ANTI-PILLAGE PACKING CASE

Dominion, Volume 16, Issue 88, 10 January 1923, Page 6

ANTI-PILLAGE PACKING CASE

WELLINGTON INVENTION FAVOURABLY RECEIVED IN LONDON Captain A. V. llale Monro, chief wharfinger for tho Wellington Harbour Board, some time ago invented a packing case devised to prevent the pilfering of cargo, without the case bearing indications of having been broached. Nothing ‘short of an iron case would prevent cargo pillaging, but a case that will betray the fact of its having been unlawfully opened is a valuable aid to those who desire to ascertain where the pillaging has taken place. Captain Monro's patent case has lately been placed before the Pilferage Committee of the London Chamber of Commerce together with another anti-pil-fering caso invented by Mr. C. F. Rainsford, of Adelaide. The chairman of the committee pronounced Captain Monro’s patent case has lately device worthy of adoption if the shipping companies would give receipts as to seals beng intact.

A Dominion reporter viewed a model of Captain Monro’s packing case yesterday, and an examination showed that pillaging could' not take place without leaving evidence of same. The principle involved is the construction of a box in which all the edges of the boards except on the top are sunk so that no chisel can be inserted behind them.. The obvious impossibility of disguising all the edges of the boarding is obviated by doubling the hoarding at each end. Even though tho thief might be tempted to prise these extra ends off, things are so arranged that the wood is bound to split, and even if he succeeded in getting the ends removed he would be faced with the annoying fact that they were not the ends at all. The heads of tho nails employed are embedded a fraction of an inch below the surface of the wood and the points clinched inside, and all angles are further reinforced with corrugated discs. The lid is made in two sections with hinges inside the box. Steel projections on the outer edges slip into cavities at tho top inner edge of the box. Screws are used to fasten the lid down, the screws being received into a metal contrivance let into tho edges of the box. These metal pieces have a lug at the bottom end so that any attempt to wrench the lid up would inevitably tear out the sides of the box as well. The screw heads are sunk into a cavity on the lid, and haying been screwed down, molten lead is poured .into the cavity and scaled. The edge of the screw heed is so arranged that the lead flows beneath it and When the case has been sealed in this way the idea is that shipping companies or other custodians of the box would give receipts indicating that the seals were intact. It is also proposed that shippers shall imprint on their bills of lading rubber stamp impressions of the particular design impressed into the lead seals. It is considered that the box would prove attractive to manufacturers Sacking chemicals, cutlery, jewellery, osiery,. silks, and stationery, and the case would be useful for many journeys. The fact that it can be made for about 2s. 6d. more than an ordinary case of similar size seems, to be a very advantageous consideration. A certain Wellington firm is said to have sent some jewellery back to Sheffield recently in a Monro case, and the Customs authorities in london, who found it necessary to open it, were evidently so exercised in doing so that the box arrived at the address of the consignees in a state which showed that the Customs people practically had to knock it to pieces before effecting an entrance. It had not yet been possible when the last mail left England for the London agent for tho case to obtain the patent rights for Great Britain.