Wilson Bohannan Receives His First Padlock Patent

On 17 April 1860, Wilson Bohannan received his first U.S. patent for a padlock, Patent No. 27,883. Contemporary patent references record the inventor's first name as “Wilsin,” while the company and later records identify him as Wilson Bohannan. Surviving examples of locks based on the patent were stamped with the 17 April 1860 patent date. That same year, Wilson and his 14-year-old son, Wilson Todd Bohannan, set up a small workshop behind the family home in Brooklyn, New York, where they began assembling padlocks. We trace the beginning of our business to this workshop and the granting of Wilson's first patent in 1860