Useless, yet curiously compelling

On this day in 1851, Linus Yale Jr received the first of his 21 lock patents. It was for "a new and improved Safety-Lock for banks, safes, vaults and stores." He and his father had set up the Yale Lock shop in New York in 1847, after he'd decided that portrait painting wasn't for him. The invention that changed everything was his pin tumbler lock of 1861. It wasn't a new idea - the Egyptians had use the pin principle 4,000 years earlier - but it combined unprecedented security with a small, portable key. The Yale lock is still the world's most popular domestic security measure. Most of the other locks before then, however grand they looked, had relied on a crude system in which fixed obstructions or "wards" were used to prevent the wrong key from entering or turning in the lock. These were notoriously easy to pick. A notable exception was the "detector" lever lock invented by Charles and Jeremiah Chubb, in 1818, which received unexpected publicity after the Prince Regent hurt himself by accidentally sitting on one with the key protruding.

Which of the following key facts won't turn

a The Romans used iron for locks and bronze for keys - which is why more keys have survived than locks.

b Henry VIII had a portable wrought-iron lock, which screwed on the bedroom door of wherever he stayed.

c Louis XVI of France was a keen amateur locksmith.

d Safe-breakers are known as "yeggs". No one knows where the word comes from.

e Chubb is the only remaining British lock-maker.

QUIZ ANSWER (E) CHUBB LOCKSWAS ACQUIRED BY ASSA ABLOY, THE SWEDISH OWNERS OF YALE, IN 2000

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