AMERICAN INSTITUTE, 533 



regard for tlie riglits of others, a« perhaps it is used to indicate by 

 their removal that the door has been opened. 



One step in advance of this was the use of strings or cords 

 attached to the door and tied in curious and difficult knots, this 

 plan no doubt was in use to some extent, as Ave find that Homer 

 •describes an ancient treasury protected in this way. Another 

 mode of security was to place heavy bodies as obstructions against 

 the doors, which was done at the sepulchre of Christ. This of 

 course would require the door to open outward, or perhaps swing 

 on pivots placed in the centre, which was the fashion in Pompeii 

 and other ancient cities. The former plan would require inge- 

 nuity to enter, the latter physical force. 



There is do dotibt that locks with keys were in use four thou- 

 sand yeai's ago, as the figure of them, sculptured on stone, has 

 been found in ruins of tombs in Egypt, which date back as far. The 

 Eible mentions the use of a lock and key that must date thirteen 

 hundred years before Christ, and there have been found in Pompeii 

 doors of marble with the remnants of some kind of a lock attached. 

 Writers on the subject of locks divide them into two kinds^ each 

 ■separate and distinct in principle. 



1. Warded ktek«, as those made with fixed obstacles to a false 

 key, called wards, which are intended to prevent the use of any 

 instrument but the true key, 



2. Locks that are made with moveable obstacles to the motion 

 of the bolt. These obstacles being required to take certain posi- 

 tions in the lock before the bolt can be moved. This is the prin- 

 ciple upon which our best locks are now constructed. 



The oldest plan of lock that we have any knowledge of is the 

 Egyptian, which is of the moveable obstacle order, and has no 

 doubt been in use for thousands of years, and is still used in 

 Egypt and in some parts of Asia, and is almost exactly like the 

 kind that is figured on the ancient tombs, showing that it has 

 not been improved in principle or workmanship, and yet been in 

 use one hundred and twenty generations. These locks are made 

 of wood as well as the keys, and are generally placed on the out- 

 side of the door, and the custom is to carry the key in the girdle 



[Am. Lxst.] 35 



