For offer, a very rare old advertising catalog. Fresh from an estate in Upstate / Western  NY. Never offered on the market until now. Vintage, Old, antique, Original - NOT a Reproduction - Guaranteed !! I could not find this catalog for sale anywhere else. Extremely rare. The company from New Britain, Connecticut. Catalog dated October 1, 1866. Hartford: Press of Case, Lockwood and Company. [vi], 219 p. Previous owner's name inside - looks like J.N. Bovee, Esq., [?] Patent Office, Washington, D.C. Also has stamp of the office on t.p. Numerous engraved illustration graphics. Includes index at beginning - all kinds of hardware - especially locks and keys. TONS of stuff - including Door knobs, bolts, brackets, boot jacks, fasteners, hooks and hinges, SUPRS, padlocks, pulleys, apple parers / peeler, tongs, sash locks, -all kinds of steel, iron and brass items. One of the earliest catalogs I have seen, with spectacular graphics. Brown cloth covered boards, gilt title. Chocolate end pages. COMPLETE. Overall in good to very good condition. Binding is split, as shown in photos. Spine chipped. Interior is quite nice. Please see photos for details. If you collect advertisement ad, 19th century design history, print / tooling, industry, invention,  Civil War era, etc., this is one you will not see again soon. A nice piece for your paper or ephemera collection. Perhaps some genealogy research information as well. Combine shipping on multiple bid wins!  3180

The Russell & Erwin Manufacturing Company was founded in 1839 by Henry E. Russell, Cornelius B. Erwin, and Frederick T. Stanley. It manufactures door locks, padlocks, and other door hardware and it's headquarters were in New Britain, Connecticut (1839-1969) and Berlin, Connecticut (1969-present).

In 1902, it merged with the P. & F. Corbin Company, forming the American Hardware Corporation as a holding company. American was purchased by the Emhart Manufacturing Company in 1964, who reorganized Russell & Erwin as Russwin. It was sold to the Black & Decker Corporation in 1989 and in 1994, was sold to William Holdings PLC. In 2000, it was acquired by Assa Abloy AB.

COMPANY NAMES

Stanley, Russell & Company (1839-1840)

Matteson, Russell & Company (1840-1846)

Russell & Erwin (1846-1851)

Russell & Erwin Manufacturing Company (1851-1964)

Russwin Division (1964-1989)

Corbin-Russwin Division (1989-1993)

Corbin Russwin, Inc. (1993-present)

PRODUCTS

"Columbia" Pneumatic Door Check & Spring

Reverse Helicoid Tire Bolts

"Russwin" Food Cutters

"Russwin" Builders' Hardware

Door Closers

Door Escutcheons

Door Handles

Door Knobs

Liquid Door Checks

Night Latches

Henry E. Russell 1816 – 1893

A member of the Walnut Hill Park Company, Henry Russell was one of New Britain's leading industrialists of the nineteenth century. He is primarily remembered for his partnership in the Russell and Erwin Manufacturing Company, which produced builders' hardware. The original company was established in 1839 when Russell and Erwin became the sole partners, they established consistent procedures and policies, which enabled the company to become a giant of the industrial revolution. The company contributed to the World War I effort by producing military supplies. During World War II the company produced torpedoes, depth-charge equipment and mines.

New Britain is a city in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. It is located approximately 9 miles (14 km) southwest of Hartford. According to 2020 Census, the population of the city is 74,135.[4]

Among the southernmost of the communities encompassed within the Hartford-Springfield Knowledge Corridor metropolitan region, New Britain is home to Central Connecticut State University and Charter Oak State College. The city was noted for its industry during the 19th and early 20th centuries, and notable sites listed on the National Register of Historic Places include Walnut Hill Park developed by the landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted and Downtown New Britain.

The city's official nickname is the "Hardware City" because of its history as a manufacturing center and as the headquarters of Stanley Black & Decker. Because of its large Polish population, the city is often playfully referred to as "New Britski."[5]

A lock is a mechanical or electronic fastening device that is released by a physical object (such as a key, keycard, fingerprint, RFID card, security token or coin), by supplying secret information (such as a number or letter permutation or password), by a combination thereof, or it may only be able to be opened from one side, such as a door chain.

A key is a device that is used to operate a lock (to lock or unlock it). A typical key is a small piece of metal consisting of two parts: the bit or blade, which slides into the keyway of the lock and distinguishes between different keys, and the bow, which is left protruding so that torque can be applied by the user. In its simplest implementation, a key operates one lock or set of locks that are keyed alike, a lock/key system where each similarly keyed lock requires the same, unique key.

The key serves as a security token for access to the locked area; locks are meant to only allow persons having the correct key to open it and gain access. In more complex mechanical lock/key systems, two different keys, one of which is known as the master key, serve to open the lock. Common metals include brass, plated brass, nickel silver, and steel.

History

Premodern history

Medieval Gothic lock, from the 15th–16th centuries, made of iron, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

Locks have been in use for over 6000 years, with one early example discovered in the ruins of Nineveh, the capital of ancient Assyria.[1] Locks such as this were developed into the Egyptian wooden pin lock, which consisted of a bolt, door fixture or attachment, and key. When the key was inserted, pins within the fixture were lifted out of drilled holes within the bolt, allowing it to move. When the key was removed, the pins fell part-way into the bolt, preventing movement.[2]

The warded lock was also present from antiquity and remains the most recognizable lock and key design in the Western world. The first all-metal locks appeared between the years 870 and 900, and are attributed to English craftsmen.[3] It is also said that the key was invented by Theodorus of Samos in the 6th century BC.[1]

'The Romans invented metal locks and keys and the system of security provided by wards.'[4]

Affluent Romans often kept their valuables in secure locked boxes within their households, and wore the keys as rings on their fingers. The practice had two benefits: It kept the key handy at all times, while signaling that the wearer was wealthy and important enough to have money and jewellery worth securing.[5]

Drunk man's lock at the bottom (black lock) and a regular modern lock at the top

A special type of lock, dating back to the 17th-18th century, although potentially older as similar locks date back to the 14th century, can be found in the Beguinage of the Belgian city Lier.[6][7] These locks are most likely Gothic locks, that were decorated with foliage, often in a V-shape surrounding the keyhole.[8] They are often called drunk man's lock, however the reference to being drunk may be erroneous as these locks were, according to certain sources, designed in such a way a person can still find the keyhole in the dark, although this might not be the case as the ornaments might have been purely aesthetic.[6][7] In more recent times similar locks have been designed.[9][10]

Modern locks

Tibetan Lock and key – Dhankhar Gompa, Spiti. India. 2004

Chinese lock and key from Yunnan Province, early 20th century

Key anatomy

With the onset of the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th century and the concomitant development of precision engineering and component standardization, locks and keys were manufactured with increasing complexity and sophistication.[11]

The lever tumbler lock, which uses a set of levers to prevent the bolt from moving in the lock, was invented by Robert Barron in 1778.[12] His double acting lever lock required the lever to be lifted to a certain height by having a slot cut in the lever, so lifting the lever too far was as bad as not lifting the lever far enough. This type of lock is still used today.[13]

Diagram of a Chubb detector lock

The lever tumbler lock was greatly improved by Jeremiah Chubb in 1818.[12] A burglary in Portsmouth Dockyard prompted the British Government to announce a competition to produce a lock that could be opened only with its own key.[5] Chubb developed the Chubb detector lock, which incorporated an integral security feature that could frustrate unauthorized access attempts and would indicate to the lock's owner if it had been interfered with. Chubb was awarded £100 after a trained lock-picker failed to break the lock after 3 months.[14]

In 1820, Jeremiah joined his brother Charles in starting their own lock company, Chubb. Chubb made various improvements to his lock: his 1824 improved design didn't require a special regulator key to reset the lock; by 1847 his keys used six levers rather than four; and he later introduced a disc that allowed the key to pass but narrowed the field of view, hiding the levers from anybody attempting to pick the lock.[15] The Chubb brothers also received a patent for the first burglar-resisting safe and began production in 1835.

The designs of Barron and Chubb were based on the use of movable levers, but Joseph Bramah, a prolific inventor, developed an alternative method in 1784. His lock used a cylindrical key with precise notches along the surface; these moved the metal slides that impeded the turning of the bolt into an exact alignment, allowing the lock to open. The lock was at the limits of the precision manufacturing capabilities of the time and was said by its inventor to be unpickable. In the same year Bramah started the Bramah Locks company at 124 Piccadilly, and displayed the "Challenge Lock" in the window of his shop from 1790, challenging "...the artist who can make an instrument that will pick or open this lock" for the reward of £200. The challenge stood for over 67 years until, at the Great Exhibition of 1851, the American locksmith Alfred Charles Hobbs was able to open the lock and, following some argument about the circumstances under which he had opened it, was awarded the prize. Hobbs' attempt required some 51 hours, spread over 16 days.

The earliest patent for a double-acting pin tumbler lock was granted to American physician Abraham O. Stansbury in England in 1805,[16] but the modern version, still in use today, was invented by American Linus Yale Sr. in 1848.[17] This lock design used pins of varying lengths to prevent the lock from opening without the correct key. In 1861, Linus Yale Jr. was inspired by the original 1840s pin-tumbler lock designed by his father, thus inventing and patenting a smaller flat key with serrated edges as well as pins of varying lengths within the lock itself, the same design of the pin-tumbler lock which still remains in use today.[18] The modern Yale lock is essentially a more developed version of the Egyptian lock.

Despite some improvement in key design since, the majority of locks today are still variants of the designs invented by Bramah, Chubb and Yale.