Description:

Linus Yale, Jr. Fascinating ALS to Bank President with Full-Page Double Dial Lock Illustration! "Burglarproof chest…tempting the prowling fraternity"

A 3pp autograph letter signed by Linus Yale, Jr. (1821-1868), the award-winning lock inventor and co-founder of the Yale Lock Company, as "Linus Yale Jr" on the bottom of the third page. February 24, 1868. Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts. Inscribed on bifold stationery. With a full-page holograph illustration of a locking mechanism, the Yale double dial lock, found on the fourth page. Docketed along the bottom edge of the third page by the letter recipient. Expected wear including flattened paper folds, else near fine. 4.875" x 7.875." Accompanied by research material relating to Linus Yale, Jr. and the Yale Lock Company.

Linus Yale, Jr. wrote this assertive and persuasive letter to a potential client, bank president Jerome Wells (1813-1880). Wells would serve as president of the Chicopee Savings Bank, located about 45 miles due south of Shelburne Falls, from 1854 - 1874. In his sales pitch, Yale, Jr. clearly advocates for the necessity of and superiority of his security products. He even offers Wells a 2% discount for ordering two locking systems. The letter concludes with a neatly drawn and annotated cross-section illustration of the double dial lock he proposes to build for Wells. The illustration includes measurements (in inches) and comments on materials (steel, iron, welded steel and iron).

Yale, Jr. wrote in part:

"Dear Sir - Since I was in your bank the other day I have thought of your old-fashioned vault arrangement + fastenings and I want to say to you that I think I can make it plain to you that you ought to have something better. I don't want you to attribute it to disinterested notions entirely - It is my business to find where I can be of use and make a little profit myself and I must say you are a good subject.

I am putting safes and doors into many country banks where their fastenings are already much superior to yours - Yours are very much behind the age: which means more than saying your coat is out of fashion. I explained one weakness to you which… I do not wish you to make use of except in guarding yourself against as it is something entirely overlooked by my competitors and it is my (I hope pardonable) intention to let them remain in ignorance - As I look at it you want a set of doors to your vault with a modern Lock and a small Burglarproof chest inside your present safe large enough only to hold your 'convertibles' -

The new doors and lock to the vault would have a good moral effect which I must not enlarge upon the importance of to you and your family who live in the same building - You have undoubtedly considered how exposed you are by having such an easily demolished structure tempting the prowling fraternity who always see exactly what they have got to do to get at the money.

I will deliver on the cars in New York a set of doors constructed in the manner indicated in the accompanying sketch with a double dial lock (Bronze) for $675.00 and superintend putting this up.

I will make you a Franklinite chest under my three patents say 24 in high 18 in. wide and 16 in. deep 2 in. think with a Double Dial Lock on for $687.00 on both for say $1350.00. I can honestly say my work has all the good points found in the best makers and several that are entirely new to the world and as yet unappreciated by my competitors. I have spent sixteen years in this line and led the way in all the important improvements in that time. I 'blow my own horn' knowing how much strain it will bear without injury although it may not be very musical.

Hoping to hear from you soon on this subject I am

Very respectfully Yours,

Linus Yale Jr."

Yale, Jr. belonged to a family of ingenious lock inventors, including his father and namesake Linus Yale, Sr. Both father and son successfully filed multiple patents for bank locks, and their name became synonymous with "magic [and] infallible" bank locks even endorsed by the U.S. government. The Yale lock, "the world's favorite lock," is, as described on the company website: "one of the oldest international brands in the world and probably the best-known name in the locking industry." Materials and manufacturing practices have changed over the years, but the principle of Yale's lock designs remains mostly unchanged.

Yale, Jr. perfected and patented his father's pin tumbler cylinder lock in 1861. By 1862, he introduced the Monitor Bank Lock, which transformed banks from key locks to dial or combination locks. He fine-tuned the cylinder lock with a second patent in 1865. In addition to expanding the company's product line, Yale, Jr. excelled at salesmanship and differential marketing. He exhibited his designs at fairs, gave live demonstrations of his products, and even offered a $3,000 cash prize to anyone who could pick the locks he promised would be impervious to prying, shattering, or melting. Yale, Jr. and Henry R. Towne established the Yale Lock Company in Stamford, Connecticut in 1868. Yale, Jr. would die of a heart attack at age 47 just ten months after writing this letter to President Wells.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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