Lock and Key History

The first Egyptian lock was made up of a wooden bolt that secures a door, with a slot that had several holes on its upper surface. A device attached to the door contained wood pins that would drop into the holes and secure the bolt. The key, which was also wooden, was a large toothbrush-shaped item, whose “bristles” were pegs that specifically matched the holes and pins in the lock. To open the door, the device would be placed into the keyhole located below the pins and lifts. This allowed the pins to be raised, and allowed the bolt to be slid out.

Locks and keys were used by the ancient Greeks, although in a somewhat different and less secure form than the Egyptians design.The Romans used the idea of the Egyptian lock, but rather than wood; they used iron for the lock and often bronze for the key. Keys were no longer too large to lose (or lift). Some roman keys were even small enough to wear on a finger. Roman locks were also an improvement on the Egyptian model. ‘Wards’ were developed – items inside the lock that demanded a corresponding ‘bit’ on the face of the key. Only the key that was an exact match would be able to turn and throw the bolt.

Barrons device was developed further in 1818 by Jeremiah Chubb, who incorporated a spring into the lock that would catch and hold any tumbler that may have been raised too high by a criminal. Not only did this add more security, it had also shown when the lock was tampered with.

While Barron and Chubb were busy with levers, Joseph Bramah was going an entirely different route in lock development. His safety lock, patented in 1784 was a small metal tube with narrow slots cut into one end. When the key is pushed into the lock, slides are pushed into the slots. They all have to be exactly the right length, as determined by the slots, or the bolt couldn’t be thrown. Bramah was so convinced that his lock was inviolable; he put up a $300 reward (about a $400,000 in today’s money) for anyone who could pick it. More than 50 years later, the reward was claimed by an American locksmith.

The middle of the nineteenth century there was huge activity in lock development. It was all based largely off of Bramah’s cylinder lock or Barron as well as Chubb’s lever locks. Meanwhile, in the US during 1848 Linus Yale, and later even his son, also named Linus, patented and greatly improved the Yale compact cylinder lock, which was based loosely on the earliest pin-tumbler Egyptian model. Even today, the Yale lock is one of the most commonly used domestic locks.

Any good locksmith will tell you that if a thief wants something bad enough and has the time, resources, and knowledge to get it a lock won’t keep them out. Criminals thwarted by impressible locks looked for other ways to get inside a safe, and decided to blow the doors off the safe instead.

To combat this, safe makers introduced a second series of bolts into the door. Any explosion will automatically bolt the door closed using the locking device.

In spite of some phenomenal innovations in lock engineering, most locks that are used today are still based off of the Bramah, lever, Yale and combination models. Keys have progressed as well; some now open a lock using magnets rather than serrations. Master keys, although the may seem like it, are not magic. They are careful arrangements of wards, so a master key and be shaped to avoid the wards in locks it masters.