Customers don't want to hang around all day waiting for a home delivery. We propose to solve the home delivery problem, by radically rethinking how locks and keys combine, to provide security for goods.

Our new system called 1792 Lock & Key Technology is described in Patent application GB 2358428, "Security Lock and Key". This can be accessed from the Patent Office web site at http://www.patent.gov.uk/search

1792 Technology: a brief introduction Essentially, the new class of 1792 locks will range from sophisticated electronic locks, down to basic mechanical locks, which can be installed and operated with a minimum of fuss. The related 1792 keys are disposable and made from cardboard. The keys will have a common master template design, to fit all of the variations of 1792 locks. 1792 Technology will allow goods to be delivered to a safe area on the customers premises without the customer having to be present, to accept the delivery. A guillotine inside the lock chops the head off the disposable key and prevents its re-use.¹ As a bonus, opening the new locks will frank the stub of the key, which is removed, generating a mechanical substitute for the traditional signature on delivery.

• 1792 Locks can be opened using a cardboard or plastic card key, which also doubles as a parcel address label.
• 1792 Locks will seal storage containers of the customers choosing, ranging from secure porches to oversized postal delivery boxes.
• 1792 Key templates will be customised to open customers locks, by punching holes in them. The position of the holes corresponds to a security number, revealed to the Internet trader by the customer, when placing an order.
• The end of the 1792 Key which opens the lock is chopped off and drops inside the lock housing, as the lock is opened. It's a Use-Once-Only Key.

The stub of the 1792 Key is removed from the lock and retained by the delivery company. The stub has a new and different set of coded holes punched in it, by the action of opening the lock. These holes represent a signature for the lock and provide evidence of delivery.

¹The original guillotine was invented in France in 1792.