KEY, THOMAS HEWITT (1799-1875), English classical scholar, was born in London and educated at St. John's and Trin ity colleges, Cambridge. From 1825 to 1827 he was professor of mathematics in the University of Virginia, and in 1828 was ap pointed professor of Latin in the newly founded University of London. From 1832 till his death he was headmaster of Uni versity College school (first with a colleague and later alone). Key introduced the crude form (the uninflected form or stem of words) system, in general use among Sanskrit grammarians, into the teaching of classics. This system was embodied in his Latin Grammar (1846). In Language, its Origin and Development (1874), he upholds the onomatopoeic theory. He was a member of the Royal Society and president of the Philological Society.
See Proceedings of the Royal Society (1876), vol. xxiv.; R. Ellis in the Academy (Dec. 4, ; J. P. Hicks, T. Hewitt Key (1893).
KEY, an instrument of metal used for the opening and closing of a lock (see LocK). Until the 14th century bronze was most commonly used. The terminals of the stem of the keys were fre quently decorated, the "bow" or loop taking the form sometimes of a trefoil, with figures inscribed within it ; this decoration in creased in the 16th century, the terminals being made in the shape of animals and other figures. More elaborate ceremonial keys were used by court officials; a series of chamberlains' keys used during the 18th and 19th centuries in several courts in Europe is in the British Museum. The terminals are decorated with crowns, royal monograms and ciphers.
The word "key" is by analogy applied to things regarded as means for the opening or closing of anything, for the making clear of that which is hidden. Thus it is used of an interpretation
as to the arrangement of the letters or words of a cipher, of a solution of mathematical or other problems, or of a translation of exercises or books, etc., from a foreign language. The term is also used figuratively of a place of commanding strategic position. Thus Gibraltar is called the "Key of the Mediterranean." The word is also frequently applied to many mechanical con trivances for unfastening or loosening a valve, nut, bolt, etc., such as a spanner or wrench ; to the instru ments used in tuning a pianoforte or harp or in winding clocks or watches, and to ap pliances which serve to fasten together dis tinct parts of a structure. as the "key stone" of an arch, or a small metal instru ment, shaped like a U, used to secure the bands in the process of sewing in book binding.
The term is further applied in the case of certain wind instruments, particularly of the wood-wind type, to the levers which open and close valves in order to produce various notes, and in that of keyboard in struments, such as the organ or the piano forte, to the external parts, constituting the keyboard, of the levers which operate the sound-producing mechanism (see KEY