The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-10-01
OBSTINATE SAFE LOCKS.
Troubles They Cause People Wh,
Forget the Combinations.

! Oo9 A-NtA SAE Il AS.
Troubles They Cause People Who
Forget the Combinations.
From the New Orleans Times Democrat.
Last Wednesday evening painter work
| ing in the Commercial Hotel slipped from
his ladder, and in falling struck his foot
against the knob of the office safe A few
moments later the clerk attempted to open
the doors, but found them immovable; the
blow had thrown on the combination.
AS usual in hotels where some one IS
continually on duty close at hand. the
outer lock was rarely used. It was last
| employed so long ago that nobody-could
remember the exact figures that governed
1t, and after vainly tnkering with the me-
| chanIsm all night an expert was sent for
next morning. In detective stories this
! individual would have placed his ear
j against the door, turned the knob a few
tlmes, smiled systematically, and thrown
back the bolts but, unfortunately, such
Things don't really happen outside the
works of NJ. Gaboriau. AS a matter Of
fact, five skilled mechanics took turns at
trying for some thirty hours, and yester-
day the makers were telegraphed for the
| cipher.
The sticking" of safe doors. as it is
called colioquilly, is something that oc-
| ours now and then in every city. and the
| mot common cause is the sudden death
| OF he man possessing the combination.
| Some cautious merchant tumbles over
! with heart disease of apoplexy, and his
| safe is found locked as tight as a drum
rms mas happened more than once in New
orleans, and in such cases there is only
one thing to do. hole is drilled through
| the door, so as to give access to the me
chanIsm, and the lock is then picked with
a wire
AS burglars often employ the same pro-
cess, 1t may be interesting to explain inst
how it is done. A combination lock con-
slsts OF a series of disks, or ''tumblers."
each having a slot on the edge. and when
these slots are brought into alignment a
! bar slides through and operates the bolts
| BY means of a hooked wire it is compara
| lively easy for an expert to revolve the
DISKS until the slots are all in their cor
| rect positions, and that, in a nutshell is
| the whole trick
Inc widely prevalent idea that combi-
nation lock may be opened "by ear is
| absurd, and the safe sharp who pretends
| 10 90 1t resorts to an ingenious method
| called hacking up" He approaches a
safe when the combination is off and
by quietly turning the knob backward can
| tell, by a slight obstruction, when the first
| number is reached. The second is pick
| ed up the same way, and so on until the
| cipher is in his possession, when he boldly
announces that he can open the doors
| whenever he wants to. Many man has
! been hoodwinked into believing a good
| lock worthless by this simple dodge
oudden deaths is by no means RESPONSE
| Die Tor all the lock outs. Sometimes one
| of those strange mental scissors, in which
| the overtaXed brain itself slips a cog.
causes busy man to forget for the time
| being one or more of the numbers He
| may have opened the safe every morning
| for years and believed the combination
| to be as familiar as the face of his wife
| but II has slipped away into the myste-
rlous regions of oblivion, and the harder
he thinks the less apt he is to recall it.
Some years ago a New Orleans merchant
| suddenly forgot the second number Of his
| combination, He was in great distress.
| for he feared a mental breakdown, and
strange 10 say he had the missing number
associated in some manner with the idea
| of stopping or pausing.
1T has something to do with standing
| still' ne repeated over and over again to
the bafiied experts. At last he jumped IN
with a triumphant whoop.
I have itr' he yelled. ITS twenty-eight.
don you see, two-etght, TO wait? knew
| it had something to do with stopping"
one of the most remarkable lock-outs on
| record occurred in 1892 in a small town in
| this stat A general merchant had what
was known as screw door safe with a
lime lock, which got out of order This
style of safe is in principle much like The
breech of modern cannon. The door is
circular and screws in, after which an au-
tomato contrivance throws the bolts
which are released at a given hour bV in
| terror clockwork. The expert sent for in
this particular case made the necessary
repairs, but forgot TO replace a small bar
connecting the clock and the lock. Conse-
quently when he closed the door the bolts
! flew into position, and there was no wav
! in the world to get them back
The safe contained quantity of cur
rency, several fine Watches and a lot of
diamond jewelry, and the owner was wild
to have it opened. Then began a battle
royal The first scheme of the experts was
TO bolt a long iron bar to the door and
then raise the safe by tackle and lei II
drop. The theory was that the lar might
cause the bolts to fay back long enough
TO enable the leverage pressure OF the bar
to start the screw. This was tried at least
a hundred times, h without success.
They then determined tc break down
the door itself. 1t was composed of MANY
plates of steel held together by series Of
small bolts beam, twenty-five feet
long, was swung from a derrick like a
battering ram and hurled, end-on. against
the front of the safe Shifts OF darJ5ies
were engaged to relieve each other at fix
ed hours, and the blows were timed reg
ularly, two to the minute. 1t was believ-
ed that a vibration could thus be set IN
that would eventually jar out the bolts.
ana. incredible as it may seem, the assault
was continued increasingly three days and
nights The blows reverberated through
the little town like salvos of artillery.
and the whole country around turned out
to see the fun. Sleep was impossible and