Life ami Letters of Francis Galtou 



asleep again, but was awoke at 6| by a cracked dinner bell in hysterics, when the 

 fin-minx 111( '" g to their work. Got up and the small boy afore-mentioned brought me 

 a pair of shoes [sketch] with nails at the bottom like the teeth of the cog wheel attached 

 to the fly of a 10-horse steam engine; this I found was truly necessary to Somersetshire 

 walking. I am in a great hurry, will finish to-morrow but must say that Rassy and 

 Delly were most kind. I enjoyed my visit greatly. Rassy works hard at his farm and 

 evidently takes the greatest interest in it. I went to Bath to call upon my earliest flame 

 Douglas Hunter 1 . I have no time to write more. How is Charlotte? 



FHAS. GALTON. 



Another letter of nearly the same date describes the lamp and lock 

 attempts : 



MY DEAR FATHER, 



Lamp and lock both dished but have come off honorably in both. Capt. 

 Basil Hall, aided by Wheatstone had hit upon the same idea a short time since, ami 

 has since been making experiments. The light appears not advantageous as regards 

 illuminating rooms, though it is useful for lighthouses. As regards my lock, Bramah 

 complimented it and spoke very sensibly about it, he said it was certainly much more 

 difficult to pick than any one of the same size and of a different construction, but the 

 chances were quite great enough for security against a chance key in either the Bramah 

 or Chub, the only thing to be feared was a model being taken of the original key when 

 accidentally left about. Now mine being merely a piece of bent wire could be imitated 

 from the impression left on almost any substance, or traced on paper whilst his (here 

 he grew coxy) required a very careful modeller and much time to imitate my lock 

 would also be expensive. This was very true, and I quite agree with him ; but as 

 regards the security of his lock when the key had been left in the hands of a pickpocket, 

 I offered to make a false key in 5 minutes, if he would leave the original key in my 

 hands for 5 seconds. He of course stood up in defence of his own key, so I got 10 

 knitting pins 5 large and 5 small and one wooden one which was central, the others 

 surrounding it. On passing the central one down the bore of the key, the other ones 

 were variously depressed according to the teeth in the key, as in the drawing, the other 

 end B of course exactly represents the key (A) ; the ward (C) is always the same distance 

 from the end and could therefore be fixed to one of the pins. Knitting pins are of 

 course clumsy, but with a little contrivance a perfect picklock can be made (the breadth 

 of the slits is of no consequence only the depth). Bramah was very fierce, I told him 

 that I had some intention of patenting the picklock, and advertising "Important to 

 Thieves, Housebreakers and others." I enclose a model of one of his show locks by 

 five pins. Bramah who was called down to see my knitting pins looked angry. 



FEAS. GALTON. 



On Jan. 31 Galton is back at Trinity and writes home as follows : 

 MY DEAR FATHER, 



Thanks for letter. Lectures begin tomorrow (Monday) Poor H !, 



Charlotte's cousin, was unable to stand the examination more than 3 days on account of 



1 Another letter describes this visit with Galton's usual flow of satirical humour, 

 but concludes with the P.S. "Douglas is a very nice girl." 





