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BURGLARY MADE EASY.

It is stated that since .January 1 there | have been over 40U burglaries in l.reater London, the total including, of course, ! all the minor cases of housebreaking. And this species of crime is growing. Burglary has in the last decade ceased to be an exact science. To-day the safebrdaker. for instance, no longer requires those beautifully-fashioned, delicate, yd i powerful instruments anil toois which I were formerly both the admiration and the despair of the safe manufacturer. from the earliest days of the safe proper, the contest between the maker c-.nd the breaker has been closely analogous to that between the armour-plate manufacturer ami the gunsmith, with the safe-maker leading. In America, according to a writer in the "'Scientific American." THE USE OF X_T_!o-OLYC_RI>_ has dealt a heavy blow at the superiority of the safe-maker. "Even safes of modern design and large size fall. or. rather, meekly open before the ruthless and explosive attack of the modern burglar. Even if the crack surrounding the door of the sate be so small as barely to allow the insertion of a sheet of paper, it is stiftieicnt to admit the entrance of the 'soup.' a thin yellow, slightly viscous liquid flowing as easily as ink. Sometimes this is facilitated by a few blows of a muffled hami mer on a steel wedjre to widen the opening. After this, the nitro-glycerine is I introduced, either by means of a funnel |or by forming a sort of cup of putty around the opening, located at the top of the door. '"The ignition-cap is then placed in position, and is connected with the pocket battery by mean- of '.vires which. are brought iv contact to make a -park —and the safe door starts on an aerial journey cheeked by the judicious use of a blanket. The American burglar however, is often an inartistic, untidy workman, for it frequently happens that when the door suddenly parts company with the safe it

I TAKES THE FRONT I of the bui-'ding with it, and consequentlyi the selection of the valuables desired jfrom the contents of the strong-box is 'often so hurried that it is only par- ; tially successful. | "The modern safe is practically proof ', against the burglar, who works without ' the aifl of explosives, for the time eleI merit is an almost insurmountable difficulty. Burglars, like lovers, laugh at locksmiths: they also sometimes laugh at time. In a recent robbery in New | York city, the gentlemen larking a pro- ! per appreciation of nieuni and tmim ap- | proached the scene of their labours with a dray, opened the front door of the emporium, and carried off the safe bodily, to be opened later at their leisure."' Though quite a number of burglars' implements have been rendered out of date by the inventiveness of safemakers, the jemmy is still in use. and "-ill probably continue to be used as i long as the burgling industry flourishes. I The jemmy is nothing more nor less I than a powerful crowbar for opening I windows, prising apart locks, moving j safes, etc. "With the aid of a two-foot jemmy it I is comparatively easy to move even a four or five-ton safe into a more favourable posiiiou for operating on it. Sect tional jemmies, generally the property I of men of rank and experience in the i profession, usually consist of one or I two -traighi bar- threaded at each end. [a union to join them, a number of j he-ads of the different shapes demanded j by the exigencies of the circumstances, ! to be screwed on to the bars, and often ! a number of" auxiliaries for various pur- ! poses. "By means of one of these, for in- • : stance, the jemmy may be converted inI to a powerful spreader, so called, for I J forcing apart plates and the like. For j this purpose two straight bars, an end of each turned into a right and a lefthand screw thread, respectively, are t joined by a central piece tapped to - i correspond with the ends of the two I bars. This piece is also provided with

means for turning it to force the two bars and the points of their application irresistibly apart. The larger sections of the jemmy are sometimes carried in two leather or cJoth tubes or bags, joined by a strap and suspended around the burglar's neck and buttoned inside his waistcoat. Experts claim that this is a most efficient and little troublesome method unless the number of acquaintances of the gentleman necessitates frequent bowing. But at 3 a.m. even a burglar's friends are not omnipresent, and no one bows to a policeman."' When nitro-glycerine is used, says the "•Scientific American." the burglar carries a funnel or syringe to force the explosive into the drilled hole or the widened doorerack. The plunger of the syringe is covered with cotton, and other precautions are. of course, necessary to insert the explosive safely iv this manner, as a premature explosion, instead of opening the safe, would probably perform that operation upon the safe-breaker. In England. Mr C.'hubb said recently, safe-makers were constructing safes at the present time lor the very purpose of resisting nitro-glycerine. "But the best method is to abolish the keyhole by the use of the time lock and keyless lock. In the former there is no hole in the door whatever, and in the latter it is blocked with a steel spindle. "The crack between the door and the safe is stepped in modern English safes, so that it is almost impossible to inject, any quantity into them, and, moreover, nitro-glycerine requires some space to explode. "The newest danger to the burglarproof safe is thermite, which is, fortunately, little used. In the first place it causes a dazzling light and gives out , a dense smoke, and, moreover, is little ' known and is hard to obtain. This preparation if ignited upon the top of a | safe burns through as if the steel plates were no more than wax—but we have | found a tire-proof material."' says Mr Chubb. "which will resist it, if placed in the lining."

Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AS19060324.2.76

Bibliographic details

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 72, 24 March 1906, Page 9

Word Count
1,020

BURGLARY MADE EASY. Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 72, 24 March 1906, Page 9

BURGLARY MADE EASY. Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 72, 24 March 1906, Page 9

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