Yale & Towne: The Stamford Lock Company and Its Descendants

Before the Company: The Yale Lock Shop

Yale's present-day brand history says that "about 1840" Linus Yale Sr. began designing and making high-security locks at his Yale Lock Shop in Newport, New York, and that he specialized in handmade bank locks. It adds that his son joined the business in 1850. That history is a company account. The Linus Yale papers at Yale University's archives confirm the broader picture: family and business correspondence about "the invention of the Yale Lock" and "attempts to establish a successful business in Newport, New York, and Philadelphia."

Popular histories differ on how credit for the design should be split between father and son. Yale's brand history says the son "perfected and patented his father's pin tumbler cylinder lock." This article does not try to settle how much of the design belongs to each. It sticks to what the patents themselves record.

The Patents

Two U.S. patents issued to Linus Yale Jr. are central to the company's story. Their texts can be read in full:

• U.S. 31,278 (January 29, 1861), issued to "Linus Yale, Jr., of Philadelphia," for an "Improvement in Locks for Drawers, Closets, Cupboards, &c." It describes sliding "pistons" in cylindrical holes, with "drivers" and springs behind them. This is the basic arrangement of a pin tumbler lock.
• U.S. 48,475 (June 27, 1865), issued to "Linus Yale, Jr., of Shelburne Falls, in the county of Franklin and State of Massachusetts," for an "Improvement in locks." It applies to "that class of tumbler-locks known as 'pin-locks.'" The patent says its improvements relate "partly to the security of locks against picking" and partly to construction, so that one lock could suit doors of either hand and different thicknesses. The patent illustrates a mortise lock and says the design is equally suited to rim locks.

Sources disagree about which patent marks the modern cylinder lock. The Stamford Historical Society credits a five-pin tumbler lock "patented by Linus Yale in 1861." Yale's brand history credits patents "in 1861 and 1865" together. This article lists both patents and leaves the question open.

Shelburne Falls to Stamford

According to the Stamford Historical Society, Yale and Towne first went into business making locks in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts (the society spells it "Shelbourne"). Their firm was "originally called" the Yale Lock Company. In 1868 the partners decided to move to Stamford, choosing a site between the canal and the railroad in the city's South End.

Linus Yale Jr. died in December 1868, before the Stamford factory opened. Sources disagree on the exact day. The Stamford Historical Society says Christmas Day. The University of Connecticut's finding aid for the company's records says December 24, in New York. Towne went ahead with construction, and the factory opened in May 1869.

Henry R. Towne and Yale & Towne

According to the Stamford Historical Society, Towne acquired sole ownership of the company and in 1883 renamed it the Yale & Towne Manufacturing Company. He served as president until 1915 and as chairman of the board until his death in 1924. The society credits Towne with putting a modern factory system in place of work that had been done by hand.

The company did not stay a lock maker only. The UConn finding aid says Towne expanded the business "from locks to materials handling in 1875." Hyster-Yale's company history connects that move to the purchase of patents for hand-powered chain hoists.

The Lock City

The Stamford Historical Society's account of Stamford industry gives these workforce figures for Yale & Towne:

The society calls Yale & Towne the city's largest single employer and says the firm dominated Stamford's economy for decades. It says the "Lock City" nickname was chosen in the early 1900s and that the city seal "bears a depiction of two Yale & Towne keys." It dates the start of the company's "gradual retreat" from Stamford to 1948, and says the firm had left by the 1950s.

Eaton, and the Split

On October 11, 1963, according to The New York Times, the Eaton Manufacturing Company completed its acquisition of Yale & Towne. The Times described Yale & Towne as a maker of "materials-handling equipment, locks, keys and similar products." Hyster-Yale's history says the parent was later known as Eaton Yale & Towne, Inc. and was renamed Eaton Corporation in 1971.

From there the two halves of the business followed separate paths.

Materials handling. In 1986 Eaton sold its industrial truck division to a newly formed subsidiary of NACCO Industries. NACCO then grouped the Yale truck brand with Hyster, a lineage that continues today as Hyster-Yale.

Locks. The ownership trail between Eaton and 2000 rests on a single secondary source, so it is not given here. By 2000 the Yale lock business belonged to Britain's Williams PLC. Williams agreed in March 2000 to sell it to ASSA ABLOY. ASSA ABLOY says it closed the acquisition of "Yale Intruder Security" on August 30, 2000. More recently, on June 20, 2023, Fortune Brands completed its purchase of the U.S. and Canadian residential Yale and August smart-lock business from ASSA ABLOY. As a result, the residential Yale brand in North America now has a different owner from Yale elsewhere.

Related Topics

• Linus Yale: the inventor's biography
• Pin tumbler locks: the mechanism in the 1861 and 1865 patents
• Mortise locks and rim and mortise cylinders: the formats in the 1865 patent
• Combination locks: the bank-lock tradition
• Robert Barron: an earlier lock inventor
• Kwikset and ABLOY: other brands now in the ASSA ABLOY group
• Smart locks: the category of the 2023 Yale/August residential sale

Sources

Not used: Lemelson-MIT profile (contains date and place errors); Hyster-Yale's pre-1875 entries (attributes the 1868 partnership to Yale Sr.); a UK local-history gazetteer for 1978–2002 lock ownership (single source; conflicts with ASSA ABLOY on the 2000 date); Yale's "Monitor Bank Lock 1862" and "Egyptian 4,000 years" lines (single marketing source).