Bankers Dustproof Time Lock Co., Cincinnati, Ohio, 3 movements

A

  B

  C

A. Circa 1906. Banker's Dustproof began in 1906 as a subsidiary of Victor Safe and Lock Company, maker of the "Cannonball" model of safe; one of the most popular safes made and was a late entry into the time lock business. The clean lines in the manner of the emerging popular deco style of the day is reflected in the design. Around 1902 with the sale of E. Howard & Co. to the Keystone Watch Case Company, E. Howard exited the time lock business. Therefor, unlike most time lock companies that used either E. Howard or Seth Thomas movements, this company used 18-size Model #4 pocket watch movements supplied by the Illinois Watch Company. The movements had a separate crystal covering the watch movements much like on a conventional pocket watch providing exceptional protection from contamination compared to other time lock movements. Mosler Safe Co. was another company that used movements supplied by Illinois Watch Company. This was probably not coincidental since Banker's disappeared as a brand in 1915 and Mosler appeared in 1916 based on designs very similar to that of Bankers. This example contains an automatic bolt motor wound separately by the winding square below the first time lock to the left. Bankers was a short-lived company that never achieved a significant production. This example with the glass aperture was their earliest version. The door has "Patent Pending" indicating that this was made very early in the production run.About four of these are known to have survived. 5.75"w x 5.25" h x 2.75"d. Case #418, movements #2052426, 2052981, 2622898. file 126

B. Circa 1909. Same as above but with solid door. The solid door design was introduced shortly after introduction and is a bit more common. About ten of these are known to have survived. Case #1493, movement #2710350, 2710793, 2275050. The large run up of the serial numbers between these two examples cannot be taken as a measure of production. Most likely these were incorporated within the numbering system of the general production run at the Illinois Watch Watch Company, one of the country's largest watch makers at the time.. file 112

C. Circa 1909. This example was designed to work in vault doors that had manually operated bolt works, so it incorporated a conventional bolt-dog configuration as evidenced by the bolt hole on the side. Most of the company's production run was concentrated on safes with automatic bolt motors, see examples above, making this version quite rare. About ten such examples are known. 6 1/4w x 4 3/8"h x 2 3/4"d. Case #1679, movements #2144883, 2477696, 2634141. file 139

Last photos show a Banker's Dustproof time lock in a beautifully restored Victor safe, the time lock parent company. Cannonball type safes were one of the most popular models made and many time lock companies made locks that could work in this type of safe such as  , as well as Diebold, Yale's LS31, Y-361 and Triple L .