Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 December 1891 — Ancient. [ARTICLE]

Ancient.

An Egyptian lock has been found which was in use more than four thousand years ago. The old lock was* not made of metal, like those we use now, but of Wood, and the key that opened it was wooden, too. On one side of the door to which it was fastened there was a staple, and into this fitted a wooden -bolt that was fixed to the door itself. When this bolt was pushed into the staple as far as it would go, three pms in the upper part of the staple dropped into holes in the bolt and held it in place, so it could not be moved back again until the pins were lifted. The key was a straight piece of wood, at the end of which were three pegs, the same distance apart as the pins which held the bolt firm. When the key was pushed into the bolt, through a hole made to receive it, the pegs came into such a position that they were able to lift the pins that fixed the bolt, and when these were lifted the bolt could be lifted out of the staple. Modern locks work on a similar principle.