Corbin lock question

Corbin used them as a way to cut down on wear and tear when inserting a key over and over. They can also be fun in challenge locks because your pick has a tendency to slide off of them making it a little harder to pick.

Hmm, one of my super old-looking Corbin padlocks also has a ball bearing below the bottom of the first key pin. Makes picking quite a bear, I've never opened that one.

The ball bearings are to reduce wear on on the key pins. They usually only do it on pin 1-2 or 1-3 because those pins see many more cycles than the rear most pins. (Pin one and two have to ride along almost the full length of the key twice every time the key is inserted or removed) although I have a couple in my collection with ball bearings in every position.

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What are the ball bearings used for in this lock? They were at the bottom of the key pins where I could actually see the front one when it's together.

Ball bearings in that position are usually used for construction keying. That way a key with a certain bitting can actuate the lock when it turns in one direction, but the drop into a slot in the housing when turned in the other direction, allowing the plug to turn. However, this doesn't appear to be the case with this core because it doesn't have slots for them to drop into on the core. You can make look for them in the housing, but I'm willing to bet the locksmith that pinned this either didn't have the correct height pin, or was missing key pins all together and just rigged it up with the ball bearings.

I was thinking Murphy balls....to prevent bumping?

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I would guess that it's to make picking harder or to cut down on wear. The only place I know that they're routinely used is jails, for both of those reasons.