Chubb Treasury Door with unusual inline vertical lock configuration

[Huw Eastwood]

Here’s an unusual one- 1940s Chubb Treasury door with all 4 locks configured vertically inline. Screenshot is from old British Pathé footage but unfortunately not sure of site location or origin.

[safeman]

[QUOTE=Huw Eastwood;32326]Here’s an unusual one- 1940s Chubb Treasury door with all 4 locks configured vertically inline. Screenshot is from old British Pathé footage but unfortunately not sure of site location or origin.
QUOTE]


British Pathé 'Bolts & Bars'.

Capture of locking mechanism through glass back plate.

Not being a lock man I can't decipher this. The layout of the dials which I first saw made me think Double Yoking System.

[chrisryan]

Here’s an unusual one- 1940s Chubb Treasury door with all 4 locks configured vertically inline. Screenshot is from old British Pathé footage but unfortunately not sure of site location or origin.

Could it be the old London Safe Deposit Ccompany vaults in Regent Street St.James's ?
Apologies for the poor quality of the photos - taken long before digital cameras were around. Best regards, Chris

[chrisryan]

More LSD pics

[chrisryan]

More LSD pics

[safeman]

Could it be the old London Safe Deposit Ccompany vaults in Regent Street St.James's ?
Apologies for the poor quality of the photos - taken long before digital cameras were around. Best regards, Chris

It certainly appears to be an identical door Chris. It looks as if the cover plates have been removed on the lower pair of locks but otherwise the parts all seem to be in the same places.

Have you worked on this door and if so what of my theory that the locks are all yoked? The justification I imagined for yoking is now substantiated as in these circumstances a failure to open the door of a Safe Deposit would be far more serious than for access to a Bank's cash holdings.



Very interesting Chris,

Best Regards,

John.

[chrisryan]

Yes, I worked on this door in the very early 90's, so my memory of it is as bad as the pictures I'm afraid. Not sure what you mean by yoked, but the 4 indirect drive Chubb 4 wheel bankers combination locks worked in 2 pairs of 2.

This vault also had a separate Emergency door, and I can post pictures of that also if you want. Best regards, Chris

[safeman]

[QUOTE=chrisryan;32335]Yes, I worked on this door in the very early 90's, so my memory of it is as bad as the pictures I'm afraid. Not sure what you mean by yoked, but the 4 indirect drive Chubb 4 wheel bankers combination locks worked in 2 pairs of 2.


Chris, I attach information on the principals of Yoking. These are from Bill Stanton's papers intended for 'The Book' he never got round to publishing.

To learn from you that this door was on a major safe deposit made perfect sense at it would be catastrophic if clients were unable to access their deposits for any length of time if one of the locks failed.



Regards .... John.

[chrisryan]

Thanks John,

Then YES, these locks are definitely YOKED together as 2 pairs of 2.

You can clearly see the two yokes joining each pair of lock bolts together, and the removable screw-in pin at the centre pivot point of each yoke, and the two positions in which it can be inserted, marked A and B.

Best regards, Chris

[chrisryan]

Close up of one Yoke