7 4 2 6: Solving a Mystery

I've had this combination lock since I was a kid. I think I found it in a box that my dad bought at a farm auction. 

It had a paper tag wired to the shackle. The tag read "7 4 2 6." Those same numbers are written and scratched all over the lock's back cover.

7 4 2 6 has to be the numbers to the combination, right? I tried spinning the dial to 7-4-2-6 about a hundred times in my lifetime. I tried the sequence clockwise. I tried the sequence counter clockwise. I tried turning pass the 7 twice. I tried turning pass the 4 three times. It didn't matter. I'd tug on the shackle after each sequence, and the lock would not move. It was so frustrating. What were theses numbers for?

It's not that I thought about it very much. Every few years I'd find the Gougler lock sleeping in a box in the garage or our basement. I'd try those numbers again, and again I'd get the same, locked results. Then I'd put it back in the box. Ten-year-old me wouldn't let adult-me throw it away. That would be admitting defeat.

Charlotte likes to say that that if you have ever clapped your hands once, then you never really stop clapping. You just take long pauses between the claps. I guess I never stopped trying to open this lock. I just took decade-long pauses.

The last pause began when we moved in 2013, and eneded in the summer. This time technology finally caught up with me. I Googled "Gougler Keyless Lock," and I actually got results:

I learned that my padlock is a Red Dot No. 30-S. Its "touch-click" feature made it a popular lock for schools in the 1950s. You can feel ten different "clicks" as the dial rotates. If you know how many clicks you turn to in either direction, you can even open this padlock in the dark. 

So, I always had the correct combination; I just didn't know how to use it!.*slaps forehead* The numbers on the lock's face have nothing to do with it. The numbers are for "clicks" not for positions. The combination begins at 0:

Counterclockwise: 7 clicks

Clockwise: 4 clicks

Counterclockwise: 2 clicks

Counterclockwise: 6 clicks

I was stunned when the shakle opened for the first time. I felt a sense of relief, satisfaction, and wonder as I looked at the open lock in my hand. I laughed out loud and mentally gave 10-year-old me a high-five. 

We did it. After all those years, we finally did it.  

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I thought about cleaning up the lock's case, but I don't want to erase the lock's history. 

I understand the irony of writing the combination on the back of a combination lock. I also understand how forgetful kids can be. That's why I think this padlock was used in a school. I can imagine some principal in the 1950's with a black frame glasses and a buzz cut announcing to freshmen, "Everyone has a locker, and eveyone has a lock - use them both!" 

But 7426 is written in four different types of handwriting. Wouldn't one set of numbers be enough?

The scratched numbers at the top look like a child's handiwork. The same goes for the numbers on the bottom. The numbers written in the middle and on the left side appear to be written by a much surer and mature hand. 

I'm guessing the numbers were put there for a forgetful kid in a series of forgetful kids. That makes me wonder how many different kids used this lock? 

That's a mystery I'll never solve.