Yale & Towne Manufacturing Co.,
Stamford, Connecticut - 2 movements, Type
K31½ pair time and combination
locks
A

A. Model
K31½. (sometimes called a 'bathtub' time lock due to
the shape of the brass case housing the combination lock), c. 1903. This time lock was designed specifically for use in a freestanding bank chest
designed by the Hibbard-Rodman-Ely Safe Co. of New York, NY (later the Manganese Steel
Safe Co. see photo below). Each lock contained two Seth Thomas made 72 hour 'L' sized movements along with a four
tumbler combination lock. The 'L' was Yale's medium sized and most popular
type movement used in a wide variety of their time lock models. The safe contained a pair of these so as to encompass two
combination locks and four (two pairs) of time locks. Unlike most time locks, with the
exception of Consolidated, these operated directly on the combination lock rather than the
safe's bolt work. Production runs for this lock ran from 1902 through 1911. Of a total of
1500 to 2000 of these locks made about 100 of these locks are now known to survive; fewer
than 20 in sequentially numbered pairs. Movement #17,257, 17,258 case #821 and #17,289,
17,290 case #824. Single movement version
and very rare No. 3
T-movement pair.
The last three photos show this type of time lock set up in a safe door. file
97