I’ve been reading in an old book on banking that there was the practice of day locking the vault or compartments in the vault by just turning the dial of the combination lock a tiny ways either to the right or left, but I’m a little confused on how that works. The book’s wording confuses me a little.
“Many use the day lock, which is to shut the door, turn the dial a little to the right or left so as to fasten the bolts. To unlock it, turn the dial back until it stops.The day lock gives a thief one chance in two to unlock the safe. Now if the dial is turned a short distance beyond this, so that if turned either way continuously, it will lock the safe completely, but yet, with a small amount of proper turning and one or two reverses the one tumbler that is out of place will come into line and the safe be unlocked in a few seconds, and with much less time and trouble than to work the whole combination.”
My impression from the beginning of the paragraph is that you don’t turn it far enough to even upset one tumbler out of place–wouldn’t that be enough to lock it if you did? It’s been a long time since high school and combination locks for me, so I don’t remember the feel of it. 🙂 I’m just trying to picture how this is done. You turn the dial until just right before it would click locked in a way that would require the whole combination to unlock it?
I sense my question is incredibly lame but I do want to understand it. Thanks. 🙂
