The coastland times. [volume] (Mnateo [i.e. Manteo], N.C.) 1947-1959, 1956-11-23
LOCKS AND KEYS
SPRING FROM
FASCINATING PAST

Washington.-Seen through a
keyhole, the goth century appears
far more neutrality-suspicious. than
any other.
Americans, having finally in
vented genuinely pickproof locks
for secreting government papers,
are also putting locks on tele-
phones, TV sets, briefcases, frozen
food lockers, and on imitation
china eggs-to hold them fast to
hens nests. In faraway desert
lands, American locks secure packs
to camel backs. And in New
Guinea, Motu tribesmen use them
on their treasure chests holding
shrunken human heads.
Yet one can turn the key of
time back several centuries and
find that locks were devised and
used just as imaginatively then as
today, says the National Geogra-
phic Society. Early Romans, for
example, fastened their doors with
leather thongs tied in a series of
knots that would put to shame the
most intricate tangle on a modern
child's shoe laces.
Greeks TOted Keys on Shoulders
The oldest known lock, large
wooden structure uncovered in the
ruins of the Babylonian city of
Ninevah, was made at least 1000
years ago by Egyptians. The
Egyptians were probably the first
to use crude pin keys and tumblers.
The key, a straight piece of wood,
had pegs on one end placed to
correspond with the tumblers.
Later the Greeks specialized in
the sickle lock, named for the
keys resemblance to the repear's
sickle. They key was so large it
had to be carried over the
shoulder.
The Romans, on the other hand,
had a penchant for small locks,
especially padlocks which they de-
signed in the shapes of animals.
Perhaps because Roman togas had
no pockets, the keys were usually
worn as rings on the fingers.
Warded locks, a more familiar
type in which the key revolves in
side the lock, were widely used in
late Roman days. Throughout the
middle ages, locksmiths tried to
improve on the security on these
locks. Failing they concentrated on
AUXILIARY devices to trick thieves.
They put false keyholes on chests
and doors and secreted the true
ones. Some locks required several
keys to open them.
Locks That Triggered Pistols
/ One chest was made to ampu-
tate pilfering fingers. Another
shot pistol at any one picking
the lock. The latter has it's coun-
terpart today in a remote-control
time lock that shoots tear gas at
a tamperer.
The buttons for a remote-con-
troll lock can be placed miles away
from the safe. The system is set
so that the buttons must be push
, ed, say, between 900 and 9:05
am. If they aren't, an alarm
sounds. A touch at any other time
sets off the alarm, too.
Such time lock is pickproof.
Other kinds are not. But the pin
: tumbler cylinder lock, invented in
the early 1865 by Linus Yale,
Jr., and now in common use, Of
fers so mny combinations Unto
the millions) that the average
) thief lacks the skill or time to
pick it.
The newest in home and office
.. security is master-key lock sys-
tenn. With it, a man needs but one
key to unlock his house, his coun-
try place, garage, office, desk,
, suitcase or strong box. 1t deprives
/ him, however, of the feeling of
authority he may get from carry
ing a loaded ring of keys-as we'll
as the fun of boarding stray keys.
,, "A lock without key" it is said,
ais an annoyance, but a key with
] out lock is an adventure"