Linus Yale Sr.


Linus Yale Sr. was an American inventor and manufacturer of locks.

Biography

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, 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: