BURGLAR-PROOF VAULTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13235, 21 July 1906, Page 2 (Supplement)

BURGLAR-PROOF VAULTS.

ARE THEY POSSIBLE ?

THE USE OF THE CARBON DRILL. There was'■ a time, scarcely more than a a 'bundled years ago. when treasure* "were placed for safe keeping in strong best* bout of oak, clamped with iron ant} provided with most formidable hasps and jocks. Man's faith is these depositories was shattered just as soon as the old-time burglar found how easy it was to open them with a- lino saw and a chisel. . .': : - ; .-:. .--;y"'''

The all-iron box replaced the: wooden chest. It was guaranteed burglar-proof and fireproof and was hailed as .Something against which the crude burglary kits of those days would have no chance at all.

: The sale-breaker's reply to '•; this was. a tiny hand drill, which speedily cut holes all around the lock in the. thin iron door. With the progress of time, and to meet the ingenuity of the . safe-breakers, the thickness of the iron walls and doors of the old-time safes was gradually increased. '• SO SCCH THIXG AS BURGLAR-I'ROOF SA.FK."' "l"here is no such thing as a burglarproof safe. Make one, ants, see how long it takes us to break into it,'' was the challenge, of the safe-burglar after the s«fe builder had .been.forced to admit that even the strongest iron vaults stood no better chance than the old-time wooden chests against scientific burglary. The vault maker answered the challenge by introducing steel in place of iron, double doors, double locks, double hinges, and many other interesting contrivances calculated to daunt the most persevering thief and force him to admit that at last here was something he couldn't break open. Special steel plates were made possessing .great hardness and toughness. This was to resist -the vastly in/proved drills and "jimmy" of the burglar. ;■-,. The safe robber met this challenge with a small pinch of nitroglycerine scientifically applied and exploded.' It was even easier for him than; the obsolete method of drilling holes around the lock. ; The vault : makers were now confronted by the same conditions as the armour-plate makers. The latter had been called upon to provide an armour plat* hard •enough, to resist the attack of intensely hard projectiles and yet possessing,' sufficient- pliability to prevent it from being cracked or entirely shattered by the impact and explosion. * , In the case of the armour-plate makers the problem was partly solved by taking a soft steel body and rolling down upon it; at a welding heat a face several inches thick of high carbon steel, the idea being that the hard face would resist penetration and smash up the projectile, while the softer body'; would hold the hard face up to it» work. ' •'' ■,'■' ~-'. ' ;; ;,: ' "

On the other hand the vault makers met the attack of the burglar's "drill and nitroglycerine charge by producing a five-nly welded plato' which consists of five welded layers of steel. Three of these are. mild, or tough steel, and the other two of extremely hard chrome steel, the two outer layers are of tough' steel, the next two of hard steel and the centre is a somewhat thicker layer of tough steel. ' .

% BURGLAR-PROOF AT LAST. "At last," cried the safe designers, "we have something - which is really .burglarproof.' I : By way of answer, the scientific burglar produced a new cutting tool which did the work with even greater ease than dynamite or nitroglycerine. The success of the armour-plate maker did not daunt him. On the contrary, it merely compelled him to exercise his inventive genius along an entirely new line. - ' ';,-, His final production whs a retort carbon, similar to those used for arc lights ; a few •yards, of electric-light wire, a pair .of black eyeglasses and a pierced in the middle. With this very simple outfit the burglar was able to cut holes.through steel plates with almost as much ease as the end of a red-hot wire will'pierce a piece of butter. This is the way ho did it: To the nearest available electric "' wire 'he attached .■'■ two wires.*; One of these was fastened'".to the safe and the other to the end of the carbon, stick, suitably insulated- by ';; a wooden, handle. .Then, having inserted the carbon, through the hole in the plate, in order to protect himself against the heat and light, the safe burglar produced a voltaic arc of I immense power between the point of the | carbon and the metal of the sale, melting i the metal with surprising ease. ■

WITHSTANDING '»THE CARBON DRILL, ; In imagination the outwitted; safe maker could see his competitor the burglar melting holes almost as fast as you could count around the safe lock, and'laughing at the simplicity of the task. , To construct something .which even the burglar's carbon drill couldn't, melt through .was the next problem. This has been solved and, in the words of the safe manufacturers, it is now the safe burglar's turn to move. •.Just what his move will be remains to be seen. -■ .. , ..'-',-■ ; ;' ; ' , .-■

The newest safety vaults are of the "battleship" type. . Several now being constructed for New York depositories have Harveyised nickel-steel armour-plate walls 6in thick and 12in doors. . The joints of the plates are dovetailed and made additionally tight with wedging strips and key pieces so as to be proof against any attack by floating nitro-glycerine. . , -* • . Wedges can make absolutely no impression on the joints or where the doors fit into the frame, the hard face of the steel splintering the wedges just as it does the hard point of a projectile. For the same reason the burglar's drill is useless and, as for the, newest method of attack, by taking the arc light'and taking the temper out of the steel, the use of the arc is ~urposely made so.difficult to obtain that no burglar can hope to rely upon it. Even the locking bolts are a revelation to the modern burglar. The act of closing the door releases, an automatic mechanism" which carries the locking bolts into the locked positions, and there they stay until the expiration of a predetermined time, when the time-lock releases the automatic, which in turn withdraws the bolts, all without any assistance from outside the safe. r Truly the safe burglar has a most interesting problem to: solve before-he can make his next move.