The pin/tumbler mechanism found in simple cylinder locks is notoriously easy to beat. Armed with patience and a few hairpins, most anyone can learn to pick such a lock. But the pin/tumbler lock you see here is another story entirely. The keyway of its lock assembly is curved. And by "curved," I don't mean paracentric. I mean that the passage through which the key travels is squiggly. Serpentine. It meanders, to quote the patent under which the lock assembly was originally filed, "along its longitudinal extent." How does one open such a lock? Why, with a floppy key, of course:
