eather when used on exposed yard
or stable doors; the drawback lock for hill doors, with a spring bolt
that can be worked from the inside with a knob or from the outside with a
latch-key; the dead lock, having one large bolt worked by the key, but
not catching or springing like the rim lock; the mortice lock, which is
buried in the door, and may be of the dead, the rim, or the drawback
variety; the familiar loose padlock made in immense quantities both of
iron and of brass; and others less familiar.

The lock-producing centre includes Wolverhampton, Willenhall,
Wednesfield, and some of the outlying rural districts like Brewood and
Pendeford, where parts and fittings are prepared. In the mother parish
the business is extensive and extending; at Wednesfield, iron cabinets
and till locks, as well as various kinds of keys, are produced in great
numbers, for keys are frequently made apart from the locks as a separate
branch of the trade.

Willenhall produces most of the same kinds as Wolverhampton, except the
fine plate, though oftener in the cheaper qualities; rim locks are very
largely made, all on the Carpenter and Young patent, most of them for
export. Willenhall locks are all warded, the wards varying in strength
and complexity, known as common, fine round, sash, and solid wards.

It was the Carpenter and Young invention of 1830, making the action of
the catch bolt perpendicular instead of horizontal, which renewed the
vitality of the town's staple industry.

As registered the patent was entered:--

"No. 5,880, 18 January, 1830. James Carpenter, of Willenhall, and
John Young, of Wolverhampton, locksmiths. Improvements in locks."

Mr. R. B. Prosser, a recognised authority on patents and inventions,
records that in 1841 Carpenter brought an action against one Smith, but
the verdict was given for the defendant, it being held that Carpenter's
lock was not a new invention (Webster's Reports of Patent Cases, Vol. I.,
p. 530).

Notwithstanding this the lock has always been known, and is still known,
as "Carpenter's lift-up lock."

James Carpenter, the founder of the business still carried on under the
style of Carpenter and Tildesley, was not a native of Willenhall. His
first place of business was in Walsall Street opposite the "Wake Field";
thence he removed to Stafford Street, occupying the premises now the
Three Crowns Inn; subsequently building and occupying the Summerford
Works (and Summerford House)