Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1890-09-28
BURGLARS SKILL.
HOW SAFE MAKERS STRUGGLE TO
MEET 1T.
Methods Of Expert Cracksmen IN Entering e'eel
yaults-No Safes Are Burglar Proof II
the Burglar Has Time
Enough.
Ne,c York TrDnne.


tellirence. courage and mechanical
skill. and a number of these congenial
spirits make the bank burglars gang.
They are tried and true. The gang Is
not the work of a day, although there
are only four or five in it, but leader
has been known TO let years go by In
picking out his associates for some
special job. True worth must nave
been shown by acts. Bank burglars de-
tect 'squealers, and anyone who gives
information to the police torfelts his
life.
The leader generally selects the bank
to be attacked. Plenty of time is given
to the preliminary work. It's known
that Jimmy" Hope ''planted" bank,
perfected the plan of robbery and waited
twenty years to find the men that he
would take into his confidence. lie
was rewarded with success.
An entrance to the bank is made in
many ways, depending on the sur
roundings. If there is Waterman he
is either bribed, drugged, killed
or got out of the way by STRAIT
egv. Rooms are often hired adjoining
the bank, and restaurant or shoe store
opened. This gives chance 10 dig
through the walls without suspicion.
The habits of all connected with the
bank are carefully studied, and friendly
intercourse established if possible. The
site Of the vault, the shoemaker, the
kind Of lock and the manner OF getting
into the safe are all known beforehand,
so that when the thief gets into a bank
with his exit" there is no delay. The
time selected to "crack" safe is gem
orally between Saturday night and
Monday morning.
For over 100 years there has been a
contest between the safe-makers ana
the safe-breakers. 1t has been a battle
ROYAL. and the thief has always had
little the best of it. There have been
brains on both sides, and ii has always
made the shoemaker sad to see the door
of his burglar-proof safe, which 1t took
him years of study to perfect, fly open
i'm about 20 minutes after his natural
enemy got TO work on 1t. The burglar
has kept the shoemaker busy by point
ing out the defects in construction.
Every safe that is "blown" means new
safe from the maker, and thieves, to
save labor for themselves, do not attack
"A new safe until a large number have
been sold. Burglars get possession OF
every new lock by fair means or foul,
and the defects are noted for future use.
There are many methods employed by
burglars to open a safe, depending on
the way il is put together Their OBJ
iect is to break down and unlOOSen
things. In the old knob safe, which
was covered with bolts connecting two
iron plates. powder was blown through
the keyhole and the door lifted from
the hinges by explosion. Then the
keyhole was hidden in one Of the knobs,
but the burglar did not look for il. He
made hole in the door with drill and
put in the powder. Safes were made
with bolts in the door that
could be sprung into the frame
work on all sides with a spindle
connected with T-handle on the cXter-
Tor. This was thought TO be puzzler
to the burglar. but this mechanical gen
ms knocked off the handle with ham
mer. softened the spindle with lamp
and blow-pipe, drilled it out, put in the
explosive which carried away bolts
and all. SafemakerS deiied
the burglars by making safe Of alter
nate LAYERS of iron boiler plates and drill
proof steel, hardened so that they would
turn the edge Of drill. The burglars
taught the safemakerS lesson so quick
" that it made them dizzy.
The burglars invented the plate-cut-
ter, powerful tool, but did not patent
il. Holes were bored in the outside
iron plate of the door, and the cutter
was fixed in place. The blade of the
cutter was kept well oiled, and the
handle was turned until round hole
was cut through the iron plate, and the
disc was removed. This exposed the
first steel plate. This plate was cX-
tremely hard and therefore brittle, and
the cutter being removed the steel was
easily broken with a chiSel and soft met
al hammer. The metal would resist a
drill. but could not stand repeated
shocks. The alternate plates were thus
cut and broken until the bolts were
reached, and the safe could then be
opened easily.
Then safes were made TO defeat the
plate-cuttcr, and the burglars aban-
doned its use for awhile. They tried
something easier, filled the cracks Of the
safe with putty, except at the top for
about two inches. At this point was at
tachcd tube from a pump, which eX-
hauSted the air in the safe. created
vacuum and by removing a little putty in
the bottom crack as much powder
would be blown in by the air rushing in
to fill the vacuum as was necessary TO
blow open the doors.
On the portable burglar proof safes
the doors are opened without explosives
by stripping off the iron bands with
clamps and iimmieS and forcing wedges
into the cracks with a powerful jack
screw. The first wedge is like a knife
blade, and the size is increased until
the door flies from its hinges. Another
tool is the drag" This is heavy
steel upon which thread has been cut,
and it is operated with a stout handle,
five or six feet long, TO give great lever
age. A hole is first bored through the
door or back of the safe. A thread is
cut in the plate to correspond with that
in the drag The tool is turned until
the opposite side of the safe is reached.
When a great pressure is put on the
long handle something will have to
burst. 1t is usually the door.
Sometimes, when the doors promise a
hard task, the burglar reaches the top
of the safe and bores hole there to in
troduce the powder. Fire-proof safes
are about as troublesome to a burglar
as smoking pipe to a sailor His tools
go through the metal and other mater
ial like old cheese.
1t was thought when the time-lock
was invented, which unlocked the doors
at a certain time, that
the burglar would have to take a back
seat" He was quiet for a brief period
and kept his experiments secret. Then
all of sudden time-lock safes began
to fly open all over the land.
The burglar had discovered that by
ovptodinU dynamite an IA a outside Of tho