key, in locksmithing, an instrument, usually of metal, by which the bolt of a lock (q.v.) is turned.
The Romans invented metal locks and keys and the system of security provided by wards. This system was, for hundreds of years, the only method of ensuring that only the right key would rotate in the keyhole. The wards are projections around the keyhole (inside the lock) that make it impossible for a plain key to be turned in it. If, however, the key has slots cut in it that correspond to the projections, the slots clear the projections, the key can be turned, and the bolt is thrown back. Throughout the centuries immense ingenuity was exercised by locksmiths in the design of the wards, and, consequently, some keys are very complicated. All the same, it was not difficult to make an instrument that could be turned in spite of the wards, to achieve what is known as “picking” a lock.
Little progress was made in the mechanism of the lock and key until the 18th century, when a series of improvements began that led, in the 1860s, to the development of the Yale cylinder lock, with its thin, convenient key capable of many thousands of variations. The key is made in a number of different cross sections so that only a particular variety of key will fit into a particular keyhole; this, in effect, is a form of ward. The serrations on the edge of the key raise pin tumblers to exactly the correct height, allowing the cylinder of the lock to revolve and withdraw the bolt. Although not impossible to pick, these locks are convenient and compact and offer a reasonable degree of security. In the late 20th century they were the most usual form of fastening for an outside door and were made by locksmiths in all parts of the world.
A special system is that of the master key. This system is used when a number of locks (such as those securing bedrooms in a hotel), each having a different key, must all be opened by a landlord or caretaker using a single key. Where the only security is by wards, a skeleton key that avoids the wards may be the type of master key chosen. In other cases, many methods are employed; for instance, there may be two keyholes (one for the servant key, the other for the master), or two sets of tumblers or levers, or two concentric cylinders in a Yale lock.