The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1899-02-08
SAFE LOCK PUZZLES.
THE TROUBLE THAT IS CAUSED BY
LOST COMBINATIONS.

Assaults Of the Experts For Thre,
Days and Nights.
Once painter working I'm the Com
mercial hotel slipped from his ladder ant
In falling struck his foot against the knot
Of the office safe A few moments latel
the clerk attempted to open tie doors, but
found them immovable; the blow had
thrown ION" the combination. As usual
in hotels where some one is continually
ON duty close at hand the outer lock was
rarely used. 1t was last employed so long
ago that nobody could remember the ex.
act figures that governed it, and an expert
was sent for. In detective stories this indi
yidual would have placed his ear against
the door, turned the knob a few times,
smiled enigmatioally and thrown back the
bolts, but unfortunately such things don't
really happen outside the works of NJ.
Gaboriau. Asa matter of fact, Ave skilled
mechanics took turns at trying for some
80 hours, and finally the makers were tele.
graphed to for the cipher.
The sticking" of safe doors, as It Is
called oolloquially, is something that oo.
ours now and then in every city, and the
most common cause is the sudden death
of tho man possessing the combination.
some cautious merchants tumbles over
with heart disease or apoplexy, and his
safe is found locked as tight as a drum.
In such cases there is only one thing to do.
A hole Is drilled through the door, so as
TO give access to the mechanism, and the
lock is then picked with wire.
As burglars often employ the same
process it may be interesting to explain
Just how 1t is done. A combination lock
consists of 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 hooked wire it is compare.
lively easy for an expert to revolve the
disks until the slots are all in their correct
positions, and that, in a nutshell, is the
whole trick
The widely prevalent idea that combi-
nation lock may be opened "by ear" Is alb
surd, and the snfe sharp who pretends to
do 1t resorts to an ingenious method, call
ed backing up" He approaches safe
when the combination is "off, :" and by
quietly turning the knob backward oan
tell by slight obstruction when the first
number is reached. The second is "pioked
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 a man has
been hoodwinked into believing a good
lock worthless by this simple dodge.
Sudden death is by no means RESPONSE
BILE for all the lockouts. Sometimes one
of those strange mental scissions, 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
it has slipped away into the mysterious
regions of oblivion, and the harder he
thinks the less apt he is to recall it.
Some years ago New Orleans merchant
suddenly forgot the second number of his
combination. He was in great distress, for
he feared a mental breakdown, and,
strange TO say, he had the missing num-
ber associated in some manner with the
idea of stopping or pausing.
1T has something to do with standing
still, he repeated over and over again to
the batfied experts. At last he jumped up
with a triumphant whoop.
II have 1t" he yelled. "It's 2s. Don't
you see, two-eight to waltz knew it had
something to do with stopping"
One of the most remarkable lookouts on
record occurred in 1899 in small town in
this state. A general merchant had what
was known as screw door safe, with
time lock, which got out of order. The
door in a safe of this kind Is circular and
screws in, after which an automatic con-
trivanoe throws the bolts, which are re-
leased at a given hour by interior clock
work. The expert sent for in this particu-
lar case made the necessary repairs, but
forgot to replace small bar connecting
the clock and the lock. Consequently when
he closed the door the bolts flew into po-
sition, and there was no way in the world
to get them back.
The safe contained a quantity of cur
renoy, several fine watches and a lot of
diamond jewelry, and the owner was wild
to have it opened. Then began battle
royal. The first scheme of the experts
was to bolt a long iron bar to the door
and then raise the safe by a tackle and let
it drop. The theory was that the jar
might cause the bolts TO fly back long
enough to enable the leverage pressure of
the bar to start the screw. This was tried
at least hundred times, but without sue
cess.
They then determined TO break down
the door itself. 1t was composed of many
plates of steel held together by a series of
small bolts. A beam 20 feet long was
swung from a derrick like battering
ram and hurled end on against the front
of the safe Shifts of darkies were en-
gagged to relieve each other at fixed hours,
and the blows were timed regularly, two
to the minute. 1t was believed that a
vibration could thus be set up that would
eventually jar out the bolts, and, 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 ont to see
the fun. Sleep was impossible, and one
exasperated resident had actually applied
for an injunction when the plates at last
sprung asunder.
The interior was a wreck. The watches
had been literally torn to pieces. The
diamonds were found wrenohed from their
settings and the currency reduced TO rags
by abrasion from flying particles. 1t had
to be sent to the treasury for redemption.
When an expert is called in by busi-
ness man who finds himself unable to open
his safe, he tries the plan, TO begin with,
of reverting the numbers given him. It
not infrequently happens that the owner
has accidentally rearranged them in his
mind, and in nine cases out of ten that
proves to be the fact. The forgetful man
is always ready to take oath that he has
made no mistake until it is demonstrated
before his eyes that he has.-New Orleans
TfYnaa. nauoprat