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

[Adrian Weber]

Hello everyone,

I was recently able to acquire this most beautiful and old Junkunc Bros. American Lock H10 padlock. I was very eager to get it since this H10 was in a very good condition. I have heard that American Lock was the company that invented the ball bearing security padlock as we mainly know it today. Is that true? The Patent dates back to 1927 but I do not believe mine to be that old. I know several of the American Lock Logos and this is not the oldest. As soon as I find my pictures on the Logos again I will post them here. Is there a way to determine how old my padlock is? Does anyone have a timeline to the American Lock Logos? Are there other early ball bearing padlocks that should be mentioned or that were maybe earlier than this one? A friend was talking about the Chubb Ava or the Squire HS2, both should also be quite old. I do not have a patent number on them though (I am interested in these patent numbers of course).

I was also not aware that this padlock is still in production. It is now called the AH10, I am not sure if it is any different but it does look the same. The H10 was and still is used in harsh environments as also outdoors due to its weather resistant wafer cylinder mechanism.

I am very happy to have a piece like this in my collection and would appreciate any information
PS: The pictures are 50% smaller than the originals.

Hope you enjoy!

Adrian

[Adrian Weber]

Here is the US1607758 patent for it:

[Donnie]

I too have an attraction for this style padlock...You are lucky to have the box , key & tag.
I have a couple of early version's of this lock...One has a brass body & one of my early ones is missing the pin on the reverse side.. I'm not sure when that change was made, the pin on the back side, that is. I would like to know this, if anyone can help.
Also my early versions are not plated....just raw steel and were not called series 10
But had on the front Junkunc Bros. American Lock Chicago, USA...pats pend
I can take photo's if anyone is interested..........Donnie

[Pschiffe]

The Junkunc Bros. - American Lock Company which dates back to 1912 introduced their solid steel padlock bodies in the 1920s. In 2003 American Lock was acquired by Master Lock Co. who shortly thereafter laid off 400 employees and shuttered the plant in Crete, IL. The machinery was moved to Milwaukee where components are now manufactured before being shipped to Mexico for assembly. The AH10D is still offered under the American Lock marque with a suggested retail of $28.90 ea. Many American Lock bodies are stamped with a date code to indicate when the lock body was made: Z=Jan, Y=Feb, X=Mar, W=Apr, V=May, U=June, T=Jul, S=Aug, R=Sept, Q=Oct, P=Nov, O=Dec;
N=1, M=2, L=3, K=4, J=5, I=6, H=7, G=8, F=9, E=0. Thus X H J x = March 1975, disregard the last character.

Pete Schifferli

[Adrian Weber]

Thanks for adding that information Donnie! Do you have any idea if the shield Logo is the earliest or later than the ones on the H10? That would be interesting to know!

Pete, do you have a scan of that older American Lock catalog?

Adrian

[Donnie]

Adrian, I too have a couple of the with the shield, In don't know the answer to your question, mine have U.S. on the reverse side....I too would like to know the sequence in their production........series H 10-----series 10------my brass one has a G with 6 numbers.
some of the others have more digit's........I think the early ones that open from the other side were early models, I don't claim that as fact, just hear-say...
I am sorry for the poor quality photo's, my camera defaults to 2002.
I just bought a Sony cyber super hot shot something, but haven't fooled with it yet
I should then be able to show close up photo's.........this is as close as I can get with this relic.........Donnie

[Pschiffe]

Pete, do you have a scan of that older American Lock catalog?
Adrian

The catalog is c2003 so only about ten years old, but they were still in Crete, IL prior to becoming a division of Master Lock. It's about twenty pages so the pdf file would probably be small enough to post here or send via eMail. I'll scan it next week when I have time if you still want it.

Pete Schifferli

[Adrian Weber]

Okay lets sum this up!

• American Lock obviously produced the first ball bearing type of padlock
• This padlock is also known as H10 first patented in 1927 (US1607758)
• The Earliest logos of these padlocks have the "Junkunc Bros. Succr's To - American Lock Co. - Chicago U.S.A. Pats. Pend." writing on them
• Padlocks with the writing "Grip Tumbler" on the keys may be even earlier versions than the ones with the blank backside
• The American Lock logo "Junkunc Bros. - American *Lock* Co. - Chicago USA. Pats. Pend." that looks like a shield is probably after the first Junkunc Bros. American Lock logos and before the "American USA" logo

The catalog is also from the 70s I believe?

Thanks for your response BBE! It is sad to hear that historic information just gets lost like this Do you think contacting American Lock would bring any good or do they even have less information than we here?

Now we only need to date all the logos and in which time period they have been used (from when to when) and we have ourselves a decent timeline

[Adrian Weber]

Thanks Pete I have just added another book to my list

The lock has a wafer cylinder also see here:
http://www.antique-locks.com/showthr...ock-Co-padlock

[Donnie]

I am going to try to see if I can get a couple of photo's of my early ones up..
They open from the other side & do NOT have a pin on the back..back is smooth...Donnie