinations, or the combinations may be set as one. In their time locks a safe can be set so as to not only render it impossible to unlock except at a predetermined time each day, but the arrangement is such that on intervening Sundays the time mechanism will entirely prevent the operation of the lock or the opening of the door on that day.

Another feature of the lock is the thin, flat keys with bevel-edged notchings, or with longitudinal sinuous corrugations to fit a narrow slit of a cylinder lock. To make locks for use with the corrugated keys machines of as great ingenuity as the locks were devised. In such a lock the keyhole, which is a little very narrow slit, is formed sinuously to correspond to the sinuosities of the key. No other key will fit it, nor can it be picked by a tool, as the tool must be an exact duplicate of the key in order to enter and move in the keyhole.

Of late years numerous locks have been invented for the special uses to which they are to be applied. Thus, one type of lock is that for safety deposit vaults and boxes, in which a primary key in the keeping of a janitor operates alone the tumblers or guard mechanism to set the lock, while the box owner may use a secondary key to completely unlock the box or vault.

Master, or secondary key locks, are now in common use in hotels and apartment-houses, by which the key of the door held by a guest will unlock only his door, but the master key held by the manager or janitor will unlock all the doors. This saves the duplication and multiplicity of a vast number of extra keys.

The value of a simple, cheap, safe, effective lock in a place where its advantages are appreciated by all cla.s.ses of people everywhere is ill.u.s.trated in the application of the modern rotary registering lock to the single article of mail bags. Formerly it was not unusual that losses by theft of mail matter were due in part to the extraction of a portion of the mail matter by unlocking or removing the lock and then restoring it in place.

The United States, with its 76,000,000 of people, found it necessary to use in its mail service hundreds of thousands of mail pouches, having locks for securing packages of valuable matter. But these locks are of such character that it is impossible for anyone to break into the bag and conceal the evidence of his crime. The unfortunate thief is reduced to the necessity of stealing the whole pouch. Losses under this system have grown so small "as to be almost incapable of mathematical calculation."

Safe and convenient locks for so very many purposes are now so common, even to prevent the unauthorised use of an umbrella, or the unfriendly taking away of a bicycle or other vehicle, that notwithstanding the nineteenth century dynamite with which burglars still continue to blow open the best constructed safes and vaults, still a universal sense of greater security in such matters is beginning to manifest itself; and not only the loss of valuables by fire and theft is becoming the exception, but the temptation to steal is being gradually removed.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

CARRYING MACHINES.

The reflecting observer delights occasionally to shift the scenes of the present stage and bring to the front the processions of the past. That famous triumphal one, for instance, of Ptolemy of Philadelphus, at Alexandria, about 270 B. C., then in the midst of his power and glory, in which there were chariots and c.u.mbrous wagons drawn by elephants and goats, antelopes, oryxes, buffaloes, ostriches, gnus and zebras; then a tribe of the Scythians, when with many scores of oxen they were shifting their light, big round houses, made of felt cloth and mounted on road carts, to a new camping place; next a wild, mad dash of the Roman charioteers around the amphitheatre, or a triumphal march with chariots of carved ivory bearing aloft the ensigns of victory; and now an army of the ancient Britons driving through these same charioteers of Caesar with their own rude chariots, having sharp hooks and crooked iron blades extending from their axles; now a "Lady's Chair" of the fourteenth century--the state carriage of the time--with a long, wooden-roofed and windowed body, having a door at each end, resting on a c.u.mbrous frame without springs, and the axles united rigidly to a long reach; next comes a line of imposing clumsy state coaches of the sixteenth century, with bodies provided with pillars to support the roof, and adorned with curtains of cloth and leather, but still dest.i.tute of springs; and here in stately approach comes a line of more curious and more comfortable "royal coaches" of the seventeenth century, when springs were for the first time introduced; and now rumbles forward a line of those famous old English stage coaches originated in the seventeenth century, which were two days flying from Oxford to London, a distance of fifty-five miles; but a scene in the next century shows these ponderous vehicles greatly improved, and the modern English stage mail-coaches of Palmer in line. Referring to Palmer's coaches, Knight says: "Palmer, according to De Quincey, was twice as great a man as Galileo, because he not only invented mail-coaches (of more general practical utility than Jupiter's satellites), but married the daughter of a duke, and succeeded in getting the post-office to use them. This revolutionised the whole business." The coaches were built with steel springs, windows of great strength and lightness combined, boots for the baggage, seats for a few outside pa.s.sengers, and a guard with a grand uniform, to protect the mail and stand for the dignity of his majesty's government.

By the system of changing horses frequently great speed was attained, and the distance from Edinburgh to London, 400 miles, was made in 40 hours. Other lines of coaches, arranged to carry double the number of pa.s.sengers outside than in, fourteen to six, were made heavier, and took the road more leisurely.

The carts and conveyances of the poor were c.u.mbrous, heavy contrivances, without springs, mostly two-wheel, heavy carts.

The middle cla.s.ses at that time were not seen riding in coaches of their own, but generally on horseback, as the coaches of the rich were too expensive, and the conveyances of the poor were too rude in construction, and too painful in operation.

Let the observer now pa.s.s to the largest and most varied exhibition of the best types of modern vehicles of every description that the world had ever seen, the International Exhibition at Philadelphia in 1876, and behold what wonderful changes art, science, invention, and mechanical skill had wrought in this domain. Here were the carriages of the rich, constructed of the finest and most appropriate woods that science and experience had found best adapted for the various parts, requiring the combination of strength and lightness, the best steel for the springs, embodying in themselves a world of invention and discovery, and splendid finish and polish in all parts unknown to former generations.

Here, too, were found vehicles of a great variety for the comfort and convenience of every family, from the smallest to the largest means.

The farmer and the truckman were especially provided for. One establishment making an exhibition at that time, employed some six hundred or seven hundred hands, four hundred horse-power of steam, turning out sixty wagons a day, or one in every ten minutes of each working day in the year.

Here England showed her victoria, her broughams, landaus, phaetons, sporting-carts, wagonettes, drays and dog-carts; Canada her splendid sleighs; France her superb barouches, carriages, double-top sociables, the celebrated Collinge patent axle-trees and springs; Germany the best carriage axles, springs and gears; Russia its famous low-wheeled fast-running carriages; Norway its carryalls, or sulkies, and sleighs strongly built, and made of wood from those vast forests that ever abound in strength and beauty. One ancient sleigh there was, demurely standing by its modern companions, said to have been built in 1625, and it was still good. America stood foremost in carriage wheels of best materials and beautiful workmanship, bent rims, turned and finished spokes, mortised hubs, steel tires, business and farm wagons, carts and baby carriages. Each trade and field of labour had its own especially adapted complete and finished vehicle. There were hay wagons and hea.r.s.es; beer wagons and ice carts; doctors' buggies, express wagons, drays, package delivery wagons; peddlers' wagons with all the shelves and compartments of a miniature store, skeleton wagons, and sportsmen's, and light and graceful two and four "wheelers." Beautiful displays of bent and polished woods, a splendid array of artistic, elegant, and useful harnesses, and all the traps that go to make modern means of conveyance by animal power so cheap, convenient, strong and attractive that civilisation seemed to have reached a stop in principles of construction of vehicles and in their materials, and since contents itself in improving details.

To this century is due the development of that cla.s.s of carriages, the generic term for which is _Velocipedes_--a word which would imply a vehicle propelled by the feet, although it has been applied to vehicles propelled by the hands and steered by the feet. This name originated with the French, and several Frenchmen patented velocipedes from 1800 to 1821.

Tricycles having three wheels, propelled by the hands and steered with the feet, were also invented in the early part of the century.

The term _Bicycle_ does not appear to have been used until about 1869.

Although such structures had been referred to in publications before, yet the modern bicycle appears to have been first practically constructed in Germany. In 1816 Baron von Drais of Manheim made a vehicle consisting of two wheels arranged one before the other, and connected by a bar, the forward wheel axled in a fork which was swiveled to the front end of the bar and had handles to guide the machine, with a seat on the bar midway between the two wheels, and arranged so that the driver should bestride the bar. But there was no support for the rider's feet, and the vehicle was propelled by thrusting his feet alternately against the ground. This machine was called the "Draisine" and undoubtedly was the progenitor of the modern bicycle. Denis Johnson patented in England in 1818 a similar vehicle which he named the "Pedestrian Curricle." Another style was called the "Dandy Horse."

Another form was that of Gompertz in England in 1821, who contrived a segmental rack connected with a frame over the front wheel and engaging a pinion on the wheel axle. With some improvements added by others, the vehicle came into quite extensive and popular use in some of the cities in Europe and America. It was also named the "Dandy" and the "Hobby Horse." Treadles were subsequently applied, but after a time the machine fell into disuse and was apparently forgotten. In 1863, however, the idea was revived by a Frenchman, Michaux, who added the crank to the front wheel axle of the "Draisine" (also called the "celerifere.") In 1866 Pierre Lallement of France, having adapted the idea of the crank and pedal movement and obtained a patent, went to America, where after two years of public indifference the machine suddenly sprung into favour. In 1869 a popular wave in its favour also spread over part of Europe, and all cla.s.ses of people were riding it.

But the wheels had hard tires, the roads and many of the streets were not smooth, the vehicle got the name of the "bone-breaker" and its use ceased. During the few years following some new styles of frames were invented. Thus some very high wheels, with a small wheel in front, or one behind, wheels with levers in addition to the crank, etc., and then for a time the art rested again.

Some one then recalled the fact that McMillan, a Scotchman, about 1838-1841, had used two low wheels like the "Draisine" with a driving gear, and that Dalzell, also of Scotland, had in 1845 made a similar machine. Parts of these old machines were found and the wheel reconstructed. Then in the seventies the entire field was thrown open to women by the invention in England of the "drop frame," which removed completely the difficulty as to arrangement of the skirts and thus doubled the interest in and desire for a comfortable riding machine. But they were still, to a great degree, "bone-breakers."

Then J. B. Dunlop, a veterinary surgeon of Belfast, Ireland, in order to meet the complaints of his son that the wheel was too hard, thought of the _pneumatic rubber tire_, and applied it with great success. This was a very notable and original re-invention. A re-invention, because a man "born before his time" had invented and patented the pneumatic tire more than forty years before. It was not wanted then and everybody had forgotten it. This man was Robert William Thomson, a civil engineer of Adelphi, Middles.e.x county, England. In 1845 he obtained a patent in England, and shortly after in the United States. In both patents he describes how he proposed to make a tire for all kinds of vehicles consisting of a hollow rubber tube, with an inner mixed canvas and rubber lining, a tube and a screw cup by which to inflate it, and several ways for preventing punctures. To obviate the bad results of punctures he proposed also to make his tire in sectional compartments, so that if one compartment was punctured the others would still hold good. He also proposed to use vulcanised rubber, thus utilising the then very recent discovery of Goodyear of mixing sulphur with soft rubber, and to apply the same to the canvas lining.

And, now, when the last decade of the century had been reached, and after a century's hard work by the inventors, the present wonderful vehicle, known as the "safety bicycle," had obtained a successful and permanent foothold among the vehicles of mankind. Proper proportions, low wheels, chain-gearing, treadles, pedals and cranks, cushion and pneumatic tires, drop frames, steel spokes like a spider's web, ball-bearings for the crank and axle parts, a spring-supported cushioned seat which could be raised or lowered, adjustable handles, and the clearest-brained scientific mechanics to construct all parts from the best materials and with mathematical exactness--all this has been done.

To these accomplishments have been added a great variety of tires to prevent wear and puncturing, among which are _self-healing_ tires, having a lining of viscous or plastic rubber to close up automatically the air holes. Many ways of clamping the tire to the rim have been contrived. So have brakes of various descriptions, some consisting of disks on the driving shaft, brought into frictional contact by a touch of the toe on the pedal, as a subst.i.tute for those applied to the surface of the tire, known as "spoon brakes"; saddles, speed-gearings, men's machines in which by the removal of the upper bar the machine is converted into one for the use of women; the subst.i.tution of the direct action, consisting of beveled gearing for the sprocket chain, etc., etc.

The ideas of William Thomson as to pneumatic and cushioned tires are now, after a lapse of fifty years, generally adopted. Even sportsmen were glad to seize upon them, and wheels of sulkies, provided with the pneumatic tires, have enabled them to lower the record of trotting horses. Their use on many other vehicles has accomplished his objects, "of lessening the power required to draw carriages, rendering the motion easier, and diminishing the noise."

It is impossible to overlook the fact in connection with this subject that the processes and machinery especially invented to make the various parts of a bicycle are as wonderful as the wheel itself. Counting the spokes there are, it is estimated, more than 300 different parts in such a wheel. The best and latest inventions and discoveries in the making of metals, wood, rubber and leather have been drawn upon in supplying these useful carriers. And what a revolution they have produced in the making of good roads, the saving of time, the dispatch of business, and more than all else, in the increase of the pleasure, the health and the amus.e.m.e.nt of mankind!

It was quite natural that when the rubber cushion and pneumatic tires rounded the pleasure of easy and noiseless riding in vehicles that _Motor vehicles_ should be revived and improved. So we have the _Automobiles_ in great variety. Invention has been and is still being greatly exercised as to the best motive power, in the adaption of electric motors, oil and gasoline or vapour engines, springs and air pumps, in attempts to reduce the number of complicated parts, and to render less strenuous the mental and muscular strain of the operator.

_Traction Engines._--The old road engines that antedated the locomotives are being revived, and new ideas springing from other arts are being incorporated in these useful machines to render them more available than in former generations. Many of the principles and features of motor vehicles, but on a heavier scale, are being introduced to adapt them to the drawing of far heavier loads. Late devices comprise a spring link between the power and the traction wheel to prevent too sudden a start, and permit a yielding motion; steering devices by which the power of the engine is used to steer the machine; and application of convenient and easily-worked brakes.

An example of a modern traction engine may be found attached to one or more heavy cars adapted for street work, and on which may be found apparatus for making the mixed materials of which the roadbed is to be constructed, and all of which is moved along as the road or street surface is completed. When these fine roads become the possession of a country light traction engines for pa.s.senger traffic will be found largely supplanting the horse and the steam railroad engines.

_Brakes_, railway and electric, have already been referred to in the proper chapters. In the latest system of railroading greater attention has been paid to the lives and limbs of those employed as workmen on the trains, especially to those of brakemen. And if corporations have been slow to adopt such merciful devices, legislatures have stepped in to help the matter. One great source of accidents in this respect has been due to the necessity of the brakemen entering between the cars while they are in motion to couple them by hand. This is now being abolished by _automatic couplers_, by which, when the locking means have been withdrawn from connection or thrown up, they will be so held until the cars meet again, when the locking parts on the respective cars will be automatically thrown and locked, as easily and on the same principle as the hand of one man may clasp the hand of another.

The comfort of pa.s.sengers and the safety of freight have also been greatly increased by the invention of _Buffers_ on railroad cars and trains to prevent sudden and violent concussion. Fluid pressure car buffers, in which a constant supply of fluid under pressure is provided by a pump or train pipe connected to the engine is one of a great variety.

Another notable improvement in this line is the splendid vestibule trains, in which the cars are connected to one another by enclosed pa.s.sages and which at their meeting ends are provided with yieldingly supported door-like frames engaging one another by frictional contact, usually, whereby the shock and rocking of cars are prevented in starting and stopping, and their oscillation reduced to a minimum.

As collisions and accidents cannot always be prevented, car frames are now built in which the frames are trussed, and made of rolled steel plates, angles, and channels, whereby a car body of great resistance to telescoping or crushing is obtained.

CHAPTER XXIX.

SHIPS AND SHIP-BUILDING.

"Far as the breeze can bear, the billows foam, Survey our empire, and behold our home."

"Ships are but boards," soliloquised the crafty Shylock, and were this still true, yet this present period has seen wonderful changes in construction.