SARGENT AND GREENLEAF

Sargent & Greenleaf prides itself on a tradition of quality and innovation which stretches back to 1857. It was then that James Sargent, a bright and inventive young sales agent for Yale & Greenleaf Lock Manufacturers, made the decision to build a lock that would offer a level of security that far surpassed any device available at the time. The result of his resolve and genius was Sargent's Magnetic Bank Lock, the first successful key changeable combination lock. The lock gained almost immediate... acceptance from safe manufacturers and the United States Treasury Department, bringing financial stability and paving the way for James Sargent to continue bringing new ideas and products to the security industry. In 1865, one of Mr. Sargent's former employers, Halbert Greenleaf, became his equal partner in the firm of Sargent & Greenleaf. A manufacturing facility was built in Rochester, New York, and the company remained in that city until 1975. James Sargent was never one to rest on the success of past achievements. In 1868, he invented Sargent's Automatic Lock, bringing refinements to the original Sargent's Magnetic Bank Lock. Then, in 1873, using parts from locks and two, eight-day kitchen clocks, Mr. Sargent created the first time lock to be installed on a bank vault door. He personally connected the time lock to the vault door of the First National Bank in Morrison, Illinois, on May 26, 1874. This lock continued to secure the vault for nearly forty years until the bank was remodeled and a larger vault was built.