| |
| | Under Lock & Key - American Profile |
 | | The history of the lock may have begun with a stone rolled against the entrance to a cave and then graduated to a wooden bar across the door of a hut, but that mystery has never been unraveled. |
 | | The collection includes more than 20,000 locks, keys, and pieces of related hardware, including many variations of the pin tumbler, the oldest lock design known to man. One, an Egyptian pin tumbler lock, is a re-creation of a 4,000-year-old design. |
 | | Empires are represented by a 26-pound English padlock, thought to be the worlds largest; a Roman key unearthed in Britain; and a 17th-century Spanish Armada chest, from a time when kings sent their captains forth on quests for fame and richeswith the booty kept, of course, under lock and key. |
| www.americanprofile.com /article/3606.html (845 words) |
|