1845 Jones-Hall Lock

[Doug MacQueen]

This lock was made by or for H.C. Jones of Newark and the bolt is marked as such. It is a good example of Wm Hall's 1843 patent lock, no. 3,221, his first for a changeable keylock. Jones then patented an improved version, no. 4,011 in 1845. Then in 1849 Ritchie, a Jones employee patented yet an even more complex version, no. 6,252. It is one of the more interesting and definitely the most confusing lock I have worked so far and I will attempt to explain its action in a following post. Doug

[Dean Nickel]

That is neat little setup. The levers instead of pivoting travel in a straight line. Then they travel to the other side to operate there. Cool! Thank you for showing that off.

It is odd that they would put anti-pick on the unlocked side of the levers.

[Doug MacQueen]

Note that when the bolt is retracted all of the levers are vertically positioned but in the locked position some are slanted. Theoretically all the levers could be vertical in the locked position or all slanted. If vertical they would all have to be aligned with the bolt mounted stump shown lower left in the close up. Or if all were slanted when locked they would all have to align their central gating to a fixed case mounted stump to be unlocked. In the first case they would slide directly up and down. But in the second case, the slanted levers are also moved up by the key to be aligned with the fixed stump and bolt mounted stump moves the levers back into the vertical position as it is unlocked. Two stumps, one movable as is typical in lever locks and one that is fixed. Ponder on that a while and I will try to explain further. Doug

---------- Post added at 11:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:16 PM ----------

If you check p. 68-69 of "American Genius" you will find a slightly more complex version of this Jones lock. But this lock only has one feature of Jones' 1845 improvements made to the original Wm. Hall 1843 and that is the barrel/curtain. It also shows signs of fairly heavy use and some damage to the lever/sliders. I made the key several years ago for a collector and it was quite a challenge. Only after I made the key did I realize that some of the levers were missing their central gating. I did repair a couple but unfortunately failed to take pics. The wear in the lock (and original key?) is what led to them breaking. Doug

[Doug MacQueen]

It should be remembered the main goal of this lock was to be readily changed by rearranging the bittings on the key. Since each lever has 2 different gatings there must be 2 corresponding bits for each lever. I believe 2 sets of bits were supplied with each lock. One set would work (align) with the bolt stump and one with the fixed stump. In practice mixing of the 2 sets would result in some levers working with one stump and the rest with the other. From the unlocked position, whichever combination chosen would then lock and unlock. It is the moving bolt stump that carries with it any levers that don't line up to it. So in attempting to pick a slanted lever, the bolt stump is forced against the inside portion of the leading edge gating and into the sawtooth false cuts. Doug

[Dean Nickel]

Now I understand what I am seeing. Thanks!