The Verge:

Do you think technology from circa 1680 can still surprise and delight in the age of the iPhone and Alexa? I didn’t, but boy was I wrong.

I often forget this when looking at the human timeline from my 21st century vantage point. Then last weekend I discovered the “detector Lock” in the Rijksmuseum, created by British locksmith John Wilkes. The lock (and those like it) is a triumph of 17th century technology and a precursor to the so-called “smart locks” we see flooding the market today.

Make sure you watch the associated video. This technology is cool now. It must have seemed like magic 340 years ago.