Found a broken lock: what should be done?

If the lock were to be replaced, then keeping the lock would help solve the reason as to why the lock broke in the first place.

For instance, locks can break due to a misalignment between the door and the strike plate, or because of a hole that drilled crooked.

The broken pieces would show where the stress on the lock occurred, and prevent the replacement lock from breaking again.

If the lock were to be repaired instead of replaced, having all pieces may cut the repair expense down, especially if some pieces are hard to come by, or need to be special ordered in.

If the lock were not to be replaced, or if you didn't care why exactly the lock broke > I'm a freelance writer and I need to have someone speak authoritatively

An employee or student who retains the remains of a lock belonging to a workplace or institution could be in serious trouble.

Anyone seeing this situation should report the breakage to the owner and preferably hand the remains over to the owner.

I recently found a broken padlock from a parkland gate. I told City Hall and returned the Abus padlock via the local library as a replacement shackle could probably be easily fitted, or at least the cylinder (on the department's standard key) could be used in a replacement padlock.

That's the first thing I don't even believe. Where are your credentials?

That is the second thing or notion that deserves no respect. Who are you to be making requirements and stipulations?

Inadequate information even for a theoretical exercise. There is a huge amount of information missing about this so-called 'lock' - a keyed padlock? a combination padlock? a doorlock disintegrated? a keyed carlock or ignition lock popped out? Whose lock vis the someone person? Who owns the lock pieces and is this a public place or something else?

(Denise) Go to

(Denise) I need to have someone authoritative that I can quote for publication.

(Denise) I write for "The Hatchet: The Journal of Lizzie Borden Studies." On the last day of his life, Lizzie Borden's father Andrew found a broken lock on the floor of his place of business. He picked up the pieces and put them in his pocket. This is often cited as an example of his fanatical thrift. I'm trying to ascertain if this was in fact an example of extreme stinginess or if it was simply an act of common sense that has been twisted into something negative.

Got it.

Got it. I've read a number of Lizzie Borden sites, including what's at Crime Magazine .

and the extensive writeup by Russell Aiuto at Crime Library

There's a lot about locks in the Lizzie Borden story -- a lot more than the issue of the broken or 'disused' lock Andrew handled the day he was murdered. There's the business of the lockiness of the house and the Lizzie stealing incident.

OK. I retract my 'hostility' and skepticism. Good luck with your research.

The lock in question was on/in the rental property of Andrew Borden, at the shop of his tenant, Jonathan Clegg, a hatter/haberdasher.

Andrew Borden was a lock 'nut' both before and seriously after Lizzie's thievery within her/his/their own home - where the inner rooms had locks all over the place, and the outside doors had more locks than typical and more 'lockage' than typical, even for the era.

There were also old discarded or stored locks in the barn in the box where the lead sinkers were supposed to be.

Andrew Borden was somewhat 'obsessive' [depending on your point of view] in his concerns about security, and a broken lock would interest even concern him - not in terms of its 'value' but in terms of its 'interest' [broken security] to him. Like a bird with a broken wing to an animal person.

I don't think the lock story contributes anything to the well established stingy miserliness of Andrew Borden, which is unequivocally established by other stories.

He probably planned to look at the lock some more, to determine how it came to be broken. He 'liked' locks - probably was pretty smart about them.

what is your name and place of business ?

(Denise) My name is Denise Noe and I'm a freelance writer.

(Denise) May I quote you? Are you a locksmith? For what company do you work?

(Denise) Actually, the essay I'm working on tries to debunk the myth of the monstrous miser. Mind you, I don't doubt that Andrew Borden was often very careful with his money and husbanded it closely. However, there is also much evidence of a pronounced generous streak: he paid for Lizzie to go on a tour of Europe; in a household with three adult women, he paid for a fulltime live-in maid, permitting his wife and daughters much leisure; he paid for Emma to attend a boarding school; contrary to legend, he was one of the first in Fall River to apply for and get indoor plumbing, seeking the service only 6 months after it first became available. Andrew was tight in some respects. He is said to have dressed very plainly and to have worn his clothes until they were practically falling off. Overall, he spent little on ostentaion or on himself, much on his wife and daughters. I believe his bad reputation is to some extent the result of a tradition of misandry or man-hating, that sees husbands and fathers as tyrants rather than protectors and providers.

I am not a locksmith. I am just a hobbyist who has an interest in various forms of security and the insecurities which arise from not having a good understanding of the elements of something which is supposed to be securing.

I like to understand how things work, which includes how experts, hobbyists, hackers and crackers 'get into' them. Sorta like solving a puzzle. I would be interested in picking a lock to see if I could do it by understanding how the pick and the lock work, not to steal something. Actually, it is good enough for me to understand /how/ a lockpick can work without my having to develop the skill to actually do it. I can 'virtually' pick a lock and be happy and save myself a lot of lockpick training time. So, I guess I'm also 'lazy' in some ways.

I also like to dig for information and interpret the information I find independently rather than just accept the interpretation of the information which someone else has made, so that makes me 'opinionated' or 'with an opinion' or 'holding an opinion' -- as opposed to stubbornly holding onto an opinion as a def of opinionated. I /am/ prone to hold onto my 'developed' opinon even tho' someone else may have a different opinion, unless the 'pieces' of the puzzle can be re-arranged to support a better or different opinion.

The Lizzie Borden case is a nice puzzle. That's about all I'm 'worth' quoting on.

The business of your 'extracting' the information and presenting it to some newsgroups populated by locksmiths and lock hobbyists isn't the way to get an /expert's/ opinion, so I will hold to that criticism which you may have felt from my original post. I have been called on to give my expert opinion of things completely unrelated to this topic, and I don't form my expert opinion based on some fragmentary information spoonfed to me by someone else. I want all of the raw data.

I do think that people who are interested in locks and puzzles should engage themselves in some reading about the Lizzie Borden story, because locks do play an important role in the story.

I didn't use the term monstrous.

OK.

Hmm. For some reason I believed that he was 'pokey' and behind the curve on the plumbing issue. I'll research that.

The business of why he did what he did for the women is part of the complexity of the puzzle. But using the term 'generous' to describe Andrew is overboard. It is a matter of women getting what they want by their craft, and the man behaving the way he does by his 'nature'.

I don't know that I would consider his reputation 'bad' any more than I would 'monstrous'.

He was tightfisted and he wasn't 'generous'.

Refused for blanket purposes. Ask whether you can quote *specific* comments and I'll decide on a case by case basis.

Agreed.

Personal take: If you think the lock was deliberately damaged -- ie, if you think it may be evidence of something -- then the proper answer is to contact the police and ask them what if anything should be done about it. You don't want to touch or move it unless you know what you're doing, to avoid damaging fingerprints and so on -- basically, if you need to ask us, you have no business making that decision.

Why don't you call your local police department and ask what THEIR recommended procedure would be? This one's more their concern than ours.

duh ? didn't really want to know :-)