Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1892-05-31
FOILING BURGLARS.
PREPARATIONS TO rRUsTRArE At
TEMPTs AT BURGLARY.

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How BiR New York JeweIer Guards
His Costly Treasures-safes Within
Safes Are Enclosed In FrafI but sensi-
tive csbinet#--AIarm Bells Also.
| Here are 200 feet Of showcases, half OF them
on each side Of e long room, and back of
them are as many feet Of upright cases stood
! against the wall. In the rear of the room
are more cases. and wherever there Ii room
Tor them Hre costly music boxes, bronze
statuettes and other valuable articles OF
| European and American make. All the
showcases are full Of jewelry and other ar
ttcles made Of gold and silver For twenty
feet near the front the cases hold nothing
but real diamonds. and other precious
stones, for the place IL big jewelers. sales
room up town, where no Imitation articles
are sold-nothing but real gold and silver
and real stones
what beautiful field for burgIarr'
was the idea that flashed through the
| mind OF reporter who entered the place
few days ago.
What do you do with your goods at
night" the reporter asked the proprietor.
| There il no secret about IT," the jeweter
replied. do you see those three cabinets.
those black walnut cabinets, against the
east wail' We put everything in those at
night"
You trust to black walnut cupboard
all these cases Of gold and diamonds, do
| you, valued at--at about how muchsr
III you take the entire lot" Mr.. Jeweier
laughed, you can have it for 100000 But
come behind the counter with me and let
| me show you the cabinetsr
! The jeweIer led the way to the middle
| of the east side Of the room, between cases
full Of diamonds and costly stones on the
one hand and upright cases full OF silver
teapots and trays and sugar bowls on the
other hand
| SECURE CABINETS.
| Here" he said. when the cabinets were
reached Is where we keep everything at
night. except such large articles rs would
not go in In our business it is not the big
/ things. but the little ones that are valrI-
able"
They were ordinary looking walnut cab
inets, each perhaps seven feet high and five
feet wide, and each with folding doors. an
upper and lower panel in each door. A
boy might break them all open with
| hammer in one minute.
| But Mr.. Jeweler threw open one of the
pairs of folding doors aud disclosed inside
an immense safe that seemed to say, Come
| on, now. If you're burglar: let's zee what
\ you can dor 1t was one of the polished
steel sort, with tremendous resistance
written all over it.
! These are called burglar proof Safes
| said the jeweier. but need not tell you
| that no safe is burglar proof. Nothing has
been or can be made that cannot be broken
and an expert burglar can open any safe in
the world. However. think these are as
nearly burglar proof IA any safe in New
York 1t is merely question CT time with
n burglar, and these safes are warranted to
resist any attack. except with explosives,
for twelve hours. There is not much dan
ger from gunpowtler or dynamite in such
an exposed place, and to operate with tools
successfully requires twelve hours"
SAFES WITHIN SAFES.
As he spoke he opened the safe doors
| Three-fourths of the interior was divided
into shelves. all of the same height and
breadth. The other fourth was taken up
by another safe. apparently complete in it
self
There is where we keep our most valu-
able goods, the diamonds and other very
costly articles" the jeweler continued,
tapping the small inner safe. There is
one of these inside of each of the large
safes, and each small safe is separate and
complete in itself. with its own separate
combination. If a burglar manages to
reach the inside OF one of the large safes he
still has another safe to open before he can
get the most valuable goods. That is all
that steel can do for u.s. Now we call in
electricity to stand guard Each safe is
connected by separate wires with the Bur
glar Alarm company. If an explosion or
any other jar should move one of them a
sixteenth of an inch out of its place, bell
would ring in the headquarters OF that
company, and within ninety seconds two
policemen would be here. Ii anybody
should turn the combination knob a hairs
breadth that would have the same effect
But that is only the second step toward
security, Let me show you the third"
He closed the folding doors of the walnut
cabines.
Tap one of those panels with your I'm
gers, please he said
The sound that followed was muffied and
heavy, entirely unlike the sound made by
tapping a thin wooden panel
These slight cabinets are not las de
fenseless rs they look, the ieweler contin-
ued. Those panels are made OF paste
board, and other parts of the cabinets,
although of wood on the outside have
pasteboard within"
PAsTEBoARD AND TIN.
And why pasteboadi" the reporter
asked.
Because pasteboard is better noncon-
ductor than wood. That panel you tapped
is made OF three thicknesses of pasteboard
and two thicknesses of tinfoil First there
is the outer pasteboard panel, which is
stained and grained to initiate walnut,
then layer of tinfoil, then a second sheet
of pasteboard, then a second layer OF tin.
foil, and finally a third sheet of pasteboard
which forms the back of the panel The
first sheet of tinfoil is connected with the
positive pole of an electric battery: the sec
ond sheet of tinfoil is connected with the
negative pole of a battery. With the sheet
of pasteboard between them the metallic
sheets do not touch, and there is nc circuit
But let burglar begin to operate upon the
cabinet, and run knife blade or IA gimlet
or anything else through the panel. and
the metallic tool, touching both sheets Of
tinfoil, instantly completes the circuit q
bell rings in the burglar alarm office, and
two policemen come, as before"
rs that alls" the reporter asked.
mo, not quite" Mr. Jeweler smilingly
replied. Besides these little appliance:
we have Waterman in the store all night
Part of his work is to press little electric
button every half hour from the time We
lock the front door at night till we open ii
in the morning Thereby he tells the
burglar alarm people that he is awake and
en- duty. If he let's sixty oeconds beyond
the half hour pass without pressing the
button, the two policemen come TO sec
what is the matter, just as If somebody had
tempered with the safes"
4 No., ff....C ~