The Rock Island Argus., 1882-09-09
EXPERT EXPERIMENTS.
How a Rock Island Man
Makes His Living.
Incidents in the Life of a
Safe Lock Opener.

| IN Jnat Gaming, naO many strange ana pc
culiar adventures. He has a genius for
that character of work and claims to be
perfectly happy when tinkering around
| some obstinate lock or unknown combina-
| ton. During the past twelve years, or
since his residence in this city, he has been
engaged in no less than 500 different safe
| openings and has yet to meet with a com
bination that would not yield to his efforts
to secure its successful solution. While in
Hamburg, Germany he learned the lock
smithing trade, and on coming to this
country in 1865, he was engaged at the
| Halls safe mandatory in Cincinnati. He
| there demonstrated his peculiar aptitude
as safe expert in opening some combina
tions that were unknown. He came to
ROCK ISLAND
| about twelve years ago, and since that
| time has acted as the western expert for
several of the safe companies located in
Chicago, Cincinnati and St. Louis. He
explains his manner of manipulating lock
by the statement that his senses of touch
and hearing have been so educated to the
resistance and noise made by the different
whirls of a combination that he can detect
by that means when the lever is over the
indentation in the circular discs. He has
in his possession drawings of all the diff
ferent locks used in this country, and is
constantly experimenting SO as to acquaint
himself with the latest improvements in
that class of work. This knowledge, as
sisted by his acute sense of touch and
hearing, enables him to unlock any safe
without knowing a single number of the
combination, or without having seen the
particular safe before in his life. He like
wise has one of the first Lilly combination
locks that is crude in execution, but still
contains the cardinal point of the improv
ed locks that now are manufactured by the
differeut establishments throughout the
country.
HIS PLAN
of opening safe or vault is first to turn
the tumblers so as to secure starting
point. By revolving the wheels he OBJ
serves peculiar ''click" which indicates
passed over one of the indentations of the
tumblers. With this starting point
he continues his labors until the second
'fclick" shows him another number of the
combination, and soprogress until the lock
Is opened. Being informed of any combina
tion that will open a safe he can by a
mathematical process open the lock by a
reverse process, and then not using any
of the numbers employed in the first
combination His work consists largely
in opening safes when the combination
has been lost and the owners are unable to
gain an entrance. In some cases criminal
work has been performed such as the
absconding of the clerk III charge, and the
parties have telegraphed for an expert TO
open the safe for inspection purposes.
THE MOST NOTABLE CASES
in which he has figured are given below.
The safe oflthe Burlington mills refused to
open after the drowning of the cashier,
and the Rock Island expert was sent for
and soon discovered the correct combna-
ton.
The clerk of the steamer Helen Mar a
few years since absconded, and the officers
remaining failed to know the combination.
Fiebig was called on and solved the cOmbi
nation.
Another peculiar incident is that related
of safe in the office of J. N. Lowry, at
Carbon Cliff The safe remained in that
Office thirteen years, and nobody seemed to
be aware of its owner, as the office had
several times changed hands, but no histo- |
ry of the safe was ever transmitted. Fl |
nally the safe expert was called on, and
the safe was opened and the owner dis
covered. The latter, it was proved, had
died suddenly, which accounted for the
mystery surrounding it.
The safe of Thompson & Riley, of Dav-
enport, remained unopened for three years,
as the former partner had died without
giving the combination, and the new pro-
prietors were unable to master it. August
Tilmain, of Milan, had a safe which came
into the possession of the sheriff, and he
refused to open it. Fiebig was equal to
the emergency, and soon had the contents
exposed to view. n. Dimock, of Lone
Tree, Iowa, and on recovery from the dis
ease failed to remember the combination.