HOW SCIENTIFIC BURGLARS WORK.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXIX, Issue 12111, 4 July 1903, Page 2 (Supplement)

HOW SCIENTIFIC BURGLARS WORK.

Methods of the Modern BUI Sikei.

. (Tit-Bit:) It is a proud of the present-day safe-breaking fraternity that, whatever the advertisements of the manufacturers say, no safe has yet been made which can resist the attacks of a burglar who knows his profession. How true this is it would bo rather difficult to say ; but it is quite certain that, if he is to baffle the modern Bill Sikes, the safe-maker must exert his inventive powers and ingenuity to the utmost. The time lias passed when the burglar attacked the safe with a hammer, crowbar, chisel, and a few skeleton keys. Nowadays he f LTIMSES MODERN DISCOVEIIIKS OF SCIENCE to aid him in his nefarious work, and relies on his knowledge of chcmi»try and mechanics to successfully accomplish a robbery.

Many experienced burglars, for instance, now employ a chemical by which the finest steel can be pierced. This cempound is called thermite, which, when mixed with magnesium powder, softens the hardest steel to such an extent that it may be pierced as easily as lead. With the aid of this compound the burglar can find his way into the toughest safe. The thermite is placed on the top or some other part of the safe, and generates such a fierce heat that the hardest steel cannot resist it.

One of the most useful and common scl- ' entitle appliances whicli burglars employ nowadays is an oxy-hydrogen blow-pipe, which produces such an intense4fcat that the metal against which the flameis directed is melted. Only a few months ago a safe in one of the London post-offices was opened by means of one of these blowpipes. The burglars who accomplished the deed merely had l as tools a bit of indiarubber tubing and a cylinder of oxygen gas. They fixed the tubing to the gas jet, turned on the oxygen, and obtained a heat of 2000 degrees—

SUFFICIENT TO MELT THE STEEL OF A lIATTLKSHII'. Electricity, too, renders most valuable aid to the modem burglar. Some time ago the safe of -a well-known firm of tobacconists was broken into and robbed of its contents. The safe was found to have a large hole melted through the door, and at first' the police were considerably puzzled in their endeavours to find out, how this had been accomplished. Ultimately it was discovered that the burglars had lorn down the electric light wires which were installed in the building and

USED THK CURRENT TO VVSK THE METAL. Seedless to say, the men must have been skilled electricians, provided with an elaborate apparatus, in order to accomplish such a piece of work. About two years ago a daring attempt was made to open the safe of a well-known • firm of Hatton Garden diamond merchants. Fortunately, the burglars were disturbed in their woiik, and in their baste to escape, left behind an assortment of beautifullymade tools and an automatic furnace of a kind entirely new to the Scotland Yard officials. This automatic furnace was a remarkable contrivance, consisting of a semi-cvlindiical-shapcd piece of metal, lined with asbestos and fitted with a mechanical " blast," the fuel used being coko and charcoal. These furnaces, which prodncc a keen, biting flame, are used to heat the sides of a safe, in order that they may be more easily pierced. A remarkable safe-breaking exploit was reported from Paris last year, which shown with what vapidity the modern lrarglnr can work. Four men, under official observation, were seen to break into on office and attack a large safe. They bored holes at each angle of the door-, and then knocked out four rivets. Bending the outside plat* a little, it was gripped by a. curious instrument with immense gyratory leverage, and absolutely

IMLLKD VV LIKE THK TIN OF A SARDINE HOX. The lock was thus exposed to view, nnd the withdrawal of a few screws allowed thedoor to be opened. The whole operation only lasted a quarter of an hour, and it would be. difficult to say who wet* most

surprised—the burglars at being arrested as they left the office or the police -who had watched their operations. It is a popular belief that the modern burglar relies mostly on skeleton keys in order to open a safe. As a matter of fact, skeleton keys are of little use to him nowadays, owing to the complicated and ingenious system of locks which has been invented. His favourite method is that of tearing open the sides of the safe. Holes are first drilled into the metal and then, with a lever,' THE CASINGS ABE WBENCHED APART by main strength. Failing in this explosives are resorted' to £ the sound being deadened'by felt-, in which the safe is first enveloped. The lock is sometimes destroyed by means of nitro-glycerine, while even dvnamite, which the burglar dis- ' charges"by means of electricity,.'has been resorted to. The following device, however, which the modern burglar sometimes employs, is probably the most ingenious of all. He fills up the crevices of the door of the safe with putty, leaving only two openings. By ■ means of an air-pump applied to one of the openings he draws the air from -within the safe. Meantime his confederate holds a card at the other opening on. which he pours gunpowder. The latter is drawn in between the body of the safe and the door by the air-suction, and is then exploded. This results in either the doors being blown from their bolts or forced open sufficiently to allow of a "jemmy" being used.