Since the earliest ages, there has been a need to protect one's assets and homes from theft and break-ins.
In the early ages, techniques such as using a complex knot were employed, where the knot would need to be undone in a specific order, otherwise it would simply become more tightly wound, not the most secure solution, but in the absence of proper door locks, it had to do.
Of course the nobility and other wealthy people had soldiers and garrisons of troops to protect their silverware and other precious items.
All that stood between pillagers and the royal treasures would have been a pair of crossed axes or swords in the doorway.
Although a stealthy intruder in the night, had needed only to wait until the guards had fallen asleep, before slipping past them to plunder whatever riches may lie inside with no necessary noise with which to wake the slumbering guards.
A far throw from the modern door locks that we take for granted in our current age.
Locks have long been taken for granted, locking your front door, garage or car is second nature to us, even young children are accustomed to their functionality and purpose, but it wasn't always the case.
Early man had to keep watch over his valuable possessions, or have others do so for them in their absence.
There is no accurate account of when the first lock was employed, or by whom, examples of primitive wooden locks have been uncovered, but nothing like the locks of today, and definitely nothing like the door locks found throughout an average modern home.
It wasn't until 1778, when the infamous Robert Barron patented an early version of the tumbler lock.
This might sound uneventful, but to put it in perspective the declaration of independence was signed in 1776.
That's two years after America proclaimed its independence from Britain, before formal engineering and patenting of a lock had happened.
That is not to say that there were no locks prior to Barron's patent, but only that up until that point the design of locks had not evolved to the point where someone had made an innovative improvement to the design of locks.
After this milestone, over the years more and more famous locksmiths started to patent their breakthroughs in lock technology, proclaiming that they had now come up with the most secure lock.
During this time, a large locksmith community had grown, with rival locksmiths challenging each other to pick each others locks, often with a cash prize to the person who could break their locks.
The British, following a break in at a government building, and seeing the value of developing locks further, put up a challenge for someone to create a lock that could only be opened by its original key, and offered a cash prize to the person who could do it.
Jeremiah Chubb claimed the prize in 1818, with his detector lock which extended on Browns earlier work and managed to produce a lock that could only be opened by one key.
It was this breakthrough and subsequent work after that, which led to the door locks that we know today.
In the early ages, techniques such as using a complex knot were employed, where the knot would need to be undone in a specific order, otherwise it would simply become more tightly wound, not the most secure solution, but in the absence of proper door locks, it had to do.
Of course the nobility and other wealthy people had soldiers and garrisons of troops to protect their silverware and other precious items.
All that stood between pillagers and the royal treasures would have been a pair of crossed axes or swords in the doorway.
Although a stealthy intruder in the night, had needed only to wait until the guards had fallen asleep, before slipping past them to plunder whatever riches may lie inside with no necessary noise with which to wake the slumbering guards.
A far throw from the modern door locks that we take for granted in our current age.
Locks have long been taken for granted, locking your front door, garage or car is second nature to us, even young children are accustomed to their functionality and purpose, but it wasn't always the case.
Early man had to keep watch over his valuable possessions, or have others do so for them in their absence.
There is no accurate account of when the first lock was employed, or by whom, examples of primitive wooden locks have been uncovered, but nothing like the locks of today, and definitely nothing like the door locks found throughout an average modern home.
It wasn't until 1778, when the infamous Robert Barron patented an early version of the tumbler lock.
This might sound uneventful, but to put it in perspective the declaration of independence was signed in 1776.
That's two years after America proclaimed its independence from Britain, before formal engineering and patenting of a lock had happened.
That is not to say that there were no locks prior to Barron's patent, but only that up until that point the design of locks had not evolved to the point where someone had made an innovative improvement to the design of locks.
After this milestone, over the years more and more famous locksmiths started to patent their breakthroughs in lock technology, proclaiming that they had now come up with the most secure lock.
During this time, a large locksmith community had grown, with rival locksmiths challenging each other to pick each others locks, often with a cash prize to the person who could break their locks.
The British, following a break in at a government building, and seeing the value of developing locks further, put up a challenge for someone to create a lock that could only be opened by its original key, and offered a cash prize to the person who could do it.
Jeremiah Chubb claimed the prize in 1818, with his detector lock which extended on Browns earlier work and managed to produce a lock that could only be opened by one key.
It was this breakthrough and subsequent work after that, which led to the door locks that we know today.
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