Inventor Name
Yale, Linus
Repository
Yale University
Manuscripts and Archives
Sterling Memorial Library
PO Box 208240
128 Wall Street
New Haven, CT 06520-8240
203-432-1735
http://www.library.yale.edu/mssa/
Physical Description
3.25 linear ft.
Summary
Linus Yale manufactured the first lock at Shelburne Falls, MA in 1851, known as the Yale Infallible Bank Lock. He improved this lock and received a patent for the Cylinder Lock in 1861. Henry R. Towne established the Yale Lock Manufacturing Company in 1868, with a plant in Stamford, CT. Family and business correspondence and financial records largely relating to the invention of the Yale Lock and Linus Yale’s attempts to establish a sucessful business in Newport, New York, and Philadelphia. The papers of the Yale Lock company continue after the death of Linus Yale and contain documents on its financial reorganization and on suits against infringements of Yale Patents (1868-1870). Yale’s intellectual and social life is revealed in his correspondence with Henry and Walter Brown, William Morris Davis, A. Heymann, William Manley and John Hoskin. Many of the letters also concern mechanics, and ideas for new inventions, with drawings. The family correspondence includes numerous letters between Linus Yale and his wife, Catherine, as well as letters between her and her sisters. Of particular interest are the letters from her sister Nancy Gore in Wisconsin, which contrast with the letters from another sister, Elizabeth Carter, in New York, and a friend, Fanny Marley, preparing a career as an artist in Boston. The collection contains family and busines correspondence and financial records largely relating to the invention of the Yale Lock and Linus Yale’s attempts to establish a successful business in Newport, New York, and Philadelphia.
