History of Locks

What is a LOCK..???

A lock is a mechanical or electronic fastening device that is released by a physical object (such as a key, keycard, fingerprint, RFID card,security token etc.), by supplying secret information (such as a keycode or password), or by a combination thereof.

We surely know that the need for use of security locks came as a part of human evolution. As people started leading their life in the society there was a constant need to protect your belongings from any sort of theft or third party intervention. In the ancient era there were no mechanical equipments to provide the utility of a lock, so ropes were used to tie knots around objects, boxes etc. But it did not provide security. It only ensured that you knew someone had opened it. But then as time passed, wooden and metal mechanisms began to be used in almost all parts of the world.

PHASES IN THE LIFE OF LOCKS….

Phase 1. Ancient Egyptian Pin Tumbler:   The Egyptians, as is often the case, were way ahead of the game when it came to their locks. Back around 2000 B.C., they invented what remains the dominant concept in today’s residential locks: the pin tumbler lock. The Egyptian tumbler was one of the first to use a key, and featured a wooden casing containing several loose pegs of varying length — pins, as they’re called now. When loose, the pins kept a bolt in place, locking the door. The right key lined these pins up evenly, permitting the bolt to be opened. The only major difference between this lock and that on your own house? The keys were more of than not more than a foot long and resembled oversized toothbrushes — the longer the key hole the less likely the pins could be manipulated by a picker.[10] 

Phase 2. Gordian Knot:    Unlike the Egyptians, the Ancient Greeks are known not for a lock-and-key system, but for their knots — specifically, the Gordian knot. But it would not prevent unauthorized access but only show that someone has opened it.[10]

Phase 3. Living Locks:   The locking mechanisms of the Medieval period lacked the sophistication of the Egyptian locks, though they compensated for this with sheer brute force. Valuables were sealed into large wooden boxes and placed on small islands or submerged in pools where they were protected by hungry crocodiles, and many estates were similarly protected by moats.  Those desperate enough to try lock picking had no choice but to drug or kill the crocodiles which could be pretty risky for a petty theft.

Phase 4. Latchstring Locks:   It was actually invented by prehistoric man and then later perfected in Colonial America, the latchstring came to prominence in the American west. It was one of the first ‘keys’ used in America, it operated on a very simple premise: a string was hung outside of the door, through a small hole near the door handle. Pulling the string lifted a bow behind the door, allowing it to open. The system was nearly impossible to lock from the outside, but some inventive settlers  hid the latchstring by threading it out through asecond hole placed along the house but away from the door and bow.

Phase 5. Barron’s Double Tumbler Lock: In 1778, Robert Barron patented a double-acting lever tumbler lock. Where the ancient tumbler lock disengaged when all of the pins were lifted, the new design required its two to four separate levers to be lifted to specific, different heights.[10]

Phase 6. Bramah’s Safety Lock   In 1784, Joseph Bramah patented his Safety Lock, the most sophisticated lock of its time and for the next 50 years, the hardest lock to pick. Bramah’s was the first locking mechanism to be set with marked precision, and he used six sheet metal plates, arranged in a circle and engaged by a tiny pipe key. Plates were positioned to the right height by the depth of the cuts in the key. In other words, each plate corresponded with the depth of a specific slot cut in the front end of the key. Upon entry, the key positioned the plates in line with a fixed circular locking plate. The slightest misalignment blocked rotation of the key barrel, making it very tough to crack.

Phase 7. Chubb’s Lock:  In 1817, Jeremiah Chubb who improved upon Barron’s design with his own lever tumbler lock. He added a built-in relocking feature: The so-called detector lock would intentionally jam if the wrong key was inserted. Only the proper key could then open the lock.

Phase 8. The Yale Lock:   Famous in New England as a pioneer in lock making, Linus Yale Sr. patented the “Quadruplex” in 1844. A resurrection of the ingenious Egyptian design, Yale Sr.’s lock increased the number of pins, and change their orientation — essentially, the modern pin tumbler lock so many of us use today.   The design was essentially an improvement on the simple wooden tumbler lock created by the Egyptions. Linus Yale Jr. improved upon the design in 1861, inventing the now ubiquitous flat grooved key with notches on the edges. This is probably the same type of lock we see on modern day front door.

Phase 9. Combinaion Lock: James Sargent advanced this idea even further by inventing the world’s first key-changeable combination lock in 1857. Sargent made locks smarter when he created the world’s first time lock, which would only open at a set time, and time-delay locks, which would only open after a certain interval, in 1873 and 1880, respectively.[8]

Phase 10. The Push-Button:  In 1909, Walter Schlage patented a door lock that could turn the lights on and off. Another important milestone in  lock history occurred in the 1920’s with the arrival of Walter Schlage’s cylindrical push-button system — the lock that now dominates bathroom doors across the nations. The basic concept was simple: when the button in the center of the doorknob was pushed in, the mechanism remained locked. Turn the interior door knob to unlock door. The company that Schlage founded remains one of the world’s biggest lock manufacturers. 

 Phase 11. Pad Lock: In 1919, Harry Soref  invented a padlock design that used laminated steel layers to economically produce an exceptionally strong lock body.[6]

He tried unsuccessfully to get some large companies interested in using his design, so recruited financial backing from two friends, P. E. Yolles and Sam Stahl,[7] and founded the Master Lock company in 1921 to produce the locks himself, initially with five employees.[5][7] In 1924, he was granted the first patent on such a laminated lock design.[6] He led the company to become a major manufacturer of locks before his death in 1957.[7] However, the brand had not yet reached its peak status as an familiar consumer brand at the time of his death.[6] Sam Stahl, one of the original investors, then led the company until he also died in 1964.[4] The Soref family then took over the company management, later selling the company to the American Brands Corporation in 1970.[7]