Yale & Towne Manufacturing Co., Stamford, Connecticut - 3 movements, Type EE

In 1887, Yale patented a time lock design that would mark a new direction for Yale and, eventually, the entire time lock industry: its Type B and Type C time locks, which went into production in 1888. Based on pocket watch movements rather than on the larger clock movements of the Pin Dials, these smaller-format movements were inherently suited to be individually replaceable or "modular" movements. These were also the smallest format three movement time locks made to that time. Yale would not have a smaller three movement design for bolt dog release until the model T321 introduced about 1900 and would never surpass the compact Yale C and E designs for the automatic release function. No other time lock manufacturer made a smaller three movement lock. With the introduction of the Type D and Type E time locks, Yale debuted their own line of automatic bolt motors. The Type D and Yale automatics were soon popular with banks and businesses with regular hours, used in the new "solid door" safes, a safe with no key hole or combination lock spindle, handle or any other connection to the outside, that relied solely on the high-quality time lock and automatic bolt motor. (1)

Until a recent discovery, it was thought that Yale was the first to introduce the concept of using modified "off the shelf" pocket watch movements to control a time lock. However a pair of inventors, Overmyer & Huston, (O&H) did this over ten years earlier in 1876 and employed in their patent models 1 and 2. These were never commercially produced. It is unknown if Yale had access to their designs, but it seems likely that a large and well financed company as was Yale would have combed the patents issued in the subject of time locks. But there is nothing that O&H featured in their time lock design that was used in Yale's design other than the idea of using a pocket watch.

Here the introduction of standard pocket watch movements was illustrated. It was known right away that the power supply contained in a regular pocket watch would be insufficient for use in a time lock. The first issue being duration, whereas a pocket watch was meant to be wound daily, a time lock needed to have typically seventy-two hours. The second being that of the power needed to operate the time lock release mechanism. A quote from the patent abstract addresses this issue as well as the economics involved. "We take an ordinary one day watch movement and remove its mainspring...and is provided a pinion which gears with a wheel upon a spring arbor within a spring barrel containing a strong spring which will cause the time movement to run a much longer period - for example seventy-two hours with one turn of the mainspring arbor. ...and with force enough to operate a time lock." And now for the economics. "By this modification of an ordinary one-day watch movement we are able to quickly and satisfactorily produce a time lock movement at a materially-reduced cost, and time lock manufacturers are enabled to buy their time lock movements in the open market, and alter them, as described, for use, which is a great practical convenience and economy." The movement chosen was a size #14, model 84 by American Waltham Watch Co. The damascene design indicates that these were the "Hillside" grade. It turns out that the Waltham movements used in the series B through C were not completely "off the shelf" movements that just had their mainsprings substituted for a larger one. Each movement had to be retrofitted with a special wheel that substituted for the regular one in the movement that was adjacent to the original spring barrel. This wheel had a longer arbor that went past the lower movement plate with a pinion at the lower end that connected to the new spring winding gear, and which was held with a specially made cock at that end secured to the lower movement plate.

The economics of servicing is not mentioned and this may be because at this point interchangeability was not yet achievable and this is evidenced by the fact that the individual movements and base plate locations are numbered. In the end, Yale abandoned the use of pocket watch movements for their time locks after the Type B through EE series. But others, a few years later did, notably, the Consolidated Time Lock Co. began this practice around 1904 until their bankruptcy in 1927 and the Victor Safe and Lock Co.'s Banker's Dustproof line, in 1906 and the Ohio Time Lock Company in 1914 both of which were later acquired in 1916 by the Mosler Safe Co. which continued this method throughout their production life until their bankruptcy on 2001. The design of those time lock models allowed the use of pocket watch movements with true interchangeability.

The line of Yale Type B through E and EE time locks pictured, upper row from left to right. The lower row shows A and G.

Only the Type B through EE series went into production.

The A was a unique patent prototype piece and was never slated for production. The G was only made as salesman's samples. At the present time only one Type C, two EE and two complete G has been found. Yale did make one or two BB, and three DD locks, none of which are known to survive. There were no records of a CC being made. These facts makes this collection unique in that it contains the most complete set of all the examples extant. No records for or examples of a Type F are known.

The movements used in Yale's B-EE models were American Waltham Watch Co, size 14, Model 84, Hillside grade. The spring and its barrel are removed and replaced with a wheel and longer arbor that passes through the rear plate and having a pinion mounted to that portion past the plate; held by an added cock, see second photo above. Meshing with that pinion is a large spring barrel increasing the standard twenty four hour duration of the movement to the requisite seventy two hours needed in a time lock.

The large spring barrel has as its base a large geared wheel. That large wheel driving the small pinion results in an efficient power drive, needing a large amount of torque from the spring to deliver the needed power to run the watch movement. However, this also allows for a longer duration for each spring. This inefficient power drive was a significant reason for the failure of Yale's design.

The reason for multiple movements in a time lock is to ensure that the lock will dependently run down to the point of going off guard with any one of the movements functioning. The movements ability to do this was marginal, so if one of the three movements failed, the other two could do the job, but with two of three out of commission the reliability for the lock to do its job became seriously compromised.

The Yale EE also known as the "Sextuple Time Lock" (1) was a specialty item offered by Yale that was a combination of a pair of their Type E slaved together into one unit. Yale also offered a very limited number of the slaved pair series for the Type BB, and Type DD, but neither of these models are currently known to have survived. The Type EE was made between November 1899 and December 1891.

The second generation models as represented by Type D and E did away with the movement disk being turnable for the purposes of winding and replaced it with a central winding square upon which is also mounted the setting dial hand. The method of reading the time is now reversed by using fixed dial around the perimeter and a moveable hand that rotates as one winds the time lock to show the correct time duration until the lock would go off guard. These was a great improvements over the more fragile and harder to read system as represented in the earlier design. Since one did not need to grasp the movement disk as it was now a fixed piece in which the watch movements are mounted, it could now be sealed within the case with only a hole needed through the front glass for the winding key as is common in many time locks. This also allowed Yale to dispense with the expense of an external case of the Type B to protect the moveable disk and the gearing behind it from abuse and dirt. The greater ease of use and accuracy of the new winding system, dial design and bezel overwind stop flag allowed Yale to dispense with the over winding pins. (2)

A

Here one sees a comparison between a Type D and Type EE. Both share the rear container box that is lacking in the Type E. The box was needed in the Type D since it operated on conventional bolt work and the space behind the time lock was needed for the bolt dogging mechanism. The collar located on the lower left hand corner of the Type D is where the bolt would be dogged by the lock.

These photos show the reasoning behind the box behind the time lock pair. There is a mechanism to slave the pair together as well as the need to connect that to the external release trip lever secured to the rear of the box, second photo. The additional hardware requires the Type D style of rear container.

A. Yale Type EE, 'Sextuple', 1891. This was a special order lock known as the 'Sextuple'. At this time the maximum number of movements found in a time lock was three. It would not be until two years later in 1893 that Sargent & Greenleaf would introduce their four movement design, the Model 0. The industry has never gone beyond this number of redundancy, yet Yale had with this model introduced six redundant movements. Needless to say the Type BB, DD and EE were unique and expensive products.

This lock looks to be the type used in conjunction with automatic bolt motors, but it does differ from the company's Type E automatic.

The company of E. Howard & Co. and later, after 1902, Seth Thomas supplied nearly all of the movements for Yale time locks (until the 1950's when movements from Switzerland were used). An exception are the Yale Type B through G models which used a modified version of a pocket watch; size #14, model 84 movements by American Waltham Watch Co. A smaller Waltham movement was also later extensively used in Mosler time locks. The movements were designed with anti-magnetic qualities - cutting edge technology for the day. The Type E was introduced to correct some of the design deficiencies found in the earlier Type C, those being the problems of over winding, the difficulty of handling the fragile rotating movement base, and setting the time due to the small dial numbers and recoil of the movement springs through the motion of the rotating base. These design features were retained in the Type EE.

Yale sold a total of thirteen Type EE's between November 1889 and December 1891. This and the other shown below are the only known examples extant, although given the impressive mechanical beauty of this piece, at least one or two others must have survived. 9.25"w X 5.75"h x 3.75"d. Case #13, movement plate and dual dial bezels #13, movements-left hand timer, #4527406, #4527408, #4527409, movements-right hand timer, #3609511, #4527313, #4658574 . file 292

An interesting aside is the fact that both Seth Thomas and E. Howard were companies that made a full line of clocks and watches. From large tower clocks (for public buildings) to domestic clocks to watches as well as movements for time locks. Click here to see a medium sized Seth Thomas and Howard tower clock. 

B

B. Yale Type EE, 'Sextuple', 1891. This is nearly identical to the one described above, serial number 7. The automatic release is shorter but of the same functionality. This was a special order lock known as the 'Sextuple'. At this time the maximum number of movements found in a time lock was three. It would not be until two years later in 1893 that Sargent & Greenleaf would introduce their four movement design, the Model 0. The industry has never gone beyond this number of redundancy, yet Yale had with this model introduced six redundant movements. Needless to say the Type BB, DD and EE were unique and expensive products.

Yale sold a total of thirteen Type EE's between November 1889 and December 1891. This and the other shown above are the only known examples extant, although given the impressive mechanical beauty of this piece, at least one or two others must have survived. 9.25"w X 5.75"h x 3.75"d. Case #13, movement plate and dual dial bezels #7, movements-left hand timer, #3509550 #4323205, #4323358, movements-right hand timer, #4527481, #4323105, #4547214 . file 347 

An interesting aside is the fact that both Seth Thomas and E. Howard were companies that made a full line of clocks and watches. From large tower clocks (for public buildings) to domestic clocks to watches as well as movements for time locks. Click here to see a medium sized Seth Thomas and Howard tower clock.

A Yale Type E mounted to a MacNeale and Urban safe door.

Time lock collecting can be fun! Here I am in a restaurant in Massachusetts consummating the purchase of the s/n 13 Yale EE Sextuple lock.