Linus Yale

Linus Yale Sr. (27 April 1797 – 8 August 1858) was an American inventor and manufacturer of locks.

Yale was born in Middletown, Connecticut, and later moved with his parents to Salisbury, New York. He married Chlotilda Hopson, 27 September 1815, and they had four children. In 1857 the village of Newport (village), New York incorporated and Yale was elected its first president. Yale opened a lock shop in the early 1840s in the village of Newport, New York, specializing in bank locks. In 1850 his son, Linus Yale Jr. joined him at the lock shop and began working on improving his father’s pin tumbler lock.

Patents by Linus Yale Sr. from the United States Patent and Trademark Office:

• 20 Jan. 1830 U.S. Patent x5,788 mill stone dresser — Salisbury, New York
• 17 Sept. 1833 U.S. Patent x7,767 horse power — Otsego, New York (with P.C. Curtis)
• 17 Sept. 1833 U.S. Patent x7,770 threshing machine — Utica, New York (with P.C. Curtis)
• 11 Sept. 1835 U.S. Patent 9,094x sawmill head block — Utica, New York
• 17 May 1838 U.S. Patent 739 grain threshing machine — Little Falls, New York (with S.W. Stimson)
• 29 July 1841 U.S. Patent 2,196 sawmill dog — Newport, New York
• 20 Oct. 1843 U.S. Patent 3,312 combination lock — Springfield, Massachusetts (with C. Wilson)
• 13 June 1844 U.S. Patent 3,630 pin tumbler safe lock — Springfield, Massachusetts
• 13 Feb. 1849 U.S. Patent 6,111 safe — Newport, New York
• 18 Oct. 1853 U.S. Patent 10,144 a bank lock — Newport, New York
• 28 Feb. 1854 U.S. Patent 10,584a bank lock — Newport, New York
• 22 May 1855 U.S. Patent 12,932 a bank lock — Newport, New York
• 5 Aug. 1856 U.S. Patent 15,500 vault and safe door bolt — Newport, New York
• 8 Sept. 1857 U.S. Patent 18,169 padlock — Newport, New York

• Yale, Elihu. The Yale Family. New Haven, Connecticut: Storer & Storer, 1850. LCCN: 09-18747
• Yale, Rodney Horace. Yale Genealogy and History of Wales.Beatrice, Nebraska: Milburn and Scott Co., 1908. LCCN: 09-9945