✅ SOLVED Anyone know what this lock would have been used for?

[iliveinahole]

Found this lock along with several other items in my grandparents old barn. Will focus on this lock for the moment, but hoping I could go through some other items I found to pick your brains to figure out.
So I haven't been able to find any marking other than the "PAT JULY 13, 1897". I'm sure I wasn't looking hard enough, but wasn't able to find one like it.
Included a couple pics of 2 other locks that I found near this one. There is more locks and keys and all the other locks were heavily caked with dirt and was able to clean them enough to see they were decorative. Nothing valuable, but cool to me.
Appreciate the help on advance.
Thank you!

 

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[GoldieLocks]

Very nice, I suspect circa about 1890? Maybe it locked the barn door closed? But very fancy if it was for that. Try googling history of padlocks.

 

[iliveinahole]

Very nice, I suspect circa about 1890? Maybe it locked the barn door closed? But very fancy if it was for that. Try googling history of padlocks.

Thanks, I will👍 The hole by the "teeth" is so small a pencil wouldn't fit thru it. Barely got the cotton end of Qtip to go thru. A shoelace does, maybe it's to secure those 😁

 

[Red-Coat]

The first lock is an interesting find. It’s covered by Patent Number 586,104 granted in 1897 to Thomas McGlashan of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Essentially it’s an anti-theft device for people on the move needing to secure personal possessions (coats, valises etc) against loss. The jawed clamp could for example be locked down onto a coat and secured by a chain to something fixed.

“It is thought that this lock will be a very valuable device to traveling men, cyclists, and, in fact, to almost all persons who desire to leave articles of the class above enumerated without danger of the same being stolen or misplaced”.

 

[iliveinahole]

The first lock is an interesting find. It’s covered by Patent Number 586,104 granted in 1897 to Thomas McGlashan of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Essentially it’s an anti-theft device for people on the move needing to secure personal possessions (coats, valises etc) against loss. The jawed clamp could for example be locked down onto a coat and secured by a chain to something fixed.

“It is thought that this lock will be a very valuable device to traveling men, cyclists, and, in fact, to almost all persons who desire to leave articles of the class above enumerated without danger of the same being stolen or misplaced”.

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Nice job hunting that info down! I had no luck on the hours I spent looking online. Actually pretty funny what it was designed for and that they thought it was that big of a deterrent to keep clothes safe 😂
Very well done and think you so much for figuring out this strange lock 👍