Linus Yale Jr.
American mechanical engineer (1821–1868)
Linus Yale Jr. (April 4, 1821 – December 25, 1868) was an American businessman, inventor, mechanical engineer, and metalsmith. He was a co-founder with millionaire Henry R. Towne of the Yale Lock Company, which became the premier manufacturer of locks in the United States. He was the country's leading expert on bank locks and its most important maker. By the early 20th century, about three-quarters of all banks in America used his bank locks. He is best remembered for his inventions of locks, especially the cylinder lock, and his basic lock design is still widely distributed today, and constitutes a majority of personal locks and safes.
Biography
Youth
Linus Yale Jr. was born in Salisbury, New York. His ancestors were of the same family as Elihu Yale, the benefactor to and namesake of the well known Yale University. The Yale family of America were all descended from the same ancestor, Thomas Yale, Elihu's only uncle with the Yale name.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Linus Yale Jr.” as american mechanical engineer (1821–1868). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as american mechanical engineer (1821–1868). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1347698. VIAF identifies the subject as 56481447. The Library of Congress control number is nr93012260. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1821 and 1868.
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This entry incorporates text from “Linus Yale Jr.” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.