The Story Of Ancient Locks

Recently while enjoying Aya Katz's article on buying Mul-T locks and got to thinking about the high cost of quality locks. This reminded me of the interesting history behind one of man's most earliest civilized inventions -- the common lock.

It took so long for mankind to make pots, pans, kettles, weapons, and tools that people came to value them. Therefore they tried to find a way to guard their possessions when they had to be away from home or when they were asleep at night -- so the lock was invented.

The oldest known lock was a wooden one that was found in an ancient Assyrian place near the ruins of Nineveh. This lock was made by an Egyptian craftsman over four thousand years ago. It consisted of a bolt that could be pushed through a staple -- a wooden block set in the frame of a door.

There were several tumblers, or pins, in the upper part of the staple. When the bolt was shot to its full length, the tumblers in the staple dropped into corresponding holes bored in the bold. The bolt was then held fast.

The key was a straight piece of wood with pegs on one end. If the key was inserted in a slot in the bolt, the pegs lay right under the tumblers. When the key was lifted, the tumblers were raised flush with the top of the bolt, and so it could now be drawn. The Egyptians made their early locks of wood. Later they used brass or iron.

The ancient Greeks were satisfied at first with simple safeguards. A leather thong tied in curious knots around the handle of the door was the only lock. The knack of untying the knot was the only key.

Later the Greeks used bars or bolts. These could be worked from the outside of the door by means of a huge key, of the size and shape of a reaper's sickle. They key was inserted through a hole in the door above the bold. Its tip caught the bolt and pushed it. The slaves or wardens who used such keys carried them over their shoulders.

The Romans had many different kinds of locks. Some of them were provided with tumblers of various shapes -- round, tri-angular or square. One of their cleverest locks combined the features of the Egyptian tumbler lock and the Greek sickle lock.

The key was inserted in a hole in the door. then, pegs on the key pushed up tumblers and thus released the bolt.

The Romans also made wide use of the padlock, which was popular in many other ancient lands. It was used a good deal by Roman ladies to lock their vanity cases. The simple key that operated this lock was often designed to fit on the finger as a ring.

The Romans, skilled in metal work, created padlocks in various designs -- animal designs were particular favorites.

The Romans were also familiar with warded locks. The key that opened a lock of this kind turned in a keyhole. However, before it could do so it had to pass several obstacles, or wards, set near the keyhole. Unless the key was cut so that it could pass the wards, it could not turn in the lock and so it could not push back the bolt.

The locksmiths of the Middle Ages made no important changes in the designs of locks.  Instead, they depened on complicated devices to foil thieves.  They sometimes made a number of locks and keyholes for a single door or chest.

Certain chests had as many as twelve bolts, worked by several keys.   One chest was really a clever trap.  If a thief succeeded in opening it, he would have to lift an empty tray, pierced with several holes, before he could get at the contents of the chest.  However, when he thrust his fingers through the holes in order to lift the tray, a spring snapped shut on his fingers.  Since the chest was bolted to the floor, the thief was held fast.

The locksmiths of the Renaissance in France, Italy, Germany, and England was an important figure.  He was an artist in iron, bronze, and copper.  He had numerous apprentices who were distinguished by a special costume. 

Locks and keys were handmade and were often models of fine workmanship.  However, like the locks and keys of the Middle Ages, they marked no real advance in the designs which were already common in ancient times.

In the latter part of the eighteenth century, an Englishman, Robert Barron, invented a lock which was much harder to pick than any lock that ever had been made before. 

Two other English locksmiths, Joseph Bramah and Jeremiah Chubb, also made important contributions to lock making in the years that followed.