A Look Back at Locksmithing Through the Ages

Locksmithing may be a big business now, but it's also a surprisingly old one: Most experts believe locks were first introduced thousands of years ago, although no one is quite sure who invented them. Some think it was the ancient Egyptians, others the Greeks or Chinese.

What is certain is that in 2000 B.C., Romans were already using relatively advanced wooden-pin tumbler-type locks that worked on the same principles as today's pin tumbler devices. However, it wasn't until nearly 1,000 years later that keys and locks became readily available to most of the public, and padlocks weren't in regular use in Europe until medieval times.

Again, these ward-type locks relied on mechanisms that are very similar to those found in current padlocks, although with the occasional twist: For example, some English padlocks from the Middles Ages had the keyhole designed into the side, not the front, of the lock.

Eventually, locks also moved from the purely practical to undoubtedly artistic, especially when they were used by royalty. Catherine the Great, who ruled Russia from 1762-1796, was particularly interested in creatively designed security devices, commissioning carefully crafted locks in the shapes of scorpions and horses.

It was around this time that lock design really took off in the U.S., too, with about 3,000 different types patented between America's independence and the year 1920. This included the first locks by pioneers like Linus Yale and Walter Schlage, whose names live on today in two of the country's most well-known lock companies, Yale and Schlage.

Of course, there's more to locksmithing than ancient history, and Bill's Mobile Lock prides itself on offering the latest security technologies for home and business. So if you need to get your current security system out of the Stone Age, give us a call at 734-421-1230 or visit www.billsmobilelock.net.