Linus Yale Jr.

Linus Yale Jr. (April 4, 1821 – December 25, 1868) was an American businessman, inventor, mechanical engineer, and metalsmith.

After some regular education, Yale Jr. joined his father's business and introduced some revolutionary locks that utilized permutations and cylinders.

Throughout his career in lock manufacturing, Yale acquired numerous patents for his inventions and received widespread acclaim from clients regarding his products.

Linus was personal friends and frequent correspondent with the abolitionist Congressman William Morris Davis.

[7] Young Yale developed an early affinity for portrait painting, but about 1850 switched interests to assist his father with improving bank locks and studying mechanical problems.

In the 1860s, around the time he had opened his own shop in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts, Yale specialized in bank locks.

Yale had previously harbored the practical implementation of the tumbler lock for decades, and had sketched the idea in 1844.

Throughout his career Yale acquired many patents, mostly related to his inventions of locks and safes, but also including mechanical problems.

[9] Yale had many inventions to his name throughout his career, thoroughly revolutionizing the locks industry and improving the security of financial institutions.

Yale's model of the padlock was smaller, sturdier, more reliable, and innovative, proving to be a distinction among locks of his day.

Previous bank doors, vaults, and safes had plates of hard cast behind soft wrought iron, which can be easily broken using the right amount of leverage and skillful vault-picking.

[12] In 1856, after a commission appointed by the Secretary of the Treasury, the US Treasury Department selected Yale's enterprise to become the sole supplier of bank locks, safe locks, burglar proof safes, and vault doors, for all the new Mint, Sub-Treasuries, and Custom-Houses in the United States, and received praised from U.S. Mint director, James Ross Snowden in correspondence letters.

[14] The utility of Yale Locks were soon widely approved and favored upon, and implemented by many firms and government agencies in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, among various CEOs and Presidents of major corporations.

Leading banks and bankers of the era hired him as a consulting expert and engineer to design their safes and locks.

The commonly used combination locks omnipresent today also owe their dues to Linus Yale Jr.

Following his death, his son John B. Yale joined Henry R. Towne, became Treasurer, and helped grow the enterprise into a global giant manufacturing business, employing 12 000 people with customers in 125 countries.

Linus Yale Jr., portrait
Example of a bank vault and a vault door, Linus will get orders from the United States Treasury Department in 1857
Custom house of Pittsburg 1857, a customer of Linus Yale
Yale Lock fair, showing the Yale exhibition on the west side, and the Waltham Company of Massachusetts
Yale lock system, Otto's Encyclopedia
Yale Bank Lock advertising, referring to their use in around 3/4 of all banks in America
Yale & Towne Manufacturing Co. , in 1897. By the early 20th century, the enterprise evolved into an international conglomerate, serving customers in over 120 countries, with a workforce of about 12,000 employees [ 11 ]
Early banks in Oswego County, New York , customers of Linus Yale Jr.
George P. Bissell and Co., bank dealers and customers of Yale Lock Company
New York City, 1919, the Yale Lock Company will become the suppliers of many early skyscrapers in the city, such as the Chrysler Building
Union League , clubhouse of New York , his children were members at its beginning in 1870