novel research

PamelaH

I hope someone can help me with this question. I have a situation in my historical novel where a character needs to open a combination lock on a small safe or strong box. The year is 1871, and the combination is 3 numbers (specifically, a woman’s measurements). Is this feasible? Would the combination lock work essentially the same as today’s?

Paul Prescott

Where is the story set ? 1871 is going to be early for combination locks but some where in production.

Paul

PamelaH

webmaster wrote
Where is the story set ? 1871 is going to be early for combination locks but some where in production.

Paul

It’s in the American Old West.

Paul Prescott

Yes, on the whole the dialing procedure will be the same as modern locks.

Paul

greyman

PamelaH wrote
I hope someone can help me with this question. I have a situation in my historical novel where a character needs to open a combination lock on a small safe or strong box. The year is 1871, and the combination is 3 numbers (specifically, a woman’s measurements). Is this feasible? Would the combination lock work essentially the same as today’s?

Yale’s combo lock is apparently from 1863 so you’re OK.
http://www.bookrags.com/sciences/sciencehistory/safe-woi.html

Or you could use an alphabetic dial lock. I’m no sure if these were made in 1871 but it would be close. Fichet in France made 3 dial locks, so you could use three letter’s from the person’s name as the code for the lock.

The French ones had 3 little dials that clicked around as you turned them to line up the right letter. There was a ratchet so they could only turn one way. This would be kind of nice, for instance you could use a woman’s name like “Eve” as the combo.