English ingenuity in inventing new defences for locks was largely developed in the reign of Elizabeth, when one skilful smith is said to have made a lock consisting of eleven pieces of iron, steel, and brass, all of which, with a pipe-key, weighed only two grains of gold. The Marquis of Worcester describes a lock invented in 1640 so constructed that "if a stranger attempt to open it, it catches his hand as a trap catches a fox, though so far from maiming him for life, yet so far marketh him that if suspected he might easily be detected." The first patent for a lock in England was granted in 1774; from that date to this inventors and improvers have made a vigorous race of competition. The list of successful runners numbers about 120 patentees; and as every one of them must have introduced some new principle or application, one can easily imagine what varieties have been introduced. The Napoleon of locks, who reigned with undisputed or undeposed sway for half a century, was Joseph Bramah, of London. He patented his famous lock in 1784, and not only he, but the whole out-door and in-door world had perfect faith in its impregnable defence and security. He threw down his glove to all comers in the following notice in his shop window: "The artist who can make an instrument that will pick or open this lock will receive two hundred guineas the moment it is produced." For many years this
