Linus Yale, Jr. (14 April 1821 - 25 December 1868) was an American mechanical engineer and manufacturer, best known for his inventions of locks, especially the cylinder lock. Linus Yale, Jr. was born in Salisbury, New York. Yale's father, Linus Yale, Sr., opened a lock shop in the 1840s in Newport, New York, specializing in bank locks. His son joined him in the business in 1850, and introduced some combination safe locks and key-operated cylinder locks around 1862. Then in 1868, he and Henry Robinson Towne founded the Yale Lock Manufacturing Company in the South End section of Stamford, Connecticut to produce cylinder locks. Yale died later that year. Yale & Towne Lock Company later became so successful that Stamford was later nicknamed "Lock City." Yale's cylinder lock, also called a pin-tumbler lock, was based on a principle similar to that of the first key-operated lock invented by the Egyptians around 2000 B.C. Inventions patented by Linus Yale, Jr. and his estate from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office:
Patents
- 6 May 1851 Pat. #8,071 - Newport, New York
- 19 Oct 1852 Pat. #9,350 - Newport, New York
- 21 Dec 1852 Pat. #9,497 - Newport, New York
- 12 July 1853 Pat. #9,850 - Newport, New York
- 12 Jul 1853 Pat. #9,853 - Newport, New York
- 3 Jun 1856 Pat. #15,031 - Newport, New York
- 19 Oct 1858 Pat. #21,861 - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- 9 Nov 1858 Pat. #22,048 - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- 12 Jun 1860 Pat. #28710 - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- 29 Jan 1861 Pat. #31,278 - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- 14 May 1861 Pat. #32,331 - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- 27 Jun 1865 Pat. #48,475 - Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts
- 27 Jun 1865 Pat. #48,476 - Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts
- 6 Feb 1866 Pat. #52,484 - Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts
- 19 Nov 1867 Pat. #71,110 - Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts
- 7 Jan 1868 Pat. #73,152 - Cooperstown, New York
- 4 Feb 1868 Pat. #74,025 - Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts
- 15 Sep 1868 Pat. #82,192 - Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts
- 4 Jan 1870 Pat. #98,536 - Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts
- 19 Sep 1871 Pat. #119,212 - Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts
- 24 Oct 1871 Pat. #120,177 - Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts
He was the inventor of the Yale Magic Bank Lock,Yale Double Treasury Bank Lock,Monitor Bank Lock,Yale Double Dial Bank Lock,and the yale lock.
Publication
- R. H. Yale, Yale Genealogy and History of Wales (Beatrice, Neb., 1908)
