Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1895-07-17

diameter red-hot in twelve minutes
The next operation is to cool this plata
quickly without rehardening it. To
accomplish this l give it what is
termed by mechanics a cold water
anneal This is done by running soft
pine stick over the spot which has been
heated until it shows no sparks, and
then l apply cold water with sponge
until the plate is cold.
"This method is expedient and makes
the steel softer than if allowed to cool
itself. When annealed in this way
the steel can be cut almost as readily
as wrought iron. The next thing is TO
fasten the clamps to the safe and apply
the cat-head. This cat-head is fed by
screw pressure and consists of four cut.
tiers, with cutting edge of a quarter of
an inch. When made to revolve with
ratchets they cut groove a quarter of
an inch wide through the plate. This
leaves disc three and a.half inches
in diameter, which drops out as soon
as the plate is cut through.
If the next plate is iron it requires
no heating. If steel, repeat the opera
ton and so on until the four-inch hole
is cut entirely through the safe.
have cut a four-inch hole through
modern plate safes three inches thick
in less than three hours The average
time required to cut a four inch hole
through safe built up entirely of
chrome steel plates is about one inch
per hour"
1.-THE work Of the professional bur-
glar and the expert is ON almost paral-
lei lines. Burglars have been known
to spend months preparing to attack
bank They exhibit great patience
and energy. and when the opportunity
comes it is usually a dark, stormy
night. They chose stormy nights be-
cause they are less liable to be discov-
cred and explosions ere less liable to
be heard.
On Sept. so. 1890, Congress made
an appropriation to enable the Secre-
tary of the Treasury to appoint COM
mission of scientific and mechanical
experts to report upon the best method
of safe and vault construction. The
commissioners appointed were DR..
Robert H. Thurston, director of Sibley
College, Cornell University; Theodore
Y. Ely. superintendent of motive power
of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company,
and Francis A. Pratt, of the firm of
Pratt & Whitney, Hartford. Conn.
"These commissioners. after many
tests, practically condemned all lami-
mated safes. The only safe the COM
missioners recommend for the United
States Treasury is made of solid metal.
1t withstood total of 115 pounds of
dynamite and other explosives without
injuring it to any extent.
Zone Of the best Illuminated safes was
operated upon and opened in three
different ways in six hours. First, by
cutting four-ipch hole through the
body; second, wedging off he sides.
and third, blowing out the door with
explosives. The explosive and safe
experts who made all the experiments
before the United States Commission
ers were Prof Charles e. Monroe,
chemist to the torpedo corps, U. s. N;
Lieut.. Samuel Rodman. Jr., Second
United States Artillery, and myself.
'"The solid metal safe that the Gov
eminent Commissioners recommended
for the United States Treasury was
afterwards submitted to a test for
thirty-six hours at jackson, Mich,
Jan. 10, 1898. Four experts from
Chicago-S. G. Wooley, E. A. Straus
and two others-worked ten hours and
gave up in disgust.
cit was recently claimed by the
manufacturers Of the Illuminated safes
that the defects heretofore exposed had
been remedied. In January, 1895, 1
issued challenge to bankers in behalf
Of myself and P. F. King to open any
screw door Illuminated safe in any bank
in Illinois inside of three hours. This
challenge we extended exclusively to
bankers. We were to attack it with
the tools usually used by burglars, and
if we failed to open the safe in the
time specified we agreed to pay the
banker one-half the cash price paid
for his safe. If we opened it in the
time specified the safe was to become
our property.
The challenge was accepted and P.
+. King, Lieut.. Roman and myself
working under all the restrictions and
using only small kit of tools, which
weighed less than twenty pounds, laid
the formidable screw -door structure
wide open in two hours and fifty
seven minutes. Over thirty persons
witnessed the operation.
Our first work was to remove the day
door with wedges and sledges. This
uncovered the screws that held the
gear to the door. The gear was re-
moved and this presented the filling
plate to view. The filling plate. an
inch thick. was wedged off and the
second plate was blown off by two
fifths of an ounce of nitro-glycerine.
A three-sixteenth inch hole had been
drilled at an angle of 45 degrees and
through this the nitro-glycerine was
introduced. The first explosion dis