One of the oldest security solutions known to mankind, padlocks have been used by human beings to secure places and property since ancient times. Although a straightforward and basic device, their effectiveness is demonstrated by their ongoing use around the world.
The first examples of padlocks are termed convenience locks, and were portable locking devices carried by merchants on the ancient Asian and European trade routes around the era 500 BC to 300 AD. The Vikings also used locks with spring tine mechanism, examples of which have been found by archaeologists at the Scandinavian settlement of Jorvik, in York, northern England.
Designs remained very basic and straightforward until metal machining techniques became much more widespread in the early 20th Century, when electricity simplified the process. The emergence of die casting metal working techniques in the 1930s saw another leap in design technology.
Although devices have become more sophisticated in their designs since then, the actual components which constitute a padlock have not altered very much. Locks consist of a body which houses the locking mechanism, the locking mechanism itself and a U-shaped piece of metal known as shackle, which secures the lock to the object it is securing.
Some padlock shackles swing out of the lock’s body when being unlocked, though this tends to apply to older versions and most designs nowadays slide out instead. The advent of combination rather than key locks had also added to the effectiveness of a padlock.
The largest of the world’s working padlocks can be found in southern England, at the Kent Police Museum. Padlocks continue to play an important part in the lives of human beings, something which is exemplified by the use of a padlock icon to show when secure transactions are being conducted across the internet.