Age of Eagle lock

[snaps]

Hello, Found this little lock in a farmers field and would like to know how old it is. It has a patent date of Feb. 25 1896, says " Eagle Lock Co. Terryville CT. USA . Most of the locks I did are Iron blobs, so little brass one was a nice surprise. Thanks for the help. Snaps

 

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[lockster99]

A very similar one with patent date of 1914 was still in one of their catalogs all the way up into early 50's believe it or not. Best guess from me would probably be in the 30's/40's. I know it's in the 1924 catalog for sure.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Your lock marked "Patented Feb. 25, 1896" was made sometime between that year and 1914, the year the Patent for the lock was renewed. When a US Patent expires, there's no point in continuing to mark an object with the expired Patent date. That's why some identical objects have a Patent date and others don't. (After the Patent expires, anybody can manufacture and sell the object without having to pay a fee to the Inventor who owned the Patent.)

Historical info about your lock's manufacturer, the Eagle Lock Company of Terryville, CT:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eagle_Lock_Company

 

[lockster99]

The padlock in the 1924 Eagle Lock Co. catalog may or may not actually have a patent date on it. The one shown is more of an artist's rendition and none of the padlocks in the catalog shows patent dates. It was, however common to continue making the padlocks well past the patent and or renewed patent had expired. One in particular I'm thinking of that has a patent date of 1884, was made at least into the late twenties. I have a catalog from '59 and it still has an old style RR lock advertised with a hollow barrel key. But CannonballGuy is probably correct that while the padlock is still identical otherwise, in some cases the patent date may have been removed.

 

[snaps]

Great info guys sounds like its near impossible to narrow a lock to a specific year in many cases