FIRM FIGHTS BURGLARS.

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1399, 31 May 1923, Page 7

FIRM FIGHTS BURGLARS.

THE STORY OF SAFES AND STRONGROOMS; Impressed by the wonders of modern safe making, the T.B. man recently paid a visit to the famous firm of Chubb, which for more than a hundred years lias been waging war against crime. Ever since 191 S the firm has been inventing and manufacturing locks and safes which have baffled the keenest brains of the criminal world. in that year .Jeremiah Chubb invented the lock which was to bring fame and fortune to the family. Except for one or two comparatively unimportant improvements, it is identical with those in use to-day. in safe and strongroom making Chubbs have been the foremost in checkmaking the activities of criminals. As cracksmen have advanced in skill, so have Chubbs invented new devices *to counteract, them. The walls of bankers’ strongrooms are constructed of thick concrete, protected outside with tough steel and inside by armour plate specially designed to resist drills. Around the outer wall there is an inspection corridor, where an armed guard can he posted at night. The roof is made like the walls, with the addition of steel beams supporting^rick arches, arranged so that in ease of fire the steel can expand without disturbh.g the building. The whole is built strong enough lo resist the fall of material from the rest of the building. so that an entire building may be gutted while the strongroom stands intact among the ruins., The floor of the strongroom is reinforced with twisted steel bars, and underneath are inspection rooms to guard against tunnelling. entrance consists of a door which resists every attempt to force it, even when blow pipes are used. Such doors are circular, and weigh about 18 tons They are unbreakable and cannot he drilled, and as two locks are trolled hv a combination of figures, giving millions of possible 1 groupings, and by a. timepiece, there is little chance .of an unauthorised person gaining admittance. These huge circular doors cost as much as £6OOO each. Chubbs hav,p recently scored a triumph. They have invented a wonderful new steel alloy which resists the oxv-acetylene blow pipe, and which can be neither drilled nor broken. It is of this metal that safe and strongroom doors will he made in the future. The manufacture of this metal is naturally a closelv guarded secret and not even the chairman of the firm. Sir George Hay ter Chubb, knows its composition. Chubbs' strongrooms are capable of resisting the heaviest explosions and blows, and at present there is no known method of forcing an entrance. When one does appear, there is no doubt, a new invention will he forthcoming to render it uselesj.