History of Locks and Keys
– The history of keys and locks dates back 4,000 years.
– The first locks and keys were made of wood and easily accessible materials.
– The ruins of Nineveh in ancient Assyria contained the earliest known key and lock, dated to 704 BC.
– Ancient Babylon and Egypt developed wooden locks with pins controlled by keys.
– Ancient Romans improved locks using bronze and iron, creating small and portable keys.
Methods of Lock Picking
– Warded locks are the simplest to pick, using a warded lock pick or skeleton key.
– Pin-tumbler and wafer-tumbler locks open when the correct key pushes pins or wafers to the shear line.
– Picking pin-tumbler locks involves applying tension and individually pushing pins to the shear line.
– Other methods include using a rake or pick gun to vibrate pins to the shear line.
– Bump keys can also be used to bump pins to the shear line, but caution is needed to avoid breaking the key.
Opening Other Types of Locks
– Most padlocks can be opened using a shim inserted between the shackle and lock body.
– High-security padlocks have a ball-bearing latch that can’t be shimmed.
– Some door locks can be shimmed with a credit card or thin plastic object.
– Combination locks can sometimes be deciphered by feeling for specific clicks.
– Some combination locks have cracks that allow the combination to be seen.
References
– Keys and locks: a source providing information on the topic.
– Archived from the original on 2018-10-23.
– Retrieved 2017-12-21.
Additional Resources
– “What Is Lockpicking?”: an additional resource on the subject.
– Retrieved from https://simple.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lock_picking&oldid=9028161.Sources: https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lock_picking
