Unusual Corbin Padlock

cjdamman

Forum members,

I found this lock metal detecting the other day:

I was able to find several pictures of an almost identical “Climax” lock made by Miller Lock Co. on the web, but am confused why this lock of same design would have a Corbin logo. The logo also is different from the usual Corbin logo. Does anyone know if P&F Corbin Co. acquired Miller Lock Co? Welcome any insight you might have.

Best wishes,

Chris

Pschiffe

cjdamman wrote
Forum members,

I found this lock metal detecting the other day:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]16246[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]16247[/ATTACH]

I was able to find several pictures of an almost identical “Climax” lock made by Miller Lock Co. on the web, but am confused why this lock of same design would have a Corbin logo. The logo also is different from the usual Corbin logo. Does anyone know if P&F Corbin Co. acquired Miller Lock Co? Welcome any insight you might have.

Your padlock was found on pg. 47 in Catalog No. 38, dated 1928; of the Corbin Cabinet Lock Co. who, rather than P & F Corbin made most padlocks with the “Corbin” logo back in the day. It was apparently made in two sizes and two materials. No. 2832 was 1-½″ wide of cast bronze while No. 02832 was 1-½″ wide of cast bronze. No. 2834 was 1-⅞″ wide of cast brass and No. 02834 1-⅞″ wide of cast bronze. These were warded padlocks with flat steel keys and 6 changes. The smaller version used key blank no. 4749 while the larger took key blank no. 4747.
The Miller Lock Co. of Philadelphia, PA was purchased by Yale & Towne in 1925.

Pete Schifferli

[unknown]

cjdamman

Pschiffe wrote
Your padlock was found on pg. 47 in Catalog No. 38, dated 1928; of the Corbin Cabinet Lock Co. who, rather than P & F Corbin made most padlocks with the “Corbin” logo back in the day. It was apparently made in two sizes and two materials. No. 2832 was 1-½″ wide of cast bronze while No. 02832 was 1-½″ wide of cast bronze. No. 2834 was 1-⅞″ wide of cast brass and No. 02834 1-⅞″ wide of cast bronze. These were warded padlocks with flat steel keys and 6 changes. The smaller version used key blank no. 4749 while the larger took key blank no. 4747.
The Miller Lock Co. of Philadelphia, PA was purchased by Yale & Towne in 1925.

Pete Schifferli

Thanks Pete, Very helpful and interesting. Are there electronic versions of these catalogues? Still confused though how an originally Miller Lock Co. design ended up in a Corbin Lock Co. Catalogue? Did you see the pasted links to the nearly identical Miller locks? Do you have similar catalogues for Miller? Could this be a “rip off”? Maybe the design was off patent? Could the design have been acquired by Corbin from Miller somehow? Best wishes, Chris

[unknown]

Pschiffe

cjdamman wrote
Thanks Pete, Very helpful and interesting. Are there electronic versions of these catalogues? Still confused though how an originally Miller Lock Co. design ended up in a Corbin Lock Co. Catalogue? Did you see the pasted links to the nearly identical Miller locks? Do you have similar catalogues for Miller? Could this be a “rip off”? Maybe the design was off patent? Could the design have been acquired by Corbin from Miller somehow? Best wishes, Chris

Chris,
I am not aware of any electronic versions of those catalogs. About thirty years ago, the late Don Stewart of Key Collectors International offered vintage catalog reprints. Copy technology was not what it is today but they are legible. With that said, Richard Chenovik of West Coast Lock Collectors Assn. still sells some of the reprints, see pdf listing on the Internet here:
http://www.wclca.net/documents/don_stewart_books.pdf
I scanned the catalog page in question, click on the link to view it in pdf format.

corbincabinetlockcat38pg47-0001.pdf

675kB

You may be interested to know that their successor company, CCL Security Products; is still in business in Wheeling, IL, website here:
http://cclsecurity.com/
With reference to the similarity to the Miller product, I can say that it was common for the many padlock manufacturers of that era to offer very similar models.

Pete

[unknown]

cjdamman

Pschiffe wrote
Chris,
I am not aware of any electronic versions of those catalogs. About thirty years ago, the late Don Stewart of Key Collectors International offered vintage catalog reprints. Copy technology was not what it is today but they are legible. With that said, Richard Chenovik of West Coast Lock Collectors Assn. still sells some of the reprints, see pdf listing on the Internet here:
http://www.wclca.net/documents/don_stewart_books.pdf
I scanned the catalog page in question, click on the link to view it in pdf format.
[ATTACH]16253[/ATTACH]
You may be interested to know that their successor company, CCL Security Products; is still in business in Wheeling, IL, website here:
http://cclsecurity.com/
With reference to the similarity to the Miller product, I can say that it was common for the many padlock manufacturers of that era to offer very similar models.

Pete

Pete, Many thanks again for the helpful information! Best wishes, Chris

[unknown]