by Jacob Morgan » 3 Jan 2017 0:44
Steamer referred to steam ships. A steamer trunk was one piece of luggage for a journey by ship, or a very long train trip. The larger ones stood upright and were basically mobile closests. In the 1940 movie The Ghost Breakers, there are a few scenes where Bob Hope is locked inside a steamer trunk that is hoisted aboard an ocean liner. The leading lady lost the key--if only she could have picked locks.
Someone is selling code books for Majestic trunk locks on eBay right now, $80 for the two of them. The link Squelchtone provided could surely provide a cheaper key than that route. Apparently instead of spaces and depths, flat luggage key "codes" were full-size drawings of profiles a smith would file down a blank to match.