Lock It Up! 1932855246

Citation preview

by Paul Beck

,

BOOK ab^

LOCKS

MARTLAB

and

SECURITY!

by Paul Beck

^-^I- W.>, Ufe ^

I

fi^rm

fo page

',s., itl

.^,, .

Lock

Up!

It

Copyright becker&mayer!, Published by SmartLab All rights

,

1010 Northup Way, Believue, Washington. Published 2005.

I

an imprint of becker&mayer!

reserved. SmartLab

is

a registered trademark of becker&mayer!, IIOIO Northup Way, Believue, Washington.

Creative development by Jim Becker and

No

part of this

Anna Johnson

book may be reproduced, stored

in

a retrieval system, or transmitted

recording, or otherwise, v\/ithout the prior permission of SmartLab

Requests for such permissions should be addressed to SmartLab

If

you have questions or comments about

Edited by

Don

this product,

in

any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,

.

Permissions, becker&mayer!, IIOIO

send e-mail to [email protected] or

visit

Northup Way, Believue,

WA 98004.

www.smartlabtoys.com.

Roff

Written by Paul Beck Art direction and packaging design by Scott Westgard

Designed and

Assembly

illustrated

illustrations

by Eddee Helms

by John Laidlaw

Product photography by Keith Megay

SmartLab

character photography by Craig Harroid

Product development by

Lillis

Taylor

Production management by Katie Stephens Project

management by Beth Lenz

Design assistance by Karrie Lee

Every effort has been

made

to correctly attribute

Printed, manufactured, and assembled

Lock

It

Up!

is

part of the SmartLab

1098765432 1-932855-24-6

04299

I

in

all

the material reproduced

in this

book.

China.

Double-Security Safe

kit.

Not

to be sold separately.

We will

be happy to correct any errors

in

future editions.

A PLACE FOR

YOUR Your

stuff is yours, and you'd like to keep it that way, right? Everyone wants to keep something safe from prying hands and eyes. It might be money or jewelry It might be a code book or a secret diary It might just be something you don't want your brothers or sisters to get their hands on.

You could carry your valuables with you all the time, but not very convenient. Burying works fine for squirrels and pirates, but do you really want to go out in the back yard with a shovel every time you need some change for the vending machine? You need to put your valuables somewhere safe. And that's

9

I

what's safer than, well, a safe?

In this book you'll find out all about safes and the locks that keep them secure. You'll explore a bit of the secret

money.

world of

And you'll finish by building your

own super-secure,

double-lock

safe.

•

THE

FIRST

The door is a great invention. It keeps the weather and wild animals out of your house, but what about burglars and bad guys? For that, doors need locks. The oldest lock ever found is from ancient Egypt. There were two blocks of wood: one on the door and KEY HOLE one on the door jamb. Each block had a hole in it, so

when a

long block of wood slid into these holes, the

HOLLOW

door couldn't be opened. 4^ WOODEN PEGS

BLOCKS

This simple lock also had a secret. Both the bolt

sliding

wooden

and the block on the door were hollow. Inside the door jamb

On the wooden bolt there was a set of holes in the same pattern. When the bolt slid

was a

set of holes

with wooden pins in them.

dropped into the holes and held the bolt in place. wooden toothbrush, which had wooden pegs in the same pattern as the pins inside the lock. To unlock the bolt, you slid the key into the hole at the end of the wooden bolt, then pushed up on the pins that were holding it in place. closed, the pins

The key looked

like a big

KNOTTY

PROBLEn Some

ancient Greek locks were complicated knots. The knots were hard to untie, and tampering with them was supposed to bring down a curse

on the

trespassers's head.

WHO NEEDS LOCKS

WHEN YOU'VE 60T CROCS? Legend has

it that

an emperor of Annam, now

part of Vietnam, kept his valuables safe without locks or keys. Instead, he put his gold

wooden boxes a pond.

and jewels

sealed with wax, then sank

them

in

in

He filled the pond with hungry crocodiles,

and the thieves kept their distance. They also kept arms and legs.

their

WARD OFF The

THIEVES

idea of the Egyptian lock, with its pins and holes, seems to have disappeared and not shown up again until around the time of the American Civil War. From the Roman Empire until the 1700s, locks and keys used wards. Wards are like metal ridges inside a lock. In order to fit and turn past the wards, a key had to have slots or spaces cut into

it

in exactly the right pattern. You've probably seen the

warded locks. Locksmiths made their locks more secure by adding more complicated wards, which made for some pretty old-fashioned keys that

fit

weird-looking keys.

GET INTO THE

6ROPVE Modern

locks have wards,

SLOTS

WARDS

Take a look at the key to your house. Is there a groove running along one side, or maybe both sides? The grooves let the key slide into the lock

too.

around the wards.

TURNING THE

TUmBlErS

I»,

when

the United States declared

Inside this lock was a

up

row of little

+v^e

earW

''*°°^'

^^^•' ^'^''^^

wo*» a prize froAA f we

A new type of lock was invented in England, right around the time

WINNER

FICK A

its

independence.

levers called tumblers,

govert^i^erf for a*»

E»»9lijK

i»>vev>t«*'9

"ut^fickatle" lock. Cv>vww

offered! a f rize

of lOO

fowmilj

by side. Turning the key in the lock raised the tumblers, but they had to be raised in a certain pattern or

to

the lock wouldn't open. Slots cut to different depths in the

r^o^e^\ If was ^1 ye2rs before

key raised each tumbler to the proper A key without the right pattern

av>>/ov«e

lined

side

a»»>/o*>e

W*t^

wro*»g

wVxo

—

cov/laf fe»»eJ

f we

lockj^^if V^

wKo

still

il;a»» v>alf a*» Vxour.

W*$

u

PINS AND SPRINGS

Remember the Egyptian lock with its pins and holes? The American Locksmith Linus Yale brought them back with a lock he invented in 1844. Instead of levers, the lock used metal pins on springs for tumblers. Twentyone years later, Yale's son, Linus Jr., patented the lock design that almost everyone uses today. The Yale lock is a cylinder made up of a metal housing with a metal plug that rotates inside it. Pin tumblers keep the lock from turning without the key.

Do tKe

»>a/^e5

Yale

a»>d

CKutt look far^iljar? Yow've frotaw^ f V>erA Wof Vn kevyj.

oin lock5

T\^e^\e Hill

v\a/^e5

8

seev^

;v>

or

^'*S

lock-'^aktv^s.

TUMBLER LOCK

SPRING

The tumblers

are two-piece small metal pins. The springs push the tumblers down so the tumblers keep the lock from turning. When the right key is put in the lock, the peaks and valleys in the key push the tumblers up so that the breaks in the pins line up on edge, called the shear line, between the plug and housing. Now the lock can turn!

^

(

TOP DRIVER f

(STEEL)

BOTTOM

PICKING THE

LOCK

Expert locksmiths (and burglars!) tools to pick a lock.

The

called a tension wrench.

wrench

first is

The locksmith puts the tension

in the keyhole

the pin tumblers.

The

TENSION

WRENCHES

lock-picker

then uses a feeler pick to push up on the pins one at a time until each one catches at the shear

When they're all lined up,

presto!

use two basic

a thin, flat piece of metal

and twists it gently to put sideways pressure on

line.

PIN

(BRASS)

The lock opens.

FEELER PICK

GOING FOR

SPIN The combination lock with a dial, like the one on your double-lock safe, was invented in the 1700s, around the same time as the lever tumbler lock. Behind the dial are a number of wheels. Each wheel has a slot in it, and when all the slots line up, the lock will open. Turning the dial in different directions turns the wheels, and turning lines

up the

Ever wov^der

it

to the correct

numbers

slots.

w;V>>^

uje 5+efKo5cofe5?

'^^

safecrackers

T^eVre

f V>e

+V^e /vNov'.ej

lij+emJtng

lock.

%^

+o

+\.e

l;5f e»>;v>9

avNd feelimg, e-^tferf

safecrackers cam +ell

wKer

ever^+Wiv^g

l;v>ed

uf f o ofem

fVve lock.

'*S

Other types of combination locks are opened by pushing buttons or turning a series of rings like those

on some bike

locks.

THROWING AWAY

THE KEY

Computer technology brings locks.

us

new kinds

of high-tech

The key cards used by many hotels have magnetic

that hold computer information.

stripes

When you check into your

room, the hotel encodes the stripe with the code that opens your room door. When you run the card through the reader on the door to your room, the lock opens if your key has the correct W^^^^^^^^M magnetic ^^^^^^^^^M ^ strip code. The code expires on the day you leave, so once you're checked out, you can't get back into the room.

Super-secure systems

use biometrics

instead of cards or keys. Biometric scanners

examine people for unique characteristics like fingerprints, voices,

or patterns on

the retina at the back of the eye. For biometric security systems, the

person

is

the key.

Notel-Fnze-wiinv>;*^g fv^yj'icijf

RjcKar**

pe>y»»/^air> jearined

ofe»> fi5f5'

Vxis

fellow

fo

jcietn-

fof-jecref jafes

at f V>e Lo5

Nat lov^al

/^larAOj

latoraf or^,

wyKere f V>e at ol>/

parf of f VNe

wit K a

coMkiinaf iom.

inside are

;»»

wKo remf s +Ke

ferso»^

T^e

tof W

f i/^e

If

«ys, ov\e carried

ga*»k vaults

passes the test.

stories

f V>e real

amd otne keff af f V>e

picking the lock, breaking off dial,

'*^

Safe JefosJf ^o^es

(A) For a burglar-proof safe, a team of expert safecrackers gets between fifteen minutes and two hours to break in by the

jecurJf >^

T^e

ke>y or

otV>er parf

h^ a clock

a»you

Kave f Ke ke^ or

co/^ioimaf ioin, ^ou ca*» f ope»>

fKe jafe umf il

i+'s

f i/^e.

THE WORLD'S

SMALLEST COMBINATION LOCK...

Scientists at the Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico have invented the smallest combination lock every built. The lock uses six microscopic gears, each about as big as the period at the end of this sentence. The scientists hope the lock can be used to keep computer networks secure from hackers. The code to open the lock can be set to one out of a million possible combinations. If the wrong combination is entered, the lock freezes up and can only be reset by its owner.

...AND

PADLOCK LARGEST A giant

handmade padlock protects the gate of the

Jagannath temple in the Indian city of Puri. The mammoth lock, made of steel and brass, weighs more than 100 pounds. The keys are more than a foot long. Although other, bigger locks have been made as showpieces, the temple padlock is the largest in the world that is actually being used.

NEVER MIND GETTING IN,

HOW ABOMT GETTING OUT? Ehrich Weiss, better known as Harry Houdini, was the most famous escape artist who ever hved. Houdini amazed his audiences with daring escapes from locked handcuffs, leg irons, strait jackets, trunks, tire chains, milk cans, jail cells, and vaults.

Although many of his on-stage escapes used specially-built props, Houdini was also a master lockpicker. In his handcuff challenge, he would slip out of any handcuffs brought in by members of the audience. He even managed to hide tiny lock picks on his body to escape from jail cells after being

—

locked inside completely naked!

WHAT'S

INSIDE'?

You wouldn't have a safe unless you wanted to protect what's inside. Often that means documents or small, valuable things like jewelry. But most of the time it's money.

THE VALUE OF

NONEY

Money is a great invention! People use it to make it easier to trade things like shoes, hamburgers, and work. Instead of trading

the things themselves, people trade the value of the things, in the

form of money. Almost anything can be used for money as long everyone agrees on what it's worth. Animals are the oldest form of money, going back more than 10,000 years, but it's tough to make change for a sheep, and a chicken won't fit in your wallet.

s

Tr SILVER AND

COL

TWe S/»FeST SAFE IN TWe UNITED ST/»TeS VltnJf ed

iKe

Stat ej

gover»>r/\e*>+ v>a5 3 lof

Precious metals like gold and silver have been used as money for a long time. Gold is valuable and you can tell how much a piece because of gold is worth by weighing it. You can also make metals like gold and silver into coins, which are it's

Of course, around,

it's

if

it's

;j

keff

bv/ll'io^

Forf

Jv»

f Ke for^^ of goH

at f Ke

;f

Wrj, called

U.S. gold defojlfor^y

K.*^o%, yCem+uck^/. I»^5iJe fV>e

i^"

jufer-

jf romg gold defojif or^ kuJldjmg f K^re

easy for you to carry

easy for burglars to carry

killio*^ dollarj' vy;orfK\

(Twaf N $70,000,000^000.00.) Mojt of

rare,

easy to carry around.

70

/vNore fV>a»>

of gold

it,

money too! That's

why banks and stores keep their money in

safes.

i$

a f wo-j+or^ vault /^ade of Jt eel

concrete. Tv>e door

a»>d

fKar lO fomj. coMtiv

No

5;»"gle fer5o»>

fo +we

jeveral feofle KSve

vault.

fo

CO/^k>;tna+ioir\5 k*>OWir>

TKe defojifor^ of-+Ke-arf

Jj

vvyeigKj

dial

More waj f Ke

To ofev*

'%f,

uf jefarat

or\^ f O tKeM.

frof ecf ed h^ jfa+e-

alarrAS, 5urrou»>ded b>^ ar/^ed

guardj ard a jfeel fev>ce, amd frofec+ed b>y

a reart>y ar/^^

e/^Aergemc^^

No

or»e'5

power

i^aje. 2i*^^

If waj i+j owitn

water

jupplv^.

goi^g fo crack +Kaf jafe\

n

''ll

/

•Yfm

I.T

UNLOCKING f HE Want to unlock some of the amazing secrets of money? Start with a dollar scavenger hunt! Take a dollar

see

how many of these things you can find printed on it:

®AKEY

bill

':© THE

@ A SECRETARY (D

(maybe you've got one

bill

in

your

safe)

and

WORDS

"UNITED STATES"

A BALANCE SHEET

-Written 4 Times

!

0THE WORD "ONE" @ THREE DATES Times Not ® THREE WASHINGTONS J (J 4 J ^ t -Written 8

(Years,

Fruit!)

'

>|DEq aqj

uo sjaujoD jnoj aqi jo qDES

aqj jo jajuaD aqj X||Eaj)

japun ,.auo„

u\

u|

..auo„ Uuojj sqi

:>|3Eq

jaqtunu

uo

am jsao

psjuud „auo„

|E3s /jhsebj^ sqi

pue juoj] qioq uo oiouoq aqi

je ,.JE||op

>{3Eq aqi

i£

aif)

'8

japun

p„ :ija| jaMO| 'luojj aL|j uo ..saiEjj pajjun aqi jo jajnsEajj_,. puE juojj moq uo doj ai)] je BDuaojyjo sajEj5 paijun,, isajEjg psJlupi / auo SEL| a|SEa aqi puE 'auo selj pjujEjXd am 'omj selj aSjoa^j isnEqaXg 9

,,saiEa5 pai!U(-i :>|DEq

auo„ -.auQ

uo afSsa

|Eas XjnsEaj£ aL|j

:>|DBq

(MO|aq )ou uapun

am japun >|3Eq aqj

jaAo pajuud .,'3'a 'uo)Su|L|se^„ UjEJUod :j|Ejjjod aqj u| 'aSjoac) :suoi3umsB^ $

pajuud „uoj3u|qsE^„ pjoM aqj

uo pjujEj/d aqj jo asEq aqj

:|Eas XjnsEajj_

aqj

u| ,.68Z

I

..

je

(9//

1

joj sjEJaainu uEoioy)

!J!EJJJOd aqj jo

aqj

|Eas

(jXjnsEajj^ aqj jO XjEjajDaj) |Eas

..lAXXlDDQW..

jqSu aqj oj 'ajEp sauas isajEQ

XjnsEajL aqj

u\ 'juojj

aqj uo :a|EDS

> '

jqSu jaMO| 'juojj aqj uo iXjejajsaj

XjnsEaJx uaajS aqj

ui 'juojj

aqj uo

'

:Xa)|

11

4.x

-^ ^"^

SECRETS OF THE

NONET

GREAT SEAL

Now take a look at the Great Seal of the United on the back of your bill. The

shows both the front of the seal (with the eagle) and the back (with the pyramid). You can use a magnifying glass .•** States

to find a

number riddle

How many rows are

in

bill

in the seal:

of bricks

the pyramid?

How many stars

are

above the eagle!

How many leaves olive

branch

in

are on the the eagle's claw?

How many olives? /q>

^^

^

How many arrows

is

the

eagle holding?

How many letters

are

phrase, E Pluribus many, one")?

Unum

in

the Latin (''out of

SECRETS OF THE

FIVE-DOLLAR BILL Take a look at a five dollar bill. Make sure it's a new bill, with a large picture of Abraham Lincoln slightly to the left of the center. (There are still some older Lincoln in the center.)

bills

out there with a smaller picture of

BACK Now look

THE THE

FRONY

at the back. The building in the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. the picture

Look at the front of the bill and see

if

is

you can find these hidden,

anti-counterfeiting features.

(J)

Use a magnifying

glass to look at the frieze: the

carved, decorated part above the columns.

Q) Hold the bill up in front of a window or light. Do you see small,

(g)

is

called a

the

watermark.

light,

thread.

bill in

It's

front of

a strip of plastic with /vith

I

(5)

flag. «fSETT!!=P"

big, clear, simple numeral "5" helps visionimpaired people identify this bill. It also helps

The

machines that need to read the value of

10

Can you

the memorial

look closely at the decorated line between the top and bottom rows of states. Do you see the tiny faces? They may look a little like skulls, but on the real Lincoln Memorial, these are lions' heads.

look for the security

writing and a tiny

When

@ Now

actually part of the paper!

While holding the

the names of 26 states?

was dedicated, there were 48 states. Where do you think the other states' names are? (Hint: the picture shows only the front of the memorial.)

a

hidden picture of Lincoln?

The image It's

find

bills.

I

SECRETS OF THE

BILL TWENTY-DOLLAR NOW A A TAKE

LOOK AT

TWENTY-DOLLAR

BILL.

X)

HOW

NEW

IS

YOUR

BILLt

there are colors, subtle blue, green, and yellow, in the background on the front, along with background images of an eagle If

and the words TWENTY USA (to the right), you have one of the newest twenties, issued in the fall of 2003. The colors and background were added to make the bill even harder to counterfeit. (to the left)

SECURITY STRIP Hold the

bill

embedded

up to the

light

and look for the

plastic security strip.

glows when you hold the

bill

The

strip

under a "black"

(ultraviolet) light.

PRESTO,

CHAN«-Ot Hold the

bill in

front of you and look at the

number 20 in the lower right-hand corner. What color is it? Now tilt the bill away from you. What color is the number 20 now? You've found the color-shifting

ink!

11

ASSEMBLY Lay the BACK piece on the table or desk, with the word 'inside" facing up (Fig. I).

1

® Hold a WALL piece so that the word "Inside'' toward the inside of the safe. Press the piece into the groove on the BACK piece until

I

faces

snaps into place

(Fig. I).

(D Repeat with the remaining three

I

®

Fit

a

CORNER

piece between the tabs on

two

WALLS and slide it down into the groove BACK (see inset). Press firmly into place. The

adjoining

on the

and CORNER pieces another. Repeat with each

WALL

butt up against one CORNER piece (Fig. 2). will

f it

I

WALL

pieces.

I

INSTRUCflONS .PROMT

#DOOR

(D

Open the door on the FRONT

piece (see next

FRONT piece on top of the WALLS and CORNERS (Fig. 3). (D Starting at any corner, fit each WALL and CORNER into the groove around the inside of the FRONT piece (Fig. 3). ® Gently press down until the FRONT snaps into page) and place the

place on

all

sides.

p

OPENING THE SAFE © Hold the safe with one hand. (D Swipe the key card completely through the slot (Fig. 4). The GREEN door will slowly open. (D Turn the knob to Supersecret Security Symbol

#1 (^)(Fig.5).

® Press the knob and turn

it counter-clockwise to #2 (J) (Fig. 5). Symbol Security Supersecret

^

PULL OPEN THE SAFE DOOR!

LOCKING THE SAFE (T Close the safe door.

1 Turn

to (or leave) the knob on Supersecret Security Symbol #2 (J).

in the knob and turn it clockwise Security Symbol # (^^) Supersecret to

J Press

I

(Fig. 5).

PUSH THE RED DOOR CLOSED.

gfi^SI

^