A lock is a mechanical or electronic fastening device that is released by a physical object (such as a key, keycard, fingerprint, RFID card, or security token), by supplying secret information (such as a keycode or password), or by a combination thereof.
Antiquity
The earliest known lock and key device was discovered in the ruins of Nineveh, the capital of ancient Assyria.[1] Locks such as this were later developed into the Egyptian wooden pin lock, which consisted of a bolt, door fixture, and key. When the key was inserted, pins within the fixture were lifted out of drilled holes within the bolt, allowing it to move. When the key was removed, the pins fell part-way into the bolt, preventing movement.[2] The warded lock was also present from antiquity and remains the most recognizable lock and key design in the Western world.The first all-metal lock appeared between the years 870 and 900, and are attributed to the English craftsmen.[3] It is also said that the key was invented by Theodore of Samos in the 6th century BC.[4]
Affluent Romans often kept their valuables in secure boxes within their households, and wore the keys as rings on their fingers. The practice had two benefits: It kept the key handy at all times, while signaling that the wearer was wealthy and important enough to have money and jewelry worth securing.[5]
Modern locks
With the onset of the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th century and the concomitant development of precision engineering and component standardisation, locks and keys were manufactured with increasing complexity and sophistication.
The lever tumbler lock, which uses a set of levers to prevent the bolt from moving in the lock, was perfected by Robert Barron in 1778. His double acting lever lock required the lever to be lifted to a certain height by having a slot cut in the lever, so lifting the lever too far was as bad as not lifting the lever far enough. This type of lock is still currently used today.[6][7]
The lever tumbler lock was greatly improved by Jeremiah Chubb in 1818. A burglary in Portsmouth Dockyard prompted the British Government to announce a competition to produce a lock that could be opened only with its own key.[8] Chubb developed the Chubb detector lock, which incorporated an integral security feature that could frustrate unauthorised access attempts and would indicate to the lock's owner if it had been interfered with. Chubb was awarded £100 after a trained lock-picker failed to break the lock after 3 months.[9]
In 1820, Jeremiah joined his brother Charles in starting their own lock company, Chubb. Chubb made various improvements to his lock; - his 1824 improved design didn't require a special regulator key to reset the lock, by 1847 his keys used six-levers rather than four and he later introduced a disc that allowed the key to pass but narrowed the field of view, hiding the levers from anybody attempting to pick the lock.[10] The Chubb brothers also received a patent for the first burglar-resisting safe and began production in 1835.
The designs of Barron and Chubb were based on the use of movable levers, but Joseph Bramah, a prolific inventor, developed an alternative method in 1784. His lock used a cylindrical key with precise notches along the surface; these moved the metal slides that impeded the turning of the bolt into an exact alignment, allowing the lock to open. The lock was at the limits of the precision manufacturing capabilities of the time and was said by its inventor to be unpickable. In the same year Bramah started the Bramah Locks company at 124 Piccadilly, and displayed the "Challenge Lock" in the window of his shop from 1790, challenging "...the artist who can make an instrument that will pick or open this lock" for the reward of £200. The challenge stood for over 67 years until, at the Great Exhibition of 1851, the American locksmith Alfred Charles Hobbs was able to open the lock and, following some argument about the circumstances under which he had opened it, was awarded the prize. Hobbs' attempt required some 51 hours, spread over 16 days.
The earliest patent for a double-acting pin tumbler lock was granted to American physician Abraham O. Stansbury in England in 1805,[11] but the modern version, still in use today, was invented by American Linus Yale, Sr. in 1848.[12] This lock design used pins of varying lengths to prevent the lock from opening without the correct key. In 1861, Linus Yale, Jr. was inspired by the original 1840s pin-tumbler lock designed by his father, thus inventing and patenting a smaller flat key with serrated edges as well as pins of varying lengths within the lock itself, the same design of the pin-tumbler lock which still remains in use today.[13] The modern Yale lock is essentially a more developed version of the Egyptian lock.
Despite some improvement in key design since, the majority of locks today are still variants of the designs invented by Bramah, Chubb and Yale.[14]
This cache has been placed outside of our house so permission is given to seek it. The cache however is LOCKED & will require a combination to open. The attached puzzle will give you the final co-ordinates to the cache but WILL NOT give you the combination required to open the container. The combination will be somewhere nearby to the cache container so you will have to look. It will be 4 digits long.
More information can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lock_%28device%29
PLEASE NOTE:
- There is room of smaller trackables & coins, nothing with large items attached to the Travel Bug.
- There is a pencil inside of the cache. No signature - no find.
- Please do not post any spoilers of the puzzle onto your log. The neighbours are aware of the cache.
- Once at the GZ you will have to search for the combination to the lock.
You can check your answers for this puzzle on GeoChecker.com.
Grats to Legomikey on the FTF!