HOUSE AND GARDEN 
July, 
1912 
As may be seen from the illustrations, 
there are considerable artistic possibilities 
with the exterior latch. With care, these 
are less liable to give trouble, particularly 
with the front door, considering the fact 
that the latch and catch have been attended 
to as suggested for the interior doors. 
There are many straight reproductions 
made from old models, also an adaptation 
in which the thumb piece springs the bolt 
of a modern mortise lock. This is fitted 
with a knob or another grip and thumb 
piece for the inside. Although a combina¬ 
tion of principles, it is legitimate. There 
is perhaps with this double latch notion a 
solution of the latch problem as applied to 
new interior work; it requires, however, a 
door thick enough to mortise. The fact 
that you have the better part of the old 
article is pleasing enough. As for the 
practical part—there is nothing the matter 
with the workings of the modern latch. 
The old latch has often queer and ingeni¬ 
ous methods of locking; commonly, how¬ 
ever, a wooden peg was used. Some of 
the old exterior latches were rather amus¬ 
ing in their combination of metals. Be¬ 
sides being wholly of iron, brass and 
bronze, there were iron and brass, iron and 
bronze and in one type an ornamental cir¬ 
clet of pewter was introduced around the 
center of the grip. This last was a com¬ 
mon form of interior latch. 
If there were any good box-locks, their 
use would perhaps be preferable to the 
latch, in many cases at least, for interior 
use. The common forms were of iron 
painted black and the term box amply de¬ 
scribes them. Some large examples were 
enormous and their keys too large for 
one’s pocket. Had these been of brass 
they would have been interesting as bits 
of plain metal, but black iron on white 
seems altogether too strong a contrast. If 
these had perhaps been painted a dull red 
or ocre, or a bronze green, the effect might 
have been different. The early form of 
box-lock had a wooden boxing and ex¬ 
amples are often met with. They are more 
interesting as curiosities, however, than of 
any practical value—the key being a great 
drawback. There is a small exterior lock 
of brass, but we are not aware that there 
is anything of this nature of the best grade 
suitable for a full sized door. There is a 
form commonly seen on our coasting pas¬ 
senger steamers which may pass muster. 
But it should be remembered that the hall 
lock requires a brass hinge. The drop 
handles and escutcheons of some of the 
more ornamental forms were delightful in 
design, but the former seems hardly 
steady enough to compete with the abso¬ 
lute grip of the knob or latch. They were 
surely out of the way, however, when not 
In use. Then, too, they really belong to 
the more elaborate structure. With the 
French this style of lock is still used and 
by them has been made a thing of beauty; 
it seems a pity that it has not some popu¬ 
larity with us. 
The mortise lock was first introduced in 
England along the latter part of the Eigh¬ 
teenth Century, and it is now our accepted 
The Right of 
Railroad service and telephone service have 
no common factors— they cannot be compared, 
but present some striking contrasts. 
Each telephone message requires the right of 
all the way over which it is carried. A circuit 
composed of a pair of wires must be clear 
from end to end, for a single conversation. 
A bird’s-eye view of any railroad track would 
show a procession of trains, one following the 
other, with intervals of safety between them. 
The railroad carries passengers in train loads 
by wholesale, in a public conveyance, and the 
service given to each passenger is limited by 
the necessities of the others; while the telephone 
carries messages over wires devoted exclusive¬ 
ly for the time being to the individual use of 
the subscriber or patron. Even a multi-million¬ 
aire could not afford the exclusive use of the 
railroad track between New York and Chicago. 
All the Way 
But the telephone user has the whole track 
and the right of all the way, so long as he 
desires it. 
It is an easy matter to transport 15,000 
people over a single track between two points 
in twenty-four hours. To transport the voices 
of 15,000 people over a single two-wire 
circuit, allowing three minutes for each talk, 
would take more than thirty days. 
The telephone system cannot put on more 
cars or run extra trains in order to carry more 
people. It must build more telephone tracks— 
string more wires. 
The wonder of telephone development lies 
in the fact that the Bell System is so con¬ 
structed and equipped that an exclusive right 
of all the way, between near-by or distant 
points, is economically used by over 24,000,000 
people every day. 
American Telephone and Telegraph Company 
And Associated Companies 
One Policy One System Universal Service 
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