Historical Locks Qeury for TV documentary

Parthenon

Dear All,

We are making a documentary for television about a man who escaped from an Inquisition prison in Mexico in 1650. The records tell us he broke through a locked iron gate. Could anyone tell me whether at this time the iron gate could have been locked with a padlock and whether this padlock could have been a barrel lock with a screw key?

Thank you in advance.

Dean Nickel

If he knew that wet cloth wrapped around two bars and a stick being twisted can bend the bars he wouldn’t have to break the lock to get out of a cell. If he knew this the lock wouldn’t be important. I don’t know how old this trick is…. but I do know it is at least 150 years old… just not well known. No it will not work on modern bars made of steel.

Yes it could have been a padlock, a lock built into the gate or just about anything from that time that a blacksmith could make.

Doug MacQueen

Dean I suspect the tourniquet idea goes back for a couple thousand years. As applied in this instance who knows but can you fill in more about the 150 year old story. Sounds interesting. Doug