radar A Mr. Henry Rollins held a patent on this type of lock and I was privy to know the man through my mentor. I have two mounted locks that he gave my mentor and then ended up with me. I am looking to find out what these original locks had for a value. One is round knob and the other is lever type. Both will retract the latch if pushed or pulled. They were designed for hospital use so orderly did not have to touch knob to open door. I believe the patent date was 1967 and these were probably his prototypes. His address is stamped on edge of mount.
Dean Nickel Pictures would help a great deal in helping you. As to the patent you can do a search in Google in the more list of options. I did find several lock patents for him. 3,696,740 relates to push operation. There are others. us3636740.pdf255kB
Pschiffe Very interesting, thanks for sharing. I wonder if these ever made it to production? I’ve never seen any in the field. Pete Schifferli, Tonawanda, NY
radar Pete these were used in hospitals at or door before automatic electric doors were in vogue. I saw them in the 70’s while working on xray equipment in different hospitals so yes they were in use. It made it easy to open door and not pick up germs from handle. Just put a hip to knob and door opened.
Dean Nickel The later versions are what we see now in hospitals is based on these locks. I worked in a hospital myself and didn’t see these with the knobs. But then the rooms had been reworked every 3-6 years like clockwork depending on what they were used for before I got there in the mid 1990s. Did I pull the right patent for this lock?
radar It looks like the right one. Seems to match the locks I have. Henry was a private person and quite humble. He was just happy to come up with something that made it easier for the people at our local hospital to do their job. From what I gathered he asked the people at Thayer hospital what would help them and then came up with this solution. This came from conversations with my mentor a Mr. Charles Pauley who was a good friend of Henry and had been a locksmith since 1919 and had retired to South China Maine but was constantly asked for his services. I learned much from his mentoring. He was instrumental in the formation of the Pine Tree State Locksmith Association and with the founding members also started what was to later be Yankee Security Connvention in the Northeast.
