Junkunc Bros. American Lock H10 Padlock - Oldest/First Ball Bearing Padlock???

[Retro00064]

I did more digging in the completed listings on eBay a few nights ago and found a couple of padlocks with the "PATENTS PEND."/"AMERICAN LOCK CO."/"CHICAGO U.S.A." markings and "JUNKUNC BROS. SUCCESSORS TO AMERICAN LOCK CO."/"GRIP TUMBLER CYLINDER LOCKS" keys, such as this one:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Amer...-/121147817088

Note that the lock is marked on both sides.

I also saw some padlocks with the "JUNKUNC BROS. SUCCR'S TO AMERICAN LOCK CO." markings that had the same "JUNKUNC BROS. AMERICAN LOCKS" key design as my lock and Adrian's lock.

Soooo it looks like the padlocks with the aforementioned Junkunc-less American Lock Co. markings are actually the earliest ones, with the "...SUCCR'S TO..." locks being the second earliest.

If you page along further, a pdf scan of American Lock Catalog 14 (c1962?) can also be found.

Pete Schifferli

Thanks for the tip! Those "Unclassified" galleries can contain some cool stuff. I downloaded the PDF and the copyright year on the back of the catalog is 1982.

Can I have a copy of that 2003 American Lock catalog too, by the way?

Adrian, click the second link in my previous post, and in the resulting page, click the "Document Description" box near the top left of the page and select "Unclassified", then skip to page 15 of the gallery. Download the PDF to view the gallery in higher resolution.