The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-06-07
TO BEAT THE BURGLAR.
Ingenious Safeguards That Are Used to
Protect Safes and Vaults.

RrOIecG SaLeS ana vaults
The improvement in the safe locks
the past fifty years has probably been
as rapid as in any other line of me-
chanics Forty years ago com bination
and time locks for safes and vaults
were things unheard of. At that time
the merchant and the banker were
content to lock up their valuables in
what they termed in those days strong
boxes, safes and chimney vaults What
caught the eve of the purchaser then
was the key with which the valuables
were locked up.
Many of our merchants and bankers
of to-day will remember that the size
of the lock and the size of the key
were the essential points in the pur-
chase of receptacles for securities. In
purchasing a strong box or safe each
purchaser was eager to secure the
largest lock and the largest key posi-
BILE. In many instances owners of
these keys, particularly bankers. were
obliged to have leather bags or cones
to carry the keys home at night, the
keys in many instances being from six
to eight inches long, and weighing
from one to three pounds.
This style of lock and key was in use
for many years, and not until it was
suddenly discovered that powder could
be turned into the keyhole in the door
by the hand and the door blown open
was any attempt made to improve the
art in locks. Some of these locks on
light iron doors would weigh sixty to
seventy-fve pounds, which in many in
stances would outweigh the door which
was being locked by it.
One inventor had, as he thought,
bright idea, whereby he had his lock
so arranged that when the powder was
turned into the keyhole it would run
out of the lock on account of holes be-
ing drilled in the bottom of the lock
case. Of course the powder would
drop right inside the door under the
lock and lighted match dropped into
the keyhole would ignite the powder
and out would come the door, lock and
all. In time various improvements
! were made in key locks from the fact
that the powder could be inserted, and
also the locks of many of them picked
with nail or piece of crooked wire.
In all the latter improvements the aim
of the inventor was to reduce the size
| of the lock and also the KEY.
| The size of the locks and KEYS was
| gradually reduced until several manu-
facturers made key of thin piece of
I steel about one-half inch wide and
one-sixteenth of an inch thick and
| about three inches long, with small
brass handle in some cases into which
the blade folded as in a jack-knife.
Com bination locks then made their
appearance, the first one about thirty
five years ago, crude, to be sure, but
! merchant and the banker got tired of
carrying keys and were glad 20 adopt
them The com bination locks that
were first made proved to be defective
and they were readily picked by ex-
perts In fact there are many in use
to-day by banks that can be picked
we refer now to the old-style com bina-
ton lock on old safes. Later, however,
the locks were improved, so it is safe
to say that the standard com bination
! lock of to-day is beyond the science OF
the artful and modern loclz-piclzer OF
the burglar of the present time.
The burglar. not to be baff1ed in his
business, bethought himself of bow
easy it was to get into the cashiers
house at night, bind and gag the whole
household, and force the cashier to di-
vulge the com bination of the money
vault go to the bank and help himself
This was done in mum Der of cases
notably at Northampton, Mass, and
Milford, N. H., in both places nearly
one million dollars being thus OBJ
tanned.
The burglars in many cases put the
bank officers to most severe and bar
barous torture before they would di
vulge the com bination secret.
The burglar was now ahead of the
lock man again, and hence the inven
ton of the celebrated time or chronom
eter lock. This was the latest anC
greatest invention in the history o
locks. The time lock is attached t.
the inside of a safe or vault door, and
having no communication with tn,
outside, is connected to the bolt worl
on the door in such a manner tina
when the door is closed and the bolt
are thrown on by handle or knob
and the combination lock dials ar
turned on, the time lock goes into dut,
Immediately, and no amount of worl
on the door or knobs will unlock tn
door until such time has arrived TO
which the clock was set has expired
The time locks were constructed 81
that they could be wound to keep tn
door locked from one to forty-eigh
hours.
The time locks were so made that Their
were movements in each case, and if
handspring or hairspring in one broke
or if from any cause one movemen
failed to operate, the other would rul
on and trip the mechanical devic
and allow the bolts on the door to b
released.
The lock and safe maker, not conten
with this step in advance of the bur
glar, have further perfected the lock
ing machines by doing away altogethe
with combination locks on the doc
and also with spindles or arbors of an.
kind. They now make a safe or vaul
door of any thickness the banker de
sires, and on the inside put on iron
twenty to thirty massive steel bolts