Thread: Historic vault door unearthed in El Paso USA

Not trying to tease. Its just that I don't have internet at home so things happen a little slowly. And I get easily sidetracked. I will post some pics as soon as I can but it may be several days.

Thanks Doug, we're a patient bunch - well... apart from me :wink:

Trying to send Diebold Round door pics

I remember many years ago an article in the Rocky Mountain News (IIRC) about a bank in Denver on Colorado Boulevard that rescued a round door and put it on display. But I have no idea if it's still there, or where it was. Does anybody have more information on this?

Back to this El Paso door, are there any patent numbers? The closest I could find in my collection was 1,104,765 (1914) but it's for a very complicated double door.

Jim

Attached are two photos for the lock dials and the centers with the patent numbers.

The patent dates suggest several possible patents, assuming they are for the locks and not the door or boltwork. I wonder if they (manufacturers of the era) used dates, rather than patent numbers, to make it slightly more difficult to look up the patent, or just to impress people with the date?

The 2/1/1870 patent is probably 99,400 which is for the invention of what we now call indirect drive (or outside drive), the driving of the lock's spindle via gears off-axis from the knob's spindle.

The 5/23/1871 patent is either 115,230 which is for a zero-change lock (which is supported by the fact the dial rings in the recent photo have only one mark), and/or 115,231 which is for a "clamshell" sort of roller bolt, to thwart picking via micrometers. It's even possible that both patents apply to these locks, a close-up photo of the bolt end of a lock could clear that up. Or a photo of a lock with the back cover removed.

Jim

The patent dates on the dials do relate to the early days of the Peerless locks back when they were developed by Diebold Kienzle as a double roller bolt. If I remember correctly the offset patent was AG Burton's for offset in the door gearing. My guess is the round door vault is probably from the teens or 1920's. My research shows the round door vaults of any makers starting in the early 1900's and peaking in the 1920's. Diebold was making the Peerless lock for at least 50 years, the 1870's up to the Great Depression, possibly longer but eventually used S&G vault locks. Once I figure out how to load pics on here I will.

---------- Post added at 02:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:15 PM ----------

I'll ramble on some more about the early Diebold Peerless locks. From what I have found so far a Mr. Fletch of Rochester,NY patented a double roller in 1867 ,a year after James Sargent patented the single roller "Magnetic". I don't know if Fletch was connected with Sargent who also was in Rochester. A second version of the double roller was patented by Fletch a year later. In 1870 or 71 several patents were granted to Diebold Kienzle and employees using the Fletch lock as a basis. I have been unable to find any Fletch locks so far in any lock collections, but I have seen these Fletch patents (dates) on a Diebold Kienzle lock.

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