Читать книгу Rudimentary Treatise on the Construction of Locks онлайн

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Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson, in his Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, gives the following information concerning the doors and door-fastenings of that remarkable people, on the authority of models, sculptures, and paintings, still existing. The doors were frequently stained so as to imitate foreign and rare woods. They were either of one or two valves, turning on pieces of metal, and were secured within by a bar or by bolts. Some of these bronze pins have been discovered in the tombs of Thebes; they were fastened to the wood with nails of the same metal, the round heads of which served also as ornaments. In the stone lintels and floors behind the thresholds of the tombs and temples are still frequently to be seen the holes in which the pivot-pins turned, as well as those of the bolts and bars, and the recess for receiving the opened valves. The folding-doors had bolts in the centre, sometimes above as well as below; a bar was placed across from one wall to the other.

In many of the ancient Egyptian doors there were wooden locks fixed so as to fasten across the centre at the junction where the two folds of the door met. It is difficult, by mere inspection of the bas-reliefs and paintings, to decide whether these locks were opened by a key, or were merely drawn backwards and forwards like a bolt; but if they were really locks, it is probable that they were on the same principle as the Egyptian lock still in use. For greater security, these modern locks are occasionally sealed with a mass of clay; and there is satisfactory evidence that the same custom was frequently observed among the ancient inhabitants of that country. Sir J. G. Wilkinson gives a representation of an iron key, now in his possession, which he procured among the tombs at Thebes, and which looks very much like a modern burglar’s picklock. In relation to keys generally, and after mentioning the use of bronze for their manufacture, he says: “At a later period, when iron came into general use, keys were made of that metal, and consisted of a straight shank about five inches in length, and a bar at right angles with it, on which were three or more projecting teeth. The ring at the upper extremity was intended for the same purpose as that of our modern keys; but we are ignorant of the exact time when they were brought into use; and the first invention of locks distinct from both is equally uncertain; nor do I know of any positive mention of a key, which, like our own, could be taken out of the lock, previous to the year 1336 before our era; and this is stated to have been used to fasten the door of the summer parlour of Eglon, the king of Moab. The description here adverted to is that contained in Judges iii. 23-25: ‘Ehud went forth through the porch, and shut the doors of the parlour upon him, and locked them ... his servants ... took a key, and opened them.’”