Part 5

At what time and through what particular channels the various kinds of locks were distributed can only be determined after more extended inquiry into the archæology of padlocks. Some points may, however, I think be considered to be more or less established by the evidence I have adduced. The particular form of padlock represented in fig. 44C, Plate VI., from India, and fig. 21C, Plate V., from the Roman period of Europe, must in all probability have been communicated in Roman times, as I am not aware that this precise form of padlock was in use in Europe later than the Roman age, having been superseded by the more modern improvements which have been described in this paper. The use of padlocks in the forms of animals in Egypt, Persia, and China, must also very probably belong to the same period. The Chinese and Japanese padlocks appear to belong to a more advanced stage of the development of the mechanism, and correspond to the form used in Europe in the Middle Ages; whilst the use of the revolving key in Europe, India, and Japan, to compress the springs, as shown in figs. 39C, Plate VI., 90C, Plate VIII., and 98C, Plate XI., must date from a still later phase in the art; and unless they are to be regarded as improvements introduced independently in those countries, the idea must have spread by means of Arab traders, if not still more recently. In like manner, the adoption of the screw principle with these locks must either have been conveyed by traders, or applied independently in different countries to the form of padlock already in use. The hinge of the staple, as seen in figs. 26C and 31C, Plate V., though derived from the earlier form of the parallel bar, which has a wide distribution, has not been universally adopted, but is used chiefly in Sweden and Europe, and is an improvement introduced, no doubt, in modern times. Further information is needed to enable us to trace the distribution of all these different varieties more continuously, before any satisfactory judgment can be formed as to the date of connection. In Scandinavia we find the padlock in use in Gotland, in Björkö, and in Sweden; and HANS HILDEBRAND, in his work on 'The Industrial Arts of Scandinavia,'[46] published by the South Kensington Museum, says that they were already known in that region in Pagan times. It is to be hoped that this announcement may be only a prelude to some more detailed publication of his researches into a subject to which the present paper can only be regarded as a first introduction--not previously attempted, that I am aware of, in its ethnological and commercial bearings. Local archæologists must work out the rest. Enough has, I trust, been said to show that a large field lies open to the student of the archæology of locks and keys, and that whenever the history of this mechanism is traced in Scandinavia, Persia, India, and China, in the same way that I have endeavoured to trace it in Europe, much light will thereby be thrown on the ramifications of trade and the commercial relations of distant countries in non-historic times.

[46] 'The Industrial Arts of Scandinavia,' by HANS HILDEBRAND, 1883.