Jim's Picture Page

"The correct key will push each pin pair up just enough so that the point where the two pins come together lines up perfectly with the space where the cylinder and the housing come together -- this point is called the shear line."[1] You twist the key, and the door opens.

There's a really plain road outside my house that I drive almost everyday and in all weather conditions and at all times; day in and day out. But, one autumn morning something really neat happened. I pulled out of my driveway and immediately saw a shear line! It was a combination of being in the right weather condition, the right location, the right time of day, and the right angle of the sun that transformed my plain old ordinary road into something quite extraordinary. After 10 seconds, the tumbler changed and my road was just a road again. Fortunately, I caught a glimpse before it closed.