The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-04-24

Business.
From the Washington News.
For more than quarter of a century I
have been opening safes containing count
less millions of treasure, and yet l have
not been arrested.
Mine is a curious occupation. I do not
believe that there are more than a dozen
throughIy competent safe openers in the
United States.
The work grows out of the locksmith
business. A professional safe opener,
however, must not only know all there is
to know about locks and keys, but he
must keep informed on the improvements
ARE constantly being made in safes
of all kinds that are in use.
An expert safe opener, for instance, can
fta key to any lock made without taking
it from the door or seeing the inside of it.
He puts in a key and he can tell the work
inc of the lock simply by the sense of
feeling. The vocation develops the sense
Of feeling and the sense of weight to re-
markable degree.
In nv own case 1 think it is almost phe-
nomenal
Some years ago, I remember, certain
friends Of mine blindfolded me Then
thew placed six different sized pins on a
marble-tOp table and wanted me to pick
out the heaviest pin without lifting them.
accomplished this feat simply by push
ing my finger gently against the end of
each pin.
Inside lock one of the most important
navts is what is called the tumber This
is part of a spring latch which retains
the bolt so as to prevent its motion until
a key lifts it and sets the bolt at liberty.
If can touch the tumbler with a pick
or dummy key l can tell it's size.
As burglars, as well as honest people,
read newspapers l can only give some
general information as to how safes are
opened.
The large safes in banks and in the Of
fees of large corporations have upon
them what are called time locks - that
is the safe is locked and the mechanism
is set so that the doors can be opened at
such and such an hour, Sometimes the
machinery gets out of order and the door
will not open. Then the professional
safe opener is called in.
THE sHAKING-UP METHOD.
In these cases of disordered time me-
chanism he generally uses what is called
a jumping jack" which is something
like a crOwbar, only shorter with a roller
on the end. This is placed underneath
safe, which is raised up several times and
motion often shakes the works into proper
position so that the key will work.
Sometimes we use a battering ram and
sometimes we use small charges of dyna-
mite. On very large safes in the safe dc
posit companies of our cities or in the care
of the United States treasury vault,
where the walls are five inches thick, we
strip off one of the plates on the side
these plates corresponding to the perpen-
diCular boards on each side of a wooden
door; or we cut hole through and in
this way get at the plates which cover
the lock works. We can generally rem
edy the trouble if we cannot we have to
try the "shaking-up'' process already re-
ferred to.
But it would not be possible to lay down
any rule about opening a safe Just as a
physician treats each patient differently,
so a safe opener takes each safe separate
" and opens it according to his me
chanical knowledge and by methods
which are the result of his own eXper-
fence.
Many safes are opened by turning round
the handle, upon which letters are
printed, until certain word is spelled.
Sometimes the owner entirely forgets the
word he has used or he endeayors to open
it by word which sounds something like
the real one. One mans safe, for in
stance, was locked on the word town"
DuJ TIC WdS d pour Sp6llet duu bTl6u III
vain TO open his strong box with the let
tiers "t-e-O-w-n.n Another prominent
New York business man intended to spell
the word corn He found the next
day he could not get at his valuables be-
cause he had carelessly spelled the word
"c-O-r-h."
Still another well-known merchant of
the great metropolis had lOstthe keys of
ms safe. After several experts had
failed to open it was called in. He told
me in advance that he did not think |
could open it, but ! proved that he was
mistaken, for in twenty minutes the safe
was opened. His combination was IS.
Luke" | unlocked it on the combination
OF IS. Love" These mistakes of safe
owners are quite as often due to haste
and careleSsness as to bad spelling.
''GUMPTIoN" A GOOD TOOL.
Your work is more successful when you
use what the yankees call sumption"
or brains, instead of main strength.
was called once to Paterson, N. j., where
TWO big powerful Germans had failed to
open safe by the use of immense sledge
hammers. They had been pounding away
y at such rate that, their blows almost
shook the foundation of the building. |
went down with small box of toolS-the
poX being about as large as dolls trunk,
ana the largest tool hammer of the size
usually used by blacksmiths.
Nhen arrived in town and the owner
4 saw me with this small outfit and remem-
oefed the unsuccessful efforts of the giant
Germans ne laughed at me outright. He
sad that | must be crazy and there was
hardly any use in my attempting to open
n the safe, but told him would like to try.
In about twenty minutes had drawn out
the spindle on the dial (this is the piece
mat runs through to the interior works
oI the lock-, and in about an hour, by
means of a small piece of steel and, of
course, the practical knowledge had of
mat kind of lock, l succeeded in opening
the safe.
When we are sent to open some safes
we md the cause of the difficulty to be
very simple. In one instance the handle
turned to the left instead of the right. In
another case after we had made two or
Ihree blows on the outside, we found that
some big account books had got wedged
against the lock, which prevented the
uoor being opened.
recall an amusing incident where
some men were trying to get a big safe
On through the door of big building.