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History of Locks
The following is an extract from our Encyclopaedia of Locks and Builders Hardware.
First published in 1958.
The History of Locks Old locks and their keys together form a subject which
has received considerable attention. There is a great deal of information about them in
the works by John Chubb (1850) George Price (1856), Commissioners of Patents (1873),
Pitt-Rivers (1883) and H. W. Chubb (1893) which are named in the Bibliography. These are
the outstanding studies in the English language and together they have provided much of
the material for the present account.
Of earlier and other means than locks and keys to protect valuables it must suffice to
mention only a few. Primitive man's treasures were often buried or hidden in caverns, the
hollow trunks of trees or elsewhere. Cords and ropers were used in various ways to fasten
doors and for other measures of security. The Gordian knot comes to mind. Then there was
the wooden latch on the inside face of a door which would be lifted or drawn back from the
outside by a cord passing through a hole in the door. To prevent opening from outside no
more was needed than pulling in the cord.
In a history of locks it is interesting and important to trace the means adopted to
make the lock secure, as age succeeded age. There are and have been throughout the
centuries, only two mechanical principles by which security in key operated locks is
obtained. One is by means of fixed obstructions to prevent wrong keys from entering or
turning in the locks. The other, which is superior, employs one or more movable detainers
which must be arranged in pre-selected positions by the key before the bolt will move. The
earliest locks, although crude, ungainly and inartistic, demand notice for the admirable
means adopted by their makers to provide the security. After these, through another long
period, appeared locks which, according to present ideas, were inferior in respect of
security to the primitive forms. On the other hand, many of these later locks were so
beautifully fashioned that the work of the artist overlaid and sometimes obscured the
mechanical intention. This is true no less of Roman times than when French and German
smiths of the Middle Ages encrusted their lock plates with Gothic mouldings and carved
their delicately shaped keybows. As the styles of architecture and its kindred arts
succeeded one another, the decoration and treatment of locks and keys were affected by the
same changes. Mechanically they altered also, if not always for the better. In a much
later age, which showed itself more utilitarian than artistic, the mechanical features of
locks and the need to provide greater security gained a new importance.
It is quite reasonable to suppose that the first barring of a door was done by means of
a cross beam, either dropped into sockets of sliding in staples fixed on the door; and it
is equally reasonable to suppose that if it slid, a vertical pin dropping into a hole
through the staple and beam together, kept the beam in place. If the beam was on the
outside of the door, the locking pin must be hidden, and reached either through a hole in
the beam, or else through a hole in the staple. This is the kind of primitive lock as made
by the Egyptians.

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They shortened the beam in a long bolt, and made it hollow for part of its length, so
as to reach the pin hidden in beam and staple through the beam itself. The key, which was
pushed up the hollow, had pegs on it to match the pins which held the bolt - for the one
pin was now multiplied. When the key was well home it was raised, and so its pegs lifted
up the pins out of the way, leaving the bolt free. Then the bolt was drawn back by the
key; the pegs are the latter filling up and engaging with the holes until then filled by
the pins. It will be noticed that the shank of the key is the arm and the pegs are the
fingers of the hand. The dropping pins are the true tumblers. The Egyptian lock was first
described by Eton in his Survey of the Turkish Empire, 1798. Further information
about it was given early in the 19th century by Denon, the Frenchman, who said
that he had found the locks sculptured in one of the grand old temples of Karnac, which
shows that the same kind of lock has served Egypt for 40 centuries. Locks almost identical
or with very little difference and still made of wood have been seen recently in Iraq and
Zanzibar. In another class of primitive locks, the pins were reached through a hole in the
staple and not through the bolt. There is good reason to believe they were once remarkably
widespread. They have seen comparatively recently in some parts of Scandinavia, in the
Hebrides and Faroe Islands. They have been observed also upon the West Coast of Africa and
in the less frequented parts of certain Balkan States. The hole in the staple by which to
get at the pins is a horizontal one above the bolt. The pins are square in section, and
are notched on their sides for the key to pass and get into position before being lifted.
The key is usually flattish, with little side projections which engage the pins. After
they are lifted, it is necessary to pull back the bolt by hand, thus making a marked and
essential difference between this and that of Egypt, in which the bolt is withdrawn by the
key itself. These locks vary in detail, some having two sets of pins, the key passing
between the sets, in others the pins have holes right through them for the key, not merely
side notches.
The next two classes of primitive locks are those in which the beam or bolt was mounted
on the inside surface of the door. In this case, if fastened by the tumbler pin, it would
not be so necessary to conceal it as when bolt and pin were outside the door. There are
some curious sickle-shaped pieces of iron found now and again - as illustrated - which
look as if they were made for the purpose of putting through a hole in the door and
pulling up or pushing up the pin. Perhaps they simply engaged the bolt in a direct
fashion, and, being turned from the outside, move it to and fro, but they vary in their
outlines too much for this supposition to be probable, some being full sickle-shackle and
other only slightly cranked or bent, and in some well-preserved specimens their ends have
been carefully shaped, as it to fit a hole exactly. They have been found at many places in
France and Germany. General Pitt-Rivers ascribes some which he himself found near Lewes,
to the late Celtic period. At last we come to the fourth primitive type of lock, the bolt
or beam being still inside the door. In this type the bolt was kept out by the projection
of a spring or springs, which spread out against the sides of the staple in the same way
that an unwilling boy spreads out his arms and legs against the jambs of a doorway through
which his school fellows try to push him. The first function of the key is to compress the
springs. It is a flattish one, with return prongs or hooks on its end. It is first passed
through a horizontal slit in the door and bolt; then turned a quarter circle, and pulled.
The pull brings the prongs to bear upon the springs of the bolt making them lie flat, and
so clear of the fixed obstructions at theirs ends. The bolt is then free to slide back,
and this is effected by simply sliding back the key, for its prongs are now embedded in
the bolt. The keys of these locks have been numerously found among Roman remains, and not
long ago it was stated that locks of this kind were still in use in Norway.
Some references and quotations from ancient and other writers concerning primitive
locks and their keys are of interest. Aratus in his description of the constellation
Cassiopeia says that in shape it resembles a key. Huetius agrees, adding that the stars to
the North compose the curved part and those to the South the handle of the crooked or
curvey keys belonging to those early days. According to Parkhurst's Hebrew Lexicon (1807)
keys of this kind with handles of wood or ivory were put through holes in the doors and
turned one way or the other to move the bolt. Homer in the Odyssey says that Penelope
wishing to open a storeroom picked up a well made copper key which had an ivory handle.
That is the translation by a modern scholar. Pope's version is:-
A brazen key she held, the handle turn'd, With steel and polish'd
elephant adorn'd;
The poet Arison in the Anthologia applies to a key an epithet meaning on that is much
bent. Eustathius, a Greek commentator on Homer about AD 1170, says that keys of this kind
were very ancient but still in use in his time. As they were in the shape of a sickle and
awkward to carry otherwise, they were tied together and carried on the shoulder. This
custom is confirmed by Callimachus in his Hymn to Ceres. Eustathius attributes the
invention of keys to the Lacedemonians while Pliny and Polydore Virgil give credit to
Theodorus of Samos. This, however, is disproved by other authors who hold that keys were
in use before the Siege of Troy.
It has been said that the most ancient lock every discovered is that described by Mr
Joseph Bonomi in Nineveh and its Palaces as having secured the gate of an apartment
in one of the palaces of Khorsabad. He says that the gate was fastened by a large wooden
lock like those still used in the East, the wooden key with iron pegs at one end to lift
the iron pins in the lock, being as much as a man can carry. Mr Bonomi adds that the
length of such keys ranged from thirteen to fourteen inches to two feet or more. In a
letter which appeared in a trade journal in 1850 Mr W C Trevelyan said that it was
remarkable that the locks which had been in use in the Faroe Islands, probably for
centuries, were identical in their constructions with those of the Egyptians. They were,
lock and key, in all their parts made of wood; of which material, he believed, were others
which had been found in Egyptian Catacombs, thus making the Egyptian so like the Faroese
in structure and appearance, that it would not be easy to distinguish one from the other.
The frequent mention of locks and keys in the Old Testament is further evidence of
their great antiquity. In the book of Judges (Chapter iii), it is recorded that
after Ehud had stabbed Eglon, King of Moab, he shut the doors of the parlour upon him,
and locked them, and when the servants came and found the doors locked, they took a
key, and opened them. This would probably be in the twelfth or thirteenth century
B.C., and there is no reason to doubt that by that time locks and keys were in use in
Palestine. In the Song of Songs (Chapter, v, v. 5) there is a poetical reference to
hands dropping with Myrrh on the handles of the lock. Then in the book of Nehemiah
(Chapter iii, v.6) 445 B.C., it is stated that at the time of repairing the old gate of
Jerusalem, they set up the doors thereof, and the locks thereof, and the bars thereof.
In confirmation of other records that keys in the early days were very large, there is in
the prophecy of Isaiah (Chapter. xxii, v.22) circa 712 BC, this passage: And the key of
the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder. (See illustration).
Roman padlocks in metal were constructed very much after the fashion of the fourth
primitive type of lock for doors mentioned earlier. The shackle or hasp, which was
separate from the body, carried on its lower side a pair of spreading springs, which
entered a hole in the end of the body when the two pieces were being put together. When
the shackle was pressed in fully, the springs which during the operation had been
gradually closed up, spread out inside the body and so held the two pieces together. To
take them apart, the springs, which were simply flexible barbs, had to be compressed. This
was done in some locks by a key which was turned after being pushed through a hole in the
body.

Illustration (A) shows a lock in the Roman style which was operated in that manner.
Another lock illustrated (B) though German of the 18th century has similar
mechanism. Its keyhole is concealed by a secret hinged cover which is released by using
the projection on the bow of the key to press the end of a spring that is reached through
the hole in the side of the shackle. In locks such as that at (C) the key when inserted
merely slides along the springs to compress them and then drives the shackle outwards.
This style of padlock is found to be the almost universal native type in China at this
day, so one wonders who was the first and true inventor, Roman or Celestial. Being loose
portable locks of a kind convenient to secure baggage of all sorts in transit, they might
easily become well known, especially along the ancient trade routes. These padlocks,
whether Roman or Chinese in origin, are seen all over the East, shaped and decorated in
ways peculiar to their own countries. Some are shaped like dragons, others like horses or
dogs, the tails forming the hasps. The Romans had other kinds of padlocks as well, in
which the security parts were made like those of their fixed locks. The padlock has always
been in favour as a fastening with the Greeks and Romans, and the natives of the East. In
all probability the movable lock succeeded the primitive. It seems to form the connecting
link between the earliest locks and those of more recent date.
Roman keys have been found also in various parts of England, and specimens are to be
seen in the British Museum, some being rigidly attached to finger rings. Mr Price declares
that the holes and cuts in the keys discovered at Herculaneum and Pompeii, of which three
are illustrated, are distinct from the old Roman keys found in this country, and indicate
that they did not perform a complete revolution in the locks, which, in consequence, were
the equivalent of the spring locks of modern days. Roman keys are found much more
frequently than Roman locks, some being of such shapes that it is not always easy to say
what their locks were like. One kind of key has its bit angle shape; one angle is cut to
operated bolt pins in the way already described, the other being pierced with holes as if
to pass fixed obstructions or wards. Many of the keys were undoubtedly made to turn, their
stems being pin or pipe, after the manner of modern keys. Some of the pipes were drilled
right up so that any dirt or other obstructions could be pushed through. This old idea is
from time to time brought forward as a novelty by one or another in these days. A great
many of the keys of olden times have been found at different periods; most of them are of
bronze, but some are made of iron; many of these keys have numerous wards peculiarly
shaped, extending considerably up the shank and belonging without doubt to warded locks,
which, judging from the intricate arrangement of the ward-bits of their keys, must have
been elaborately contrived. Lipsius, in his comments on the second book of Tacitus, is the
first to allude to the ancient usage's respecting keys, which in some cases, he states,
had a ring adapted in size for the purpose of being worn on the little finger, and
engraved to answer the purpose of a seal. From the evidence of various early writers is
seems safe to conclude that the Greeks and Romans learned the use and construction of
locks from the Egyptians. From the beginning of the mediaeval period, the shapes of keys
are more like our own, and working more like them than the preceding types. The sliding
and pushing have given place entirely to turning movements, the keys being either made
pipe-fashion to slide onto a fixed pin in the lock, or else made solid, and terminating in
a projecting pin, which fitted a socket or hole in the back plate of the lock. Later on,
the section of the pipe was not always circular; sometimes it was triangular, and the pin
on which it was pushed was shaped to fit it. Of course, provision was then made for the
pin itself to turn with the key. The outside of the key, too was fluted in the Renaissance
period and the lock pin then became a barrel as well, revolving in bearings at both ends.
Some of the most beautiful specimens of keys are those belonging to the 15th
and early 16th centuries which can be seen in various museums. They are
represented by the illustration. For perfect proportion in all their details and minute
workmanship, they have never been excelled. Their four-sidedness and breadth gives them a
strong sturdy look, but this is lightened by the gracefulness of their pierced tops and
sides. Flat pictures along do not show their beauty.
From Roman times until the end of the seventeenth century reliance for security in the
great majority of locks was placed upon fixed obstructions. The falling pins had gone
almost into disuse. To this end, wards and keyholes of peculiar shapes were extensively
used. Wards became progressively intricate so that in the best locks the fashioning of
them and keys to suit, with numerous fine slits and perforations, was truly a craft that
required a long apprenticeship. The exterior of such locks was in keeping with the
interior and as a result very many beautiful specimens with delicate forging, open work
and fine traceries were produced, especially in the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries. The skill and imagination of the smiths who made them, as a branch of the
blacksmith's art, were apparent in these locks of which many good examples are preserved
in the museums and other buildings of this country, France, Germany, Italy and elsewhere.
They were often very large and expensive locks which in the making must have taken as many
weeks as minutes are now required for the manufacture of some locks. To keep the dead bolt
of these early locks in the locked or unlocked position, a spring was commonly fitted or,
alternatively, a single acting tumbler which was no more than a simple catch or hook,
without any security value, to be lifted by the key as it was turned. In warded locks with
spring bolts the tumbler was not necessary. The wide diversity of design of the mediaeval
locks, with never a repetition as it seems, is one of their striking features. Dozens of
pages could be covered with illustrations and accounts of these locks but here a few only
must suffice.

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One interesting lock, known as the Beddington lock, is illustrated. It is a wrought
iron gilt rim lock measuring about 14 x 8 inches with the Royal Arms and supporters used
by Henry VII and Henry VIII. It is said that Henry VIII took it with him when he travelled
and had it screwed to his bedroom door wherever he stayed. A seventeenth century lock with
its key is shown below. This was formerly on the iron door of the Treasury at
Aix-la-Chapelle, but now is at South Kensington. The lock, which was five bolts, measures
171/4 x 91/2 inches and the key is 73/4 inches long. Among mediaeval locks we find chest
locks occupying an important place. Wooden chests, often strengthened with iron bands,
were the safes in which our forefathers kept their treasures. The locks of some of these
had an elaborate system of bolts arranged round the lid of the chest. Two varieties of
comparatively simple chest locks are illustrated below.

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It has been said that keyless combination locks were common in China in remote
antiquity. Others ascribe the invention to the Dutch but the history of these locks remain
obscure. It is clear from two quotations given here in Modern English that they were in
use at the beginning of the 17th Century, probably in the form of letter
padlocks. In Beaumont and Fletcher's play The Noble Gentleman written before 1615,
were the lines:
A cap case for your linen, and your plate,
With a strange lock that opens with A.M.E.N.
Improvements were made later by M Regnier, Director of the Musee d'Artillerie, in
Paris, who was a man of considerable ingenuity. He produced some keyless combination locks
which were held in high regard at the time. There were of excellent workmanship and so
constructed that the combination could be changed. In some verses by Carew addressed to
Thomas May on his Comedy of The Heir, acted in 1620, there is the following
passage:
As doth a lock,
That goes with letters; for, till every one be known
The lock's as fast, as if you had found none.
Robert Barron, who was British born, made a valuable contribution to the development of
locks by his invention in 1778. He recognised the weak points of wards and the insecurity
of locks which depended on them. Barron devised a lock with two pivoted tumblers described
as double acting, both of which had to be lifted correctly, neither too much nor too
little, before the bolt could move. Six years later, Joseph Bramah, a Yorkshire man,
patented the famous lock which is known by his name. This is technically very important
though as a commercial product the lock to a large extent has fallen in disuse. It is
believed to be the first lock having the security mechanism in a nozzle or cylinder and a
small key which did not reach the bolt but acted through intervening members. The
mechanism comprised a set of sliding plates to be pushed inwards differently by the key to
certain positions to allow movement of the bolt.
The name of Chubb is famous in the lock world for the invention of the detector lock
and for the production of high quality lever locks of outstanding security during a period
of 140 years. The detector lock, which is described elsewhere in this work, was patented
in 1818 by Jeremiah Chubb of Portsmouth, England, who gained the reward offered by the
Government for a lock which could not be opened by any but its own key. It is recorded
that, after the appearance of this detector lock, a convict on board one of the prison
ships at Portsmouth Dockyard, who was by profession a lockmaker, ad had been employed in
London in making and repairing locks, asserted that he had picked with ease some of the
best locks, and that he could pick Chubb's lock with equal facility. One of these was
given to the convict together with all the tools which he stated to be necessary, as well
as blank keys fitted to the drill pin of the lock and a lock made on exactly the same
principle, so that he might make himself master of the construction. Promises of a reward
of £100 from Mr Chubb, and a free pardon by the Government were made to him in the event
of his success. After trying for two or three months to pick the lock, during which time
he repeated overlifted the detector, which was as often undetected or readjusted for his
subsequent attempts, he gave up, saying that Chubb's were the most secure locks he had
ever met with, and that it was impossible for any man to pick or to open them with false
instruments. Improvements in the lock were subsequently made under various patents by
Jeremiah Chubb and his brother Charles.
From the Barron and Chubb locks, which demonstrated the protective values of their
double acting detainers, whether tumblers or levers, it was a logical process to develop a
lever lock in its simplest form, that is to say, without detectors or other additional
feature. Thus came into being what is known as the English lever lock. Notwithstanding its
long history, which extends over nearly 150 years, and the advent of other mechanisms, it
still remains the best type for locks which are operated by a key with a projecting bit
designed to act directly on the bolt. Levers, in essence, are thin metal plates of which
any reasonable number may be superimposed to swing on the same pivot. Collectively and
simultaneously they must be lifted correctly to pre-selected positions, which may be
different for each lever, before the key, as it turns, can move the bolt. Lever lock with
these fundamental characteristics, if different in detail, are now made in all parts of
the world. The interest aroused by the Barron, Bramah and Chubb inventions, all for the
sake of giving more security in locks, and their claims to high achievement, created a
desire in other lock people to devise something as good or better. So during the first
half and middle of the 19th century very many fine locks were cleverly
contrived. Most of them were costly to produce and for that and other reasons have fallen
into the limbo of oblivion.
The rivalry between some of the manufacturers was acute and faith in their own
inventions strong. Challenges were thrown out and offers of reward to the would-be pickers
of locks, if successful. It is believed that Bramah began it in 1817 or earlier by
offering £200 to anyone who could make an instrument to pick a padlock which was
exhibited in Bramah's shop window in Piccadilly. It is said that an ingenious mechanic
after spending a week in the attempt gave it up in despair. In 1832 Mr Chubb challenged a
Mr Hart to pick a Chubb lock. More of this kind of thing continued on and off, frequently
before panels of judges and witnesses, until the year 1851 of the Great Exhibition. The
whole affair was known as the lock controversy for there was a good deal of interchange of
correspondence and letters to the press. In 1851 Alfred Charles Hobbs came from America to
sell locks in this country. He first gained fame here by picking some of the best locks of
the day having previously mastered all American locks which he head been challenged to
pick. This Mr Hobbs, who invented the protector lock, was one of the founders of the firm
of Hobbs Hart & Co Ltd.
The credit of producing pin tumbler locks, as we know them, belongs to the Yales,
father and son. In 1848 Linus Yale senior, who was born in Middleton, Conn. for a time
devoted his attention to bank locks and later applied the pin tumbler mechanism of the
ancient Egyptian lock to modern conditions. The first models had the tumblers built into
the case of the lock, which had a round fluted key. Linus Yale junior developed the pin
tumbler cylinder, reducing it to its present dimensions, with different kinds of keys,
these being at one time flat and later corrugated, which eventually gave place to the
paracentric pattern now used. Pin tumbler locks very much alike in size and construction
are now made in great quantities in many countries throughout the world.
Thomas Parson's lock of 1833 was the first change key lock patented in England but old
locks embodying the same idea have been seen, showing that Parsons was not the original
inventor. For one of these early locks the key bit was made of a number of pieces which
could be threaded on the stem in any order and there secured by a nut and a pin. The
levers in the lock were rearranged to suit. A keyless combination lock superior to any so
far named, is the kind made for safes and strong rooms. This was developed in the United
States of America during the second half of the 19th century, so it is
believed. Such locks are widely used in the States and to a smaller extent in this and
other countries. Some of them are capable of one hundred million changes of combination.
Keyless locks of a simpler construction, though they are manipulated similarly to the one
just names, are made for drawers, boxes and other receptacles.
As far as is known, the lock patented in 1831 by Williams Rutherford, a bank agent, of
Jedburgh in Scotland, was the first time-lock made. This was a lock requiring a key to
open it after a given period of time. The inventor introduced at the rear end of the bolt
a circular stop plate, which prevented the withdrawal of the bolt by the key until the
plate had rotated a definite amount in order to bring a notch in it opposite the end of
the bolt. The rotation of the circular plate was caused by clockwork. As the notch could
be set at pleasure any distance from the end of the bolt, the time could be varied, but
the lock could not be opened by its own or any other key until the appointed number of
hours had elapsed. The modern time-lock as used for safes and strong rooms is a much more
elaborate piece of mechanism than Rutherford's. It may be used as the sole fastening of
the bolts of the door, or in conjunction with locks of other kinds. It is believed that Mr
James Sargent, of Rochester, NY made the fist model of this variety about 1865 and
subsequently improved it. Great numbers of these locks are now in use in different parts
of the world. The need for time locks arose in America when masked burglary increased to
such an alarming degree. Finding that forcibly opening or attempting to open safes and
strong rooms was too slow and too dangerous, burglars adopted another plan. A gang of
masked and armed men in the night would seize an official of the bank and compel him by
torture, if necessary, to disclose the combinations of the locks or give up his keys. Such
success followed this procedure that the method soon became prevalent, and bankers were
told that neither the bank officials themselves nor anyone else could open the safe doors
before a determined time.
In 1890 an early model of the flat or disc tumbler lock, of which enormous quantities
are made these days, was patented in Great Britain.
During the first quarter of this century early models of knobsets or cylindrical
locksets were produced in America. In 1919 a British patent and a few years later other
British patents applying to knobsets were taken out by W R Schlage whose name in the
United States is famous in this connection. Though gaining favour slowly at first,
knobsets had a rapid increase of popularity later and now many manufacturers in America
and a few in other parts of the world producing great numbers. It is believed that in
England only the firm of Josiah Parkes & Sons Ltd, is making them.
It is though that lock making in this country began with rough specimens before the
reign of Alfred. The products were greatly improved by the twelfth century. Lock making
was important in the time of Queen Elizabeth and remained the staple trade of
Wolverhampton and Willenhall in Staffordshire for several centuries. It is still the chief
industry of Willenhall which is the most important lock making town in Great Britain.
Development during the last 50 years has shown itself in the production of numerous new
patterns, among which are many for motor vehicles, in standardising certain fundamentals,
in manufacturing methods which have been transformed by the increased use of machinery and
the application of new materials and treatment to cheapen and make more attractive
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