No catch ... the simple and neat Yale key. Photograph: Frank Baron
I can't remember a time, except as a young child, when I didn't have a Yale key somewhere in my bag or pocket. This is hardly surprising. The Yale pin-tumbler cylinder lock, and the keys that open it, were first patented by Linus Yale Jr (1821-1868), an American, in 1861. An improvement was made in 1865, but ever since the Yale lock and key has been more or less as it was 140 years ago. Today, it opens front doors around the world.
There have been ever fancier and more ambitious keys and locks since, but Yale's remains the standard by which all others are judged. Naturally in the 1980s there were attempts to shape "designer" keys and locks (ie ones with funny or awkward shapes), while from the 1990s we have become used to all sorts of electronic locks that tend to go wrong, especially as these need a source of power. It does seem crazy that drivers can be locked out of their cars because of a faulty, or dying, electronic key when a simple Yale (as traditionally used by Rolls-Royce) would do the job perfectly well and without fear of failure.
I like this kind of design, something so matter-of-fact and everyday that you hardly ever think about it, until, of course, you mislay your keys or need a new set cut. Small, neat, functional, the Yale key and its lock are minor masterpieces of commonplace design.
The thing about them, though, is that the combination of key and pin-tumbler cylinder lock, was never a simple design to realise. Linus Yale Sr struggled in the attempt to design the lock and key his son perfected, and even he liked to say that the idea had come from the ancient Egyptians. They had produced a lock a bit like the Yale some 4,000 years ago. It was made of wood, and would only ever have been for the powerful and wealthy. The Yale was a lock and key for everyman as, during and after the US civil war, more and more people had ever more need for security, and, later, more goods to hide away from prying eyes and stealthy hands.
Because it works well, because no two keys need ever be the same, and because they are so readily available, Yale keys and their pin-tumbler cylinder locks are likely to survive a long time yet. And, especially when you have just stayed in one of those (increasingly many) hotels with a credit card style digital key that refuses to open your bedroom door until you have made an extra trip back down to reception to get it to work, the Yale seems a perfectly good bet for the next 140, if not 4,000 years.
