They say that knowledge does not take place, therefore being aware and knowing aspects of things that perhaps are not the direct specialty of oneself is always interesting as a general culture and as something of relevance that for specific issues can always be interesting to know, and one of these cases is that of the locksmith.

The locksmith, like everything in life, has its history. The first thing that should be said in relation to the history of the locksmith is that it has been evolving in two different areas, in two parallel but interrelated fields at the same time.

On the one hand, locksmithing has progressed to the evolution of the different materials that have been used and, on the other hand, locksmithing has also evolved to meet the different needs, requirements and safety elements that have been I have needed it over the years.

What is the locksmith?

The locksmith today covers many aspects of people’s daily life, being undoubtedly the best known, essential and elementary that has to do with the change, installation and assembly of locks, being thus -at present- one of the trades that can be considered vital to guarantee the security of the goods and the people.

As mentioned in previous paragraphs the locksmith has not always been called a locksmith and in other times was known as a blacksmith, the function of the locksmith was called smithy and – although it has different reasons – one of them is that has to do with the evolution of the forge.

It is with the appearance of the forge that you can begin to develop the first locks and the first keys that should allow opening and closing them. Undoubtedly all this was immense progress for the time as it allowed to ensure in a secure way that the property in question could only access the person or persons who had the key and also allowed to leave the place leaving the door closed with a mechanism that would then allow it to be opened only to the person who had the key to it.

The former is the initial essence with which the locksmith was born, then – as also happens in any other aspect of life – the locksmith has been adapting and has been advancing and evolving in the heat of social changes and technological changes.

In addition, in the area of ​​locksmithing has existed, and there is another element to consider that should be taken into account: the existence of thieves, lovers of the alien that also improve, advance and develop skills and new techniques, this requires to that the sector of the locksmith is always in full evolution to be able to adapt appropriately to the challenges and new challenges that continuously are presented to him.

Speaking of the concrete beginnings of the locksmith there is no clear conclusion about the origins of this, but everything suggests that there were different ancient cultures such as Chinese or Egyptian who in ages past began to use the locksmith to protect their property from their hand’s outsiders who wanted to get involved with them.

After those times past the locksmith was rapidly expanding through other types of territories and cultures, as, for example, Syria and Greece, all of them were causing an important advance in the locksmith and in the strength and security of the locks that were developing.

Formerly there were two special types of locks. On the one hand, there were locks that were made of iron and on the other hand, there were locks made of wood. The first were high-security locks used by the wealthiest classes at the time, while the wooden locks were basic locks that offered little protection and were the ones used with fewer resources at the time.

If you want to talk about the origin of the word lock say that it comes from the Latin serrate, or what is the same, close. A meaning that has undoubtedly progressed and evolved over time. It was in the time of the Romans when the technology of the locksmith made a very important advance. It was the Romans who invented the “turn of the key”, which meant an advance towards high security for the time.

In the middle ages, the evolution of the locksmith did not stop and it stopped being seen as something merely functional, from that time the locks also acquired an important dimension in relation to the design. At that time it was important to look for security, but also that the lock was as colorful as possible. Thus, it was in the Middle Ages when in addition to focusing on their main function, the locksmiths also began to play an important role as designers.

To end with the average age say that it was at that time where the different locks began to mark the different social scales and it was also in the middle age when the latch was born. In the year 1778, the double-glass lock was invented. It was created by Roberto Barrón and represented another qualitative leap in the safety of the locks because it guaranteed that the bolt could only be extracted with the correct key.

Shortly afterward, in 1784 the spring lock, or safety lock, was born by Jose Bramah. This lock became a benchmark for security for more than 60 decades. The same was impenetrable to the attacks during all that time, and then it was left behind thanks to the technological advances that had been taking place.

The years 1818, 1848 and 1857 were important years for the locks. From the hand of Jeremiah Chubb, Linus Yale and James Sargent were born the lock with a detector, the lock of glass and the lock of a combination of changeable key, respectively.

The key created in 1848 is still largely the basis of the keys that are currently, but obviously with improvements and always keeping in mind that they have never stopped evolving. And they have never stopped evolving until they reach the digital keys of our days, it still corresponds to travel for example in the years 1916, 1921 and 1924 when Samuel Segal in the first case and Harry Soref created new important advances.

In 1916 Samuel Segal invented the lock called Jemmy and in 1921 Harry Soref invented the Mester Lock, a key that he would substantially improve only 3 years later, in 1924.