KEY, an instrument for the opening of locks. See LOCK.
L. Molinus has a treatise of keys, De clavibus veterum, printed at Upsal: he derives the Latin name clavis, from the Greek κλειν, claudo, "I shut," or from the adverb clam, "privately;" and adds, that the use of keys is yet unknown in some parts of Sweden.
The invention of keys is owing to one Theodore of Samos, according to Pliny and Polydore Virgil: but this must be a mistake, the use of keys having been known before the siege of Troy; mention even seems made of them in the 19th chapter of Genesis.
Molinus is of opinion, that keys at first only served for the untying certain knots, wherewith they anciently secured their doors: but the Laconic keys, he maintains, were nearly akin in use to our own; they consisted of three single teeth, and made the figure of an E; of which form there are still some to be seen in the cabinets of the curious.
There was another key called Κελαστρα, made in the manner of a male screw; which had its corresponding female in a bolt affixed to the door. Key is hence
become a general name for several things serving to shut up or close others. See the article LOCK.