lock

lock¹

—lockless, adj.

/lok/, n.

1. a device for securing a door, gate, lid, drawer, or the like in position when closed, consisting of a bolt or system of bolts propelled and withdrawn by a mechanism operated by a key, dial, etc.

2. a contrivance for fastening or securing something.

3. (in a firearm)

a. the mechanism that explodes the charge; gunlock.

b. safety (def. 4).

4. any device or part for stopping temporarily the motion of a mechanism.

5. an enclosed chamber in a canal, dam, etc., with gates at each end, for raising or lowering vessels from one level to another by admitting or releasing water.

6. an air lock or decompression chamber.

7. complete and unchallenged control; an unbreakable hold: The congresswoman has a lock on the senatorial nomination.

8. Slang. someone or something certain of success; sure thing: He's a lock to win the championship.

9. Wrestling. any of various holds, esp. a hold secured on the arm, leg, or head: leg lock.

10. Horol. (in an escapement) the overlap between a tooth of an escape wheel and the surface of the pallet locking it.

11. Metalworking. a projection or recession in the mating face of a forging die.

12. lock, stock, and barrel, completely; entirely; including every part, item, or facet, no matter how small or insignificant: We bought the whole business, lock, stock, and barrel.

13. under lock and key, securely locked up: The documents were under lock and key.

v.t.

14. to fasten or secure (a door, window, building, etc.) by the operation of a lock or locks.

15. to shut in a place fastened by a lock or locks, as for security or restraint.

16. to make fast or immovable by or as if by a lock: He locked the steering wheel on his car.

17. to make fast or immovable, as by engaging parts: to lock the wheels of a wagon.

18. to join or unite firmly by interlinking or intertwining: to lock arms.

19. to hold fast in an embrace: She was locked in his arms.

20. to move (a ship) by means of a lock or locks, as in a canal (often fol. by through, in, out, down, or up).

21. to furnish with locks, as a canal.

v.i.

22. to become locked: This door locks with a key.

23. to become fastened, fixed, or interlocked: gears that lock into place.

24. to go or pass by means of a lock or locks, as a vessel.

25. to construct locks in waterways.

26. lock horns, to come into conflict; clash: to lock horns with a political opponent.

27. lock in,

a. to commit unalterably: to lock in the nomination of the party's candidates.

b. (of an investor) to be unable or unwilling to sell or shift securities.

28. lock off, to enclose (a waterway) with a lock.

29. lock on, to track or follow a target or object automatically by radar or other electronic means.

30. lock out,

a. to keep out by or as if by a lock.

b. to subject (employees) to a lockout.

31. lock up,

a. to imprison for a crime.

b. Print. to make (type) immovable in a chase by securing the quoins.

c. to fasten or secure with a lock or locks.

d. to lock the doors of a house, automobile, etc.

e. to fasten or fix firmly, as by engaging parts.

[bef. 900; ME; OE loc fastening, bar; c. MLG lok, OHG loh, ON lok a cover, lid, Goth -luk in usluk opening; akin to OE lucan to shut]

lock²

/lok/, n.

1. a tress, curl, or ringlet of hair.

2. locks,

a. the hair of the head.

b. short wool of inferior quality, as that obtained in small clumps from the legs.

3. a small tuft or portion of wool, cotton, flax, etc.

[bef. 900; ME locke, OE locc lock of hair, c. ON lokkr, D lok curl, G Locke]

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Mechanical or electronic device for securing a door or receptacle so that it cannot be opened except by a key or a code.

The lock originated in the Middle East; the oldest known example was found near Nineveh. Possibly 4,000 years old, it is of the pin tumbler type, otherwise known as an Egyptian lock. The Romans were the first to use metal locks and to make small keys for them. They also invented wards, projections in the keyhole that prevent a key from turning unless it has slots that avoid the projections. Probably the most familiar lock today is the cylinder lock, a pin tumbler lock opened by a flat key with a serrated edge; the serrations raise pins in the cylinder to the proper heights, allowing the cylinder to turn. Also common are the unit lock, housed within a rectangular notch cut into the edge of a door, and the mortise lock, housed in a mortise cut into the door edge, the lock mechanism being covered on both sides. Other types include lever and combination locks. Electronic locks that open with a magnetic card key are popular for banks, hotel rooms, and offices.

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▪ canals

      enclosure or basin located in the course of a canal or a river (or in the vicinity of a dock) with gates at each end, within which the water level may be varied to raise or lower boats. Where the required lift is of considerable height, a series of connected but isolable basins, or locks, is used. On the Trollhätte Canal, Sweden, three locks overcome a total rise of 77 feet (23 m). Single locks of greater rise are known (e.g., a 50-foot [15-metre] rise lock on the canal bypassing the Falls of St. Anthony in Minnesota). The mitred canal gate, angled into the downward force of the stream and replacing the earlier vertical lift gate, may have been invented by Leonardo da Vinci for the San Marco Lock in Milan, making possible the interconnection, formerly prevented by their different levels, of the Martesana Canal and the Naviglio Grande.

▪ security

Introduction

      mechanical device for securing a door or receptacle so that it cannot be opened except by a key or by a series of manipulations that can be carried out only by a person knowing the secret or code.

Early history.

  The lock originated in the Near East; the oldest known example was found in the ruins of the palace of Khorsabad near Nineveh. Possibly 4,000 years old, it is of the type known as a pin tumbler or, from its widespread use in Egypt (Egypt, ancient), an Egyptian lock. It consists of a large wooden bolt, which secures the door, through which is pierced a slot with several holes in its upper surface. An assembly attached to the door contains several wooden pins positioned to drop into these holes and grip the bolt. The key is a large wooden bar, something like a toothbrush in shape; instead of bristles it has upright pegs that match the holes and the pins. Inserted in the large keyhole below the vertical pins it is simply lifted, raising the pins clear and allowing the bolt, with the key in it, to be slid back (Figure 1—>). Locks of this type have been found in Japan, Norway, and the Faeroe Islands and are still in use in Egypt, India, and Zanzibar. An Old Testament reference, in Isaiah, “And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David,” shows how the keys were carried. The falling-pin principle, a basic feature of many locks, was developed to the full in the modern Yale lock (Figure 2—>).

 In a much more primitive device used by the Greeks, the bolt was moved by a sickle-shaped key of iron, often with an elaborately carved wooden handle. The key was passed through a hole in the door and turned, the point of the sickle engaging the bolt and drawing it back. Such a device could give but little security. The Romans introduced metal for locks, usually iron for the lock itself and often bronze for the key (with the result that keys are found more often today than locks). The Romans invented wards—i.e., projections around the keyhole, inside the lock, which prevent the key from being rotated unless the flat face of the key (its bit) has slots cut in it in such a fashion that the projections pass through the slots. For centuries locks depended on the use of wards for security, and enormous ingenuity was employed in designing them and in cutting the keys so as to make the lock secure against any but the right key (Figure 3—>). Such warded locks have always been comparatively easy to pick, since instruments can be made that clear the projections, no matter how complex. The Romans were the first to make small keys for locks—some so small that they could be worn on the fingers as rings. They also invented the padlock, which is found throughout the Near and Far East, where it was probably independently invented by the Chinese.

      In the Middle Ages, great skill and a high degree of workmanship were employed in making metal locks, especially by the German metalworkers of Nürnberg. The moving parts of the locks were closely fitted and finished, and the exteriors were lavishly decorated. Even the keys were often virtual works of art. The security, however, was solely dependent on elaborate warding, the mechanism of the lock being developed hardly at all. One refinement was to conceal the keyhole by secret shutters, another was to provide blind keyholes, which forced the lock picker to waste time and effort. The 18th-century French excelled in making beautiful and intricate locks.

Development of modern types.

 The first serious attempt to improve the security of the lock was made in 1778 when Robert Barron, in England, patented a double-acting tumbler lock. A tumbler is a lever, or pawl, that falls into a slot in the bolt and prevents it being moved until it is raised by the key to exactly the right height out of the slot; the key then slides the bolt. The Barron lock (see Figure 4—>) had two tumblers and the key had to raise each tumbler by a different amount before the bolts could be shot. This enormous advance in lock design remains the basic principle of all lever locks.

      But even the Barron lock offered little resistance to the determined lock picker, and in 1818 Jeremiah Chubb of Portsmouth, Eng., improved on the tumbler lock by incorporating a detector, a retaining spring that caught and held any tumbler which, in the course of picking, had been raised too high. This alone prevented the bolt from being withdrawn and also showed that the lock had been tampered with.

 In 1784 (between Barron's lock and Chubb's improvements on it) a remarkable lock was patented in England by Joseph Bramah (Bramah, Joseph). Working on an entirely different principle, it used a very small light key, yet gave an unprecedented amount of security. Bramah's locks are very intricate (hence, expensive to make), and for their manufacture Bramah and his young assistant Henry Maudslay (Maudslay, Henry) (later to become a famous engineer) constructed a series of machines to produce the parts mechanically. These were among the first machine tools designed for mass production. The Bramah key is a small metal tube that has narrow longitudinal slots cut in its end. When the key is pushed into the lock, it depresses a number of slides, each to the depth controlled by the slots. Only when all the slides are depressed to exactly the right distance can the key be turned and the bolt thrown (Figure 5—>). So confident was Bramah of the security of his lock that he exhibited one in his London shop and offered a reward of £200 to the first person who could open it. For more than 50 years it remained unpicked, until 1851 when a skilled American locksmith, A.C. Hobbs, succeeded and claimed the reward.

      The lock industry was in its heyday in the mid-19th century. With the rapidly expanding economy that followed the Industrial Revolution, the demand for locks grew tremendously.

      In this period lock patents came thick and fast. All incorporated ingenious variations on the lever or Bramah principles. The most interesting was Robert Newell's Parautoptic lock, made by the firm of Day and Newell of New York City. Its special feature was that not only did it have two sets of lever tumblers, the first working on the second, but it also incorporated a plate that revolved with the key and prevented the inspection of the interior, an important step in thwarting the lock picker. It also had a key with interchangeable bits so that the key could be readily altered. Newell displayed an example in London in the Great Exhibition of 1851. Despite many attempts, there is no record that it has ever been picked.

 In 1848 a far-reaching contribution was made by an American, Linus Yale (Yale, Linus), who patented a pin tumbler lock working on an adaptation of the ancient Egyptian principle. In the 1860s his son Linus Yale, Jr., evolved the Yale cylinder lock, with its small, flat key with serrated edge, now probably the most familiar lock and key in the world. Pins in the cylinder are raised to the proper heights by the serrations, making it possible to turn the cylinder. The number of combinations of heights of the pins (usually five), coupled with the warding effect of the crooked key and keyhole, give an almost unlimited number of variations (see Figure 2—>). It has come to be almost universally used for outside doors of buildings and automobile doors, although in the 1960s there was a trend toward supplementing it on house doors with the sturdy lever lock.

      In the 1870s a new criminal technique swept the United States: robbers seized bank cashiers and forced them to yield keys or combinations to safes and vaults. To combat this type of crime, James Sargent of Rochester, N.Y., in 1873 devised a lock based on a principle patented earlier in Scotland, incorporating a clock that permitted the safe to be opened only at a preset time.

 The keyless combination (see Figure 6—>) lock derives from the “letter-lock,” in use in England at the beginning of the 17th century. In it a number of rings (inscribed with letters or numbers) are threaded on a spindle; when the rings are turned so that a particular word or number is formed, the spindle can be drawn out because slots inside the rings all fall in line. Originally, these letter locks were used only for padlocks and trick boxes. In the last half of the 19th century, as developed for safes and strong-room doors, they proved to be the most secure form of closure. The number of possible combinations of letters or numbers is almost infinite and they have no keyholes into which an explosive charge can be placed. Furthermore, they are easy to manufacture.

 A simple combination lock with four rings (tumblers, in the U.S.) and 100 numbers on the dial (i.e., 100 positions for each ring) presents 100,000,000 possible combinations. Figure 6—> shows how the single knob can set all the wheels; in this case the lock has three rings, or wheels, giving 1,000,000 possible combinations. If, for example, the combination is 48, 15, 90, the knob is turned counterclockwise until the 48 comes opposite the arrow for the fourth time, a process that ensures that there is no play between the other wheels. The slot on the first wheel (on the left in the diagram) is then in the correct position for opening and it will not move in subsequent operations. The knob is then turned clockwise until the 15 is opposite the arrow for the third time; this sets the slot of the middle wheel in line with the first. Finally, the knob is turned counterclockwise to bring the 90 for the second time to the arrow. All three slots are then in line and a handle can be turned to withdraw the bolts. The combination can easily be changed, for the serrations shown on each wheel enable the slot to be set to a different position relative to the stud for that wheel.

      It is frequently necessary, particularly in hotels and office buildings, for a manager or caretaker to have a master key that will open all the locks in the building. To design a set of single locks each of which can be opened by its own key, and also by the master key, requires a coordinated arrangement of the warding. The master key is so shaped as to avoid the wards of all the locks. Another method involves two keyholes, one for the normal key, the other for the master key, or two sets of tumblers or levers, or in the case of Yale locks, two concentric cylinders.

Present status of locks and safes.

      Over the years, locks have been constructed with many specialized functions. Some have been designed to resist being blown open, others to shoot or stab intruders or seize their hands. Locks have been made that can be opened or closed by different keys but can be unlocked only by the key that closed them. So-called unpickable locks are usually devised to prevent a thief from exploring the positions of the lock parts from the keyhole or from sensing with his picking tool slight changes of resistance when pressure is applied to the bolt. The basic types, however, remain the Bramah, lever, Yale, and combination locks, though innumerable variations have been made, sometimes combining features of each. The Swiss Kaba lock, for example, employs the Yale principle but its key, instead of having a serrated edge, has flat sides marked with deep depressions into which four complete sets of pin-tumblers are pressed. The Finnish Abloy lock is a compact combination lock, but the rings, instead of being turned separately by hand, are moved to the correct positions by a single turn of a small key.

      Magnetic forces can be used in locks working on the Yale principle. The key has no serrations; instead, it contains a number of small magnets. When the key is inserted into the lock, these magnets repel magnetized spring-loaded pins, raising them in the same way that the serrations on a Yale-type key raise them mechanically. When these pins are raised the correct height, the cylinder of the lock is free to rotate in the barrel.

      The importance of locks as a protection against professional thieves declined after World War II, during which the knowledge and use of explosives (explosive) was widely disseminated. As most safe locks and strong-room locks became almost unpickable, criminals tended to ignore the locks and to use explosives to blow them off. An attempt to blow up the mechanism of a lock by detonating an explosive in the keyhole can be foiled by introducing a second series of bolts, not connected to the lock mechanism, but automatically inserted by springs when an explosion occurs; the safe then cannot be opened except by cutting through the armour.

      Another method used by criminals is to burn away the plating or hinge of a safe by an electric arc or an oxyacetylene flame, an operation requiring many hours' work. To resist this type of entry, safe makers produced even more resistant materials and new methods of construction to carry away the heat of the cutting flame.

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