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Show MisceJIany Keeping a Nation's Mail Under Lock and Key. It takes more tliam a million locks to protect the United States government's letters while In transit. The department makes and keeps In repair not only all of these locks, but al! fastening devices used In the mail service. Previous to 1SS9 everything of tills nature was furnished fur-nished and repaired by corftract at a great expense. In that year It was decided de-cided to repair the locks, and a small shop was installed at Washington. After experimenting a while it was found that the department; could do work not. only cheaper than by contract, but better. The following year it was decided to enter Into the manufacture of locks, keys and mail-bag attachments, as it was believed it would be a great advantage to the department de-partment to have its own shop where orders or-ders could be filled more promptly and with less danger of keys getting into the hands of those not entitled to them. From the small room equipped with one drill press and one stamping machine ma-chine and employing half a dozen workmen work-men the shop has, grow!) until now it is a complete factory, equipped with tools and machinery necessary for the converting convert-ing of sheet steel and brass and other material into locks and keys and the many other attachments that are made. Among other features, the present factory fac-tory con ta ins a press room with fourteen four-teen stamping machines, a lock-finishing and assembling room, a miscellaneous room where cord fasteners are assembled and other equipment made, a department where hundreds of postal scales are repaired, re-paired, and a tinning plant where all mail-bag attachments are tinned, to prevent pre-vent rusting. Shortly after the shop was established a defect was found in the mail lock, and steps were taken to design a lock which could not be jarred open,, with the result that the "Eagle" lock, later called the "Double Star" lock, was designed. More than 1,000,000 of these locks have been made and put into , -service since that time. Although this Eagle lock has given giv-en the best service of any lock ever used on mail bags, It is now being gradually withdrawn on account of its weight and replaced by a still later lock known as the "La," weighing only 2 4-5 ounces, or about one-half the weight of the Double Star and costing less than one-half one-half as much to manufacture. As the carrying of the mails is paid for by weight, the La lock will result in a large saving fo the government in transportation transporta-tion cost, besides which much time will be saved in the locking and unlocking. This Is an important feature, especially with the railway postoffice clerks, where every moment counts. One of the most important and Interesting Inter-esting locks in use in the postal service Is the registered-mail lock, commonly called the "rotary." This lock is equipped with a registering mechanism having four dials, each numbered from 0 to 9, which indicates the number of times the lock is unlocked. Each is also provided with a serial number stamped on the outside of the case, no two bearing the same number. Pouches containing registered mail are locked with these and a record kept of both the serial number of the lock and the registered number as shown on the dials. Tf any lock reaches its destination showing a different number on the dials ii is at once known that it has been tampered with. As each clerk who handles the pouch is required to receipt re-ceipt for the same, it is practically impossible im-possible to tamper with the contents of the pouch without detection. These locks were formerly made with cast cases and were purchased by the government at 52.50 each. An improved case, which is drawn from sheet brass, has been designed de-signed by employees of the shop.' It makes a lock of much neater appearance and lighter in weight at cost of 90 cents each. Savings such as this have been made all along the line. Some idea may be had of the growth of the postal service from the fact that In 1890 only 200,000 locks were needed for locking pouches, while at the present time there are over l.OOO.flOQ used for the purpose. The number of registered locks required lias increased during this period from 7000 to 8000. L. M. Lamm In Popular Popu-lar Mechanics. |