The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-07-03 00:00:00

In the evening, at eight o'clock, his Highness dined
with Lord Salisbury in the family mansion, Arlington.
street.

SAFE WITHIN SAFE.

The Daily News gives the following interesting description
of the great "fire and thief-proof" safe, which has been
built near the Mansion House, in London :

The National Safe Deposit Company has at last
completed its building, which may be in a wprd de-
scribed as a safe within safe. The problem how to
construct a safe that shall be proof against burglars,
fire, and such like enemies has been long a disputa-
tious point. Nevertheless, there are one or two well-
known safemakers, who at the present moment,
defy the world, and into their sphere of operations
the new sphere which we are now describing, does
not at all enter. In the November of 1873 we
described the laying of the foundation stone of
a building that would be an admirable illustration of
the adage, "Fast bind, fast find," and this is the build-
ing that now rears its handsome double front on the
west side of the Mansion House. It is bounded by
Charlotte-row, Queen Victoria-street, and Bucklers-
bury, and it is a building whose exterior is no un-
worthy addition to the palatial structures which of
late years have done so much towards proving to the
world that we are a nation, not only of shopkeepers,
but of some architectural taste. In designing the
building, the promoters had four objects before
them —to provide a building that would give
ample accommodation to depositors, to give un-
deniable security against fire, to offer some-
thing that would repel the designs of thieves,
and to build that which, in the extreme case
of mob or-riot, would successfully resist the combined
attack of a furious crowd. Buildings of this kind
have been common in America for some time, and
they have financially and in every other respect suc-
ceeded admirably. For the first time we have now
within a stone's throw of the Royal Exchange, the
Bank of England, and other great centres, of money-
making, as it is transacted through the magic influence
of paper, a building which combines all the experience
of many years and many minds. To be brief, it
may be stated that the triangular piece of landcovered
by this building comprises an area of 6,500 feet. The
excavations, as we pointed out at the time, were
carried to the depth of 50 feet; and the wonderful
Roman antiquities recovered from the lower depths of
the diggings were, it will be remembered, most
learnedly and pleasantly described by Mr. J. H.
Puleston, M.P. The outside walls of the building are
from 10 to 15 feet thick.

The building, roughly speaking, is divided into two
divisions, namely, office and safe. The depositor who
wishes to place his documents, plate, or valuable secu-
rities of any kind in the certain keeping of the
National Safe Deposit Company has ample oppor-
tunity for inspecting his papers in the retirement of a
private-box, and of hiding them against all the powers
of the world, so that he may, in the slightly altered
words of the old proverb, "keep his keys and be at
ease." There are in the building four tiers of
safes, and, as tenders to them, four tiers of
offices. These two divisions are separated by
a brick wall three feet thick, through which
there is only one entrance on each floor, such
entrance being a massive corrugated iron door that
has stood the test of two days' fire without flinching.
The "safe" division of the building contains 32 dis-
tinct chambers, and each chamber contains many hun-
dreds of compartments, great and small, for the de-
posit of papers, &c. The walls of this gigantic safe
are composed of three feet of the hardest blue Staf-
fordshire trick, with an exterior of fire bricks, and in-
side there is an armour plating 4 inches thick cast on
a wrought iron gridiron that is calculated to make en-
trance doubly impossible. Around this parent safe
there is a clearly defined passage, which will 13A
patrolled night and day. To each compartment of this
gigantic repository there is a door composed of
12 inches thickness of solid steel, slid into grooves
by hydraulic machinery, and behind which there is a
perpetual pressure of 160 tons. These doors are com-
posed of steel so tempered that the greatest expert who
could be found in the country, after drilling vigorously
for a week, found that he had progressed only half an
inch, and retired disheartened. To guard against
• nefarious entrance to the premises by boring from
below, there is, as a final floor to the building, a
tank of eight feet of water, to reach which an enter
prising burglar would have to engineer his way
through fifteen feet of concrete, for the mere
pleasure of finding himself drowned like a rat in
a hole. The water in this tank is used for a
variety of purposes, being ultimately;' sent with a
rush to the top of the building. The steam-engines,
boilers, and all the machinery are in duplicate; so that,
one set failing, the concern will not be brought to a
standstill. A part at present of this remarkable build-
ing is finished, and already valuable coupons, settle-
ments, and portable valuables are waiting to be safely
deposited. The ingenuity displayed in every depart-
ment to preserve the artlcles committed to the safe
keeping of the company is such that one is led to the
conclusion that the most accomplished burglars—on the
principle of "set a thief to catch a thief "—must
have been impressed into the service of the archi-
tect during the progress of the work. The utmost
care has been taken to guard against either treachery from
within or violence from without; fire in its worst form;
the most artful housebreaker of this or any period, or
the most desperate mob possible in the present or
future, will alike meet with successful resistance from
every point. The office portions of the building are
beautifully fitted up, and there is ample opportunity '
for the building becoming a place in which depositors
of valuable se mrities may transact their business with
comfort and despatch. The charges of the company
are extremely moderate.