Zephaniah Philips applied for a patent for an improvement on the time-lock safe on September 23, 1876, while living in Bridgeport, Belmont county, Ohio. In his Letters Patent No. 183966 he declares:
Zephaniah received his patent October 31, 1876. His time-lock was engineered so the safe could be opened at whatever time was desired. The mechanism is a timer which prevents the opening of the safe until the correct time is reached. Shown at right is the front of the time-lock safe.
Be it known that I, ZEPHANIAH PHILLIPS ... have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Time-Locks; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description therof...
Close-up of the time-lock mechanism.
