"Ci Yuan said:" that the ancient lock key, this is called the lock." The "word" explained: "we must use the sealed device keys can excuse". In addition, there is a lock (meaning: "a ring hook into torture", extended to the arrest of the shackles. For example, the Song Dynasty magistrate sentenced guilty person said: "ah, lock." Use is a wooden yoke, under two blocks can be stuck on the board, a ring chain).
The earliest lock is the simple organ set up by the owner to prevent others from opening, and the simplest lock used on the door is the latch. In ancient China there is no stone lock, key, bound by a rope or chain. The Shang and Zhou dynasties, further development of private ownership of the means of production, further exacerbated the gap between rich and poor, the social contradiction is very prominent, at the same time, smelting technology is mature and was immediately applied to the lock industry, so there can be a key to open the lock, lock, lock with different keys, different. With the rapid development of science and technology, mechanical lock has also made great progress. Modern mechanical locks have been more than 100 years of history, the lock core added different marbles, to shape with the corresponding tooth key to open. Later, it developed to the password lock, magnetic lock, electronic lock, laser lock, sound control lock and so on. On the basis of the traditional key, add a group or group of passwords, different sounds, different magnetic fields, different sound waves, different beams, light waves, different images. Such as fingerprint, retina, etc., to control the opening of the lock.
Today, locks have formed a very large family, and are constantly improving and upgrading, and constantly show the world to its magic. In a word, the lock plays "the arrest of the shackles of" function in the human civilization and society, norms of social behavior, safeguarding people's life and property security, maintain social stability.
In Europe, in the latter half of the nineteenth Century, locks became popular and entered houses. Previously, locks were expensive and had no common people, but a symbol of wealth and power. In Japan, the last to raise the lock people think is the earth, the lock is also supplies the rich people.