A magnetic keyed lock is a locking mechanism whereby the key utilizes magnets as part of the locking and unlocking mechanism.
A magnetic key would use from one to many small magnets oriented so that the North / South Poles would equate to a combination to push or pull the lock's internal tumblers thus releasing the lock. This is a totally passive system requiring no electricity or electronics to activate or deactivate the mechanism. Using several magnets at differing polarity / orientations and different strengths can allow thousands of different combinations per key.
Traditional lock picking is impossible due to the tumblers being magnetically operated instead of via a physical up and down action. Magnetic keys also cannot be reproduced by locksmiths by sight or other "human sensed" information.
Famous quotes containing the words magnetic and/or lock:
“We are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas; but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“They lock me in this chair at eight a.m.
and there are no signs to tell the way,
just the radio beating to itself
and the song that remembers
more than I.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)