Early 19th Century French and American Key Comparison

Long before the Industrial Revolution, keys and locks were symbols of an individual’s social status. Keys were crafted to be ornate and were worn as pieces of jewelry, indicating that not only did the wearer have something of value to protect, but also the means to hire skilled tradesmen (locksmith/whitesmith) to create the lock and key. As the Industrial Revolution spread, so too did mechanized production of many manufactured items including keys. Along with the change in production methods of keys came a change in their microstructural properties and many chemical constituents. In this presentation, we will investigate the characteristics of two iron keys. One key is labeled as being from the year 1825. It was purchased in the town of Lupiac, in the Gers Department of France, the region where D’Artagnan of The Three Musketeers grew up. The other key was labeled by the antique store where it was purchased as being from a jail near Jefferson City, MO, USA, which according to the label was torn down in 1901. The timeline for the spread of the Second Industrial Revolution throughout Europe shows that the industrialization of the Gers Department of southwestern France had not taken place until the late-19^th century. The USA key and lock have the distinct characteristic of being mass produced; but there is no certain timeline for the mass production of locks and keys in the American Midwest in the early to mid-19^th century. Our investigation into the two keys consists of characterizing the differences in their manufacturing processes, macro and microstructural analysis using both light optical and electron microscopy, bulk and micro constituent chemical analysis, as well as an attempt to determine the origin of the iron from which the keys were made.