George Damon Round Bank Vault Door

Doug MacQueen

Oldlock glad to see you haven’t forgotten us. Since you may not to get to see one in your travels here is another one to check out. Round vault doors were used quite heavily here in the first half of the 1900’s. Damon, better known as a lock designer from the latter 1800’s (see American Genius) had several vault patents in the early 1900’s. There are two that relate to this door. Interestingly, he designed a novel spring loaded hinge for these heavy doors. Also this is the only extended Yale offset drive I’ve ever seen. Sorry for the Mosler stickers. Their use here makes me think the LOBC lock covers had been pried off at some point. Doug

wylk

I’ve been trying to research Damon but two things elude me:

1 - When did George L. Damon die? It was probably after 1908 because US patent 956,889 (the last one I’ve found with his name) was filed in 1908 and granted in 1910. He would have been around 65 years old in 1908.

2 - What happened to the company? In American Genius it’s stated that the company purchased almost all of Sargent & Greenleaf’s Triple C time locks through 1914. I would assume the company was absorbed by one of the other large companies (Diebold, Mosler, Herring-Hall-Marvin) but I don’t know that, or when.

Thanks in advance for any help!

Doug MacQueen

In a quick search I found that he died in 1915, but the company Damon Safe and Vault Engineering was still listed in 1918. Doug

wylk

Doug MacQueen wrote
In a quick search I found that he died in 1915, but the company Damon Safe and Vault Engineering was still listed in 1918. Doug

Thanks, Doug. How did you manage to find these? Can you point to references and/or help me be a better searcher? For example I tried searching for “obituary George L. Damon” but got a bunch of irrelevant hits.

[unknown]

Doug MacQueen

Generally speaking it should be you teaching me. The only “trick” I have found is using different wording. For instance in looking for the really early safes, using words like “iron chests”, “iron safes”, or "salamander safes’. With Damon Safe and Iron being an older name, using the later Damon Safe and Vault Engineering gives some different results. And George Leonard Damon brought up the registry. ancestor website info. Doug