A rim lock is a locking device that attaches to the surface of a door.
The original type of lock used in England and Ireland it is of a basic design originally of a very stiff lever and a bolt with wards being the block. As wards were outdated in the centre of the key it became normal for them to be placed on the sides of the bit. Although today these are still produced they are mostly for internal doors and are not used for high security. Older ones could be as large as 40cm by 25cm. Most rimlocks used today on exterior doors in the British Isles are nightlatches.
Famous quotes containing the words rim and/or lock:
“Pushkin’s composition is first of all and above all a phenomenon of style, and it is from this flowered rim that I have surveyed its seep of Arcadian country, the serpentine gleam of its imported brooks, the miniature blizzards imprisoned in round crystal, and the many-hued levels of literary parody blending in the melting distance.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
“and wife or husband
who does not lock the door of the marriage
against you, finds you
not as unwelcome third in the room, but as
the light of the moon on flesh and hair.”
—Denise Levertov (b. 1923)