A German lock from the break of 17th and 18th century
(from web page z www.lockcollectors.com/gerrim.htm)
| The Lock |
If we admit, that the oldest “lock” was a boulder, that together with a primitive door protected the primeval caveman against unwelcome guests, then we have to submit, that the lock is one of the oldest human inventions. However this invention doesn’t do the best credit to the human civilization.
The real lock and keys are Chinese inventions, which date back to the period around 4000 B.C. In Mesopotamia they were used in the 3rd millennium B.C. Even the Egyptians knew them. They got into classical literature too - we find a reference to them at several places in the famous Odyssey, which is almost 3000 years old, and which is thought to be the work of a legendary poet - Homer. This so called Homer’s lock was actually a wooden bar, that was closed from without by drawing the strap. While opening the door, the bar had to be shifted aside with long metallic bar, that had elliptical shape. This bar was put through the gap in the door. That was the oldest shape of a key. Old Romans (but not only them) had already had relatively perfect latch locks ( it means locks in the right sense of this word) and during the empire they had even had locks with pins pressed by springs, so that the keys didn’t have to be so big.
A German lock from the break of 17th and 18th century
(from web page z www.lockcollectors.com/gerrim.htm)
Some keys could even be closed...
(from web page http://www.voicenet.com/~onraet/safekeys1.html)
Through centuries locks changed and were partly innovated. The fundamental change was the invention of an English engineer Robert Daron, who constructed the first Yale lock, it happened in 1778. In 1784 another Englishman, Joseph Bramah, brought it to perfection. The lock of this young London joiner was very sophisticated: it allowed over 2 million combinations. Bramah used six adjustable metal plates with notches for its construction. These notches could be moved to certain position so that the lock could be open. Braman knew, that a perfect lock must be made very exactly. Only a machine could achieve it. However its manufacture was beyond Bramah´s power. The mechanic, who made the machine and later worked for him, was Henry Maudslay. He was 18 (!) years old.
The lock - type Chubb was invented in 1818 by an ironmonger Charles Chubb, who later on made fireproof safes, too. His lock had another lever inside itself, which was fixing the latch in the case that somebody tried to open the lock with a false key.
In 1847 American Linus Yale founded a factory for production of locks. He didn’t think the present locks to be too safe and so he changed the shape of the lock into a cylindrical inlay. He also used flat keys with notches, which had to respond to various lengths of peg adjuster, which were inside the inlay. By their construction he applied two outstanding ideas: first of all the lock goes transversely through the door, instead of placing it only on one side as it had been done so far. Important is also the fact, that the notches in the key can be made in so many different combinations, that it is almost impossible to find two same locks of this type. Until now this lock (only with small modifications) is the most widespread and safest kind of lock.
Title-page of anniversary catalogue FAB from 1931
U nás tento druh zámku známe pod všeobecně rozšířeným názvem “fabka”, podle továrny FAB A. Fáborského. Tato “továrna na železné zboží” (založena 1911) začala v tehdejším Československu vyrábět solidní zámky FAB začátkem 20. let. Zámky byly tak dokonalé, že pojišťovny poskytovaly 10% slevu na pojistky proti vloupání. Firma nabízela mnoho druhů jak zámků stavebních (tj. do dveří), tak visacích nebo nábytkových. Navíc se řídila zásadou “pouze jeden klíč”, tzn. že např. každý obyvatel činžovního domu mohl odemknout svým klíčem všechny “svoje” dveře (byt, vchod, půda, sklep) a např. zaměstnanec hotelu měl jen jeden klíč (tzv. hlavní) s kterým se dostal do místností, které byly spojeny s výkonem jeho funkce (např. hostinské pokoje konkrétní pokojské a sklad prádla pro pokojskou; hlavní vchod, soukromý byt, kotelna a kancelář pro vrátného) a ředitel hotelu měl tzv. generální klíč, který odemykal všechny dveře mimo byt vrátného. A pokud to nestačilo, umožnila firma FAB odemykat tímto jedním klíčem od dveří zároveň zámky u nábytku!
Řez vložkou FAB: Kolíčková stavítka jsou rozdělena na několik
částí. Otáčivý bubínek se nemůže otočit, protože stavítka jsou částečně v
nepohyblivém tělese vložky a částečně v otáčivém bubínku (viz levá část). Po
vsunutí správného klíče se stlačí kolíčky dolů tak, že nepravidelné
rozdělení stavítek se srovná a místa, kde jsou stavítka rozdělena přijdou přesně
na hranici otáčivého bubínku a nepohyblivé vložky (viz pravá část). Pak lze
bubínkem otočit a odemknout zámek.
Kombinační zámek ke trezoru. Trezor bylo možno otevřít, pokud se
nastavil správně kód (na každé stupnici jedno písmeno)
(převzato z http://www.lockcollectors.com/ratner.htm)
