American inventor and designer of the compact cylinder pin-tumbler lock that bears his name.

At first Yale tried portrait painting, but he became interested in locks after his father began to manufacture bank locks in Newport, N.Y., about 1840. His first achievement was the Yale Infallible Bank Lock in 1851. Later he opened his own shop in Shelburne Falls, Mass., where he produced the Yale Magic Bank Lock and the Yale Double Treasury Bank Lock. By about 1862 he had introduced the combination lock.

His most important invention was the cylinder lock, based on the pin-tumbler mechanism of the ancient Egyptians. The serrations on the edge of the key raise pin tumblers to exactly the correct height, allowing the cylinder of the lock to revolve and withdraw the bolt. In 1868 Yale, in partnership with John Henry Towne and his son, Henry Robinson Towne, founded the Yale Lock Manufacturing Company at Stamford, Conn.