Make sure it’s safely locked away
A good lock is one of the most common and important things we’ve come to accept as a standard in life. Whether it’s a bike for transport, a front door, or a nice padlock on the shed, without locks, much of our stuff would be in other people’s hands for a start. Ask any self-respecting locksmith anywhere, and they will happily tell you the history of the humble but handy lock.
The first “locks” were made from rope but they weren’t really locks at all. They were just there to show if your belongings had been tampered with. As with anything, the need to secure items and areas became more important, and with increases in woodwork and metalwork, the locks we know today were soon being made.
We can’t be sure who came up with the first proper lock as there are examples from the Romans, Greek, and Egyptians, and these three were trading with each other it’s not a surprise if they’d picked up on an idea from each other. The Egyptians got the idea perfected right the first time. They made a wooden pin tumbler lock which was pretty effective. It looked like a toothbrush, but instead of bristles, it had pins. This moved a bolt that locked the door.
Roman locks were made of metal and were much more substantial. They had access to more significant resources than the Egyptians, allowing them to create a much stronger lock. As with many other examples in Roman history, they took the Greek idea first and improved on it.
Iron was used, and it was much stronger than wood. This was a revolution in the world as Romans could store items that could resist being broken into or smashed open. When you need to store items securely in strong locks, consider Self Storage Dudley at https://www.anchorselfstorage.co.uk/self-storage/dudley/
The use of matching keys was also developed, and personalised the lock to the user for the first time. The development of locking mechanisms was held back, as with many other things, after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The Dark Ages in Europe after this impacted most aspects of life, and, ironically, the time when a good set of locks might have been helpful to their development!
It was in the eighteen hundreds that development stepped up a pace. The familiar names of Chubb and Yale appeared during this time period as tumblers, detectors, and time locks start to appear, and the lock we know today finally appears.
