Beard & Brother Type 3 Time Lock

[Jack Sullivan]

No offense intended, I'm just jealous. It's my own fault I should have been in it for more but you just keep getting so darn lucky on this one.

In general I tend to have my share of luck. Not always, but enough. I could tell you some stories...

Given the now-established fact that there is no Type 3 in the Miller collection (despite the claim in the book), and given these amazing photos of what one of these looked like when it left the factory, I'm going to take a shot at restoring it to whatever extent possible, even if only cosmetically. If this is the only one in existence, I can easily budget $500-1,000 for my local machine shop to replace those rusted fasteners, make a sheet metal template for replacing the missing glass door window & polish the exposed metal. I would never attempt this myself because I lack both the tools & the experience & there are too may pitfalls possible: a 140-year-old screw head breaks off & needs to be drilled out, etc. The shop is only a few miles away & they have done great work for me in the past on restoring antique railroad searchlight signal mechanisms. It will be an interesting project. I'm retired so I have all the time in the world to devote to interesting projects like this.

[Jack Sullivan]

After speaking with the owner of the local machine shop, I made the decision to go ahead with the restoration of the Type 3 starting with a meeting at the shop this Friday. After getting no interest at a reasonable price from a well-known collector, it was an easy call.

The restoration will take 4-5 months on a part-time basis & will include cosmetics as well as a key for the door lock & possible replacement of the watch movement springs if needed. I will be providing the shop with copies of the Miller pix & the King patent. The owner of the shop is familiar with all the aspects of this job so it should make for an interesting project. I will post update pix as available.

[Jack Sullivan]

Listing #360416736222

[Dean Nickel]

I like how they put it as the ONLY KNOWN when we can tell from the pictures there is at least two. The one pictured on here shows that there were over 300 made but we don't know if that included the versions before or not.

[Jack Sullivan]

I like how they put it as the ONLY KNOWN when we can tell from the pictures there is at least two. The one pictured on here shows that there were over 300 made but we don't know if that included the versions before or not.

How do you come to the conclusion that there is another Type 3 known? Where is it located? It isn't in the Miller or Mossman collections. I checked. This is the only known Type 3 though there may indeed be others that are not known.

All of the pix shown were taken of the same lock but by different photographers with different cameras & with different lighting. The guy selling it originally on eBay took the original pix which are the ones out of focus (front, door closed, top, bottom, hinge side, lock/release side, rear) & with different lighting. I took the others with direct sun lighting, a better camera & a good idea what I was trying to capture in the images (the engraving & other fine details). The original seller had no idea what he had so he described it as 'Antique Time Lock.'

[oldbiscuit]

Jack, I'm missing something here. Is this your type 3 that's listed on Ebay? I thought you said you were going to restore it. Or is this another one?

[Jack Sullivan]

Jack, I'm missing something here. Is this your type 3 that's listed on Ebay? I thought you said you were going to restore it. Or is this another one?

Hi Mark

Yes it is. I visited the machine shop & got some valuable inputs, such as the glass thickness needed for the door window & a rough estimate of $300-500 to make a template for the window glass, remove the door, install the glass, replace the door, polish the rusted connectors (they don't make 1870s-vintage brass connectors any more) & then leave it to me to polish the accumulated grime off the nickel-plated case. The glass would have to be antique (wavy) but the pattern of the window has 7 radii (4 corners & 3 for the hump). I haven't looked into getting such an involved piece of glass cut to fit the template but even using lasers I would guess it would be in the range of hundreds of dollars. So, with $700 already into it I'd be looking at perhaps another $1K with no guarantee I could recover an investment of that size. That's way outside my current means so I'm putting it up for auction.

No, as I told the other guy, there is only one of these known & I own it. If he knows of another I'd like to get some details about it because I don't believe in misleading people.

[Doug MacQueen]

Jack, these are pictures of the Beard timelock at Harry Millers collection in Nicholasville, KY. It definitely says Beard at the lower left. Unfortunately these are the only pictures I have. Not being exactly clear what constitutes a model 3 Beard, I can't say it is, but comparing it to the model 2 Beard in AmGen it is definitely different. I noticed the model 2 has a part attached with brass screws which looks to be either a later reproduced part for one that was missing or just added later for a bottom control connection. Either way the part doesn't look original to the lock. Doug

[Jack Sullivan]

Jack, these are pictures of the Beard timelock at Harry Millers collection in Nicholasville, KY. It definitely says Beard at the lower left. Unfortunately these are the only pictures I have. Not being exactly clear what constitutes a model 3 Beard, I can't say it is, but comparing it to the model 2 Beard in AmGen it is definitely different. I noticed the model 2 has a part attached with brass screws which looks to be either a later reproduced part for one that was missing or just added later for a bottom control connection. Either way the part doesn't look original to the lock. Doug

Many thanks, Dave. I had sent them pix of my lock & they in turn sent me pix of a Mosler 1887, leading me to conclude that they didn't have the Type 3 as mentioned in AmGen. These pix certainly appear to be a Type 3: the door, the diagonal line pattern on the case, the door lock. I was not aware of these pix before & will forward them on to them for confirmation. Where & when did you come by them? That info could help me & them out.

Thanks!

[Jack Sullivan]

I blew up both pix with my photo editor & confirm the BEARD engraved in the same place as mine. There is no key in the keyway but this lock appears to be identical to mine & corroborates the statement in AMERICAN GENIUS about the only known example of a Type 3 being in this colection. The Miller Collection is owned by LSI & is used for teaching & training purposes, so it is highly unlikely that their Type 3 would ever be on the market. I changed the eBay listing to ONLY KNOWN AVAILABLE BEARD & BROTHER TYPE 3 & will include on of your pix for reference, with your permission. Let me know please. Thanks!