On the Development and Distribution of Primitive Locks and KeysPitt-Rivers, Augustus Henry Lane-Fox
History
On the Development and Distribution of Primitive Locks and Keys
Pitt-Rivers, Augustus Henry Lane-Fox
Locks and keys
Another similar one was found near
Devizes, and is figured in Dean MEREWETHER'S 'Diary of a Dean,' fig.
18. Both of these last, like the Russian bronze one, represented in
fig. 29C, are ornamented on the outside of the case with lines of
zigzags, resembling Norman tracery; and coupled with the precise
resemblance in the construction of the locks, this ornamentation
appears to prove an eastern connection during the first four centuries
of our era. The fetterlock figures as the badge of the family of the
LONGS of Wraxall, dating from the 15th century, and it is at the
present time the badge of the 14th Company of the Grenadier Guards, an
illustration of which is given in the accompanying woodcut. It was one
of the badges assumed by EDWARD IV., and an account of it is given in
Sir F. HAMILTON'S history of that Regiment.[30]
[28] 'Archæologia,' vol. xlvii.
[29] 'Archæological Journal,' vol. xxxi., 1874, p. 78.
[30] 'History of the Grenadier Guards,' by Lieut.-General
Sir F. HAMILTON, K.C.B., vol. i., p. 61.
[Illustration: Badge of the 14th Company Grenadier Guards.]
All the spring padlocks hitherto described have the defect of being in
two parts; the bolt, being entirely detached from the tube when open,
was liable to be lost, and to remedy this defect, modifications were
introduced by which the bolt became a fixture in the tube and was
opened by means of a key.
Fig. 35C, Plate V., is a lock which I found attached to one of my
gates at Rushmore, in South Wilts. Externally, it exactly resembles
the spring fetterlock, but within, the bolt which fixes the
semicircular bar in its position when locked, is retained there by a
spiral spring. To unlock it, a key with a female screw is put in at
the end in the same position as the key of the Roman lock, and after
seizing the male screw within, the bolt is screwed back against the
spring, thereby releasing the semicircular bar or staple, which is
then turned upon its hinge and drawn out of the opening on the side of
the tube.
Fig. 36C, Plate V., is a precisely similar lock from Paris. Fig. 37C,
Plate V., is another from Germany. Our modern handcuffs retain the
form of the fetterlock, having the tubular case for the lock, which
otherwise is not precisely the form most suitable to fit the human
wrist. Fig. 38C, Plate V., is a section of an old handcuff obtained in
Wiltshire, the bolt of which is forced out of the eye, not by means of
a screw, but by a key of the ordinary form of a door key, inserted in
the side of the tube, which when turned forces the bolt back against
the spiral spring and releases the semicircular bar.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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