How Did Romans Lock Their Doors

Discover more about the history of locks.

How did romans lock their doors.

Archeologists found the oldest known lock in ruins near nineveh. It spread from egypt to greece and eventually to the roman empire where it was further adapted to smaller locks that could secure. The shackle or hasp which was separate from the body carried on its lower side a pair of spreading springs which entered a hole in the end of the body when the two pieces were being put together. The romans created new types of door locks and developed the idea of the egyptian lock substituting iron for the wooden lock and often bronze for the key.

The lock is estimated to be 4 000 years old. The clumsy egyptian pin tumbler locks were transformed into elegant roman pin tumbler locks of steel fitted with an ingenious roman invention steel springs. Keys were no longer too big to lose or lift indeed some roman keys were small enough to wear on a finger. Roman engineers modernized them and other lock constructions by replacing the wooden parts with corresponding parts made of metal.

The locks were often tiny masterpieces in terms of both precision and design. Presumably the vast majority of locks being used were padlocks as there would have been more versatile in their application. Roman padlocks in metal were constructed very much after the fashion of the fourth primitive type of lock for doors mentioned earlier. The simple key and pin principle has persevered over the century.