Linus Yale Jr. was an American mechanical engineer, manufacturer, and co-founder of the Yale Lock Manufacturing Company.
Background
Yale was born on April 4, 1821 in Salisbury, New York, the son of Linus and Chlotilda (Hopson) Yale. Yale’s family are of Welsh descent, and his ancestors were of the same family as Elihu Yale, the benefactor to and namesake of the well known Yale University. His father, Linus Yale Sr. , was a successful inventor who owned a Lock Shop in the village of Newport, New York, and specialized in expensive, handmade bank locks and mechanical engineering, and who held eight patents for locks and another half dozen for threshing machines, sawmill head blocks, and millstone dressers.
Education
Yale was well educated and for a number of years devoted himself to portrait painting.
Career
About 1840 Yale's father invented a bank lock, and shortly afterwards he undertook, independently, the same sort of business. Bank locks in those days were of very intricate construction and high in cost, and there was great rivalry among the manufacturers, all of which was a great stimulus to the industry.
Yale brought out one of the first of his locks - it was the reputation of his father's locks which first caused the association of the name with the product - about 1851. This was made in the shop which he had established at Shelburne Falls, Massachussets, and was called the "Yale Infallible Bank Lock. " It was known as the "changeable type; " that is, the key was made up of component parts which could be separated and reassembled to change the combination. His next lock, the "Yale Magic Bank Lock, " was an improved modification of his first product.
It was followed by the "Yale Double Treasury Bank Lock, " a masterpiece of ingenious design and skilful workmanship, the most notable of the bank locks operated by keys. About 1862 Yale began marketing his "Monitor Bank Lock, " the first of the dial or combination bank locks, and the following year brought out the "Yale Double Dial Bank Lock. " The principles of construction used in the latter have since come into general use in the United States. By this time Yale's reputation was well established.
Between 1860 and 1865 he undertook the improvement of small key locks, devising the "Cylinder Lock, " which was based on the pintumbler mechanism of the Egyptians. Patents covering this separate cylinder, pin-tumbler lock, using a small flat key, were issued to him on January 29, 1861, and June 27, 1865. Since Yale's business as a consultant on bank locks left him little time and he lacked the necessary financial resources to equip his plant for the manufacture of the small locks, he went to Philadelphia in the hope of interesting others in the new venture. Through William Sellers he met John Henry Towne, who brought about the establishment in October 1868 of the Yale Lock Manufacturing Company, with his son, Henry Robinson Towne, and Yale as partners. The partners immediately began the construction of a plant at Stamford, Connecticut, Yale leaving most of this activity to Towne and continuing his consulting work on bank locks. Three months later, however, while he was in New York on this business, he died suddenly of heart failure.
Achievements
Connections
Yale was married to Catherine Brooks at Shelburne Falls on Sept. 14, 1844, and was survived by his wife and three children.