To Pick A Lock - Locksmith Fact and Fiction

Episode 1 – The Merry Gamers

In today’s society the profession of locksmith often goes virtually unnoticed and unrecognized (except when you actually need one, usually in a hurry, but, I digress…).  In this series we will explore some of the history, fact, and fiction surrounding the trade of the locksmith.  As with all explorations, we may find ourselves venturing into places that are anticipated and some that may be quite unexpected.  Let’s begin our journey!

The Fiction

Let’s imagine a parlor game (yes, I know, an antiquated concept in the age of online massively parallel multiplayer games but humor me…).  In this parlor game, similar to a game of trivia, a player chooses a card with a question for the other players.  They answer some arcane factoid, garner points if they’re right and go hungry if they’re wrong.  Let’s pretend we’re the omniscient narrator:  Timmy is drawing a card, he reads, “What is the origin of the word locksmith?” …the crowd is hushed.  No one seems to know the answer.  The clock is ticking, the sand in the hourglass is running out.  Ding!  Times up.  And the answer is…” 

The Fact

… nobody knows.  The origin of the word “locksmith” is incredibly murky.  Although many sources have guessed or proposed to offer a derivation, the truth is that there is no consensus.  Without consensus, therefore, we must infer that nobody knows for sure. 

A Little History

According to an article in the 1912 edition of Scientific American, authored by Frederick Converse Beach and George Edwin Rines,  there is the opinion that the art and science of the locksmith are as old as “…the history of and references to it found in literature of every nation.”  Although wood was probably the first material used, the Egyptians, Hebrews, and Greeks appear to have employed brass and other metals.  It is this transition into metal that gives rise to the term “smith”; a person that works in metal.  With the invention of the key and lock, fabricated from metal, again from antiquity, we have the beginnings of the word, “locksmith.”

The earliest known form of lock appears as a simple door slide or draw bar, usually positioned on the inside of a door and moved into a hole in the surrounding frame or structure.  The Chinese may have offered the next advance in locks with the tumbler lock.  In this mechanism, the slide or lever, “… entered a notch in the bolt, which could not be moved till the tumbler was lifted by the key.”

After the tumbler lock, we see an evolution of the invention with the Etruscans and the warded lock.  The Roman locks were of this design also.  This type of  lock introduces the idea of a spring or some other component that, when used with the key, provides a feeling similar to that of a tumbler (but does nothing to increase the security of the device.)  In about 1650 a fourth kind of lock appeared.  Invented by M. Regnier, a director at the Masée d’Artillerie at Paris.  These four kinds of locks are the foundation for all modern locks.

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