Evening journal., 1900-05-21
NCIENCE on
SAFE BREAKING
Electric Light Power to Bore
Way Into Strong Box
Experts POWerIeSS Before This Latest
And Most Convenient Aid to
Safe Cracking

New York, May 21.-The art of safe
making and the science of safe break
ing have always maintained an even
pace. No sooner have the designers Of
burglar-proof receptacles conpiacently
congratulated themselves on producing
at last strong box capable of defying
anything less destructive than dyna-
mite than some clever individual whose
brains ought to have been used in more
creditable fields, devises a scheme for
asunder and chilled steel Of treble re-
asunder andc hilled steel Of treble re-
sisting power to melt like wax.
Such scheme, that has just proved
successful, has so astonished those
whose business il is to design strong
rooms that they are completely at a
loss how to meet this new adversary.
The material that the burglar needs
for breaking open safe by this latest
process is provided by the owner OF the
safe. It is found in every modern Office
builling. 1t Is readily accessible and it
makes no noise. 1t is plain everyday
electric power.
Nd suspicious looking toolbag is
needed by the up-to-date burglar; he
carries no gunpowder to endanger his
own life and alarm the neighborhood
with the sound Of its explosion when
the time comes for bursting open the
safe; there is no necessity for pain
fully laborious drilling through hard
ened mtal while every moments delay
means risking a term in states prison
All the burglar wants Is a set of carb-
ons such as are found in any electric
street lamp and a supply of copper
wire. With these in his pocket the
scientific burglar saunters out to crack
a SAFE Should he be arrested before
he gets to the place he intends to rob
he has nothing about him that is in
eliminating "Jimmies" and false keys
are not carried by honest citizens and
many a burglar has been nabbed with
these on him and convicted without
having the satisfaction of knowing
that he has earned a term in prison. /
But the burglar who travels with no
more formidable toolbag than pocket
full Of carbons can pass as an electric
! lineman or several varieties Of an hon
est workman.
The method of using the carbons is !
so simple that the discovery Of this
new enemy may well cause consterna-
] ton among the designers of safes.
4 First access has to be gained to the
| Office in which lies the safe whose con-
/ tents have aroused the burglars GU
/ pidity. This is usually easy. So much
50 that no burglar counts 1t an obsta-
Gle worth considering. Every business
\ man recognizes this. Hence the ne
\ cessity for the burglar-proof safe at
\ whose door Bill Sykes is supposed to
stand helpless.
When the modern Sykes gets W unis
I door he looks around for the nearest
\ electric light wire. So many are at
I hand in the Office building of every
large city that it is very easy to dis
cover one 1t may be necessary to tap
! a wire on the roof OF the building or
! a little gymnastic work may be requir-
! ed in connecting the burglars wirewith
the source of the power on a neighbor-
ing pole. All this part Of the plan Of
I campaign and the slight difficulty in
! the way of carrying the power into the
4 room in which the operations are to be-
carried on is in reality the only trouble
some part Of the enterprise.
4 When the burglar has, with rubber
gloved hands, connected the wire with
the source Of electrical supply, he fast
ems one end to the steel hinge of the
safe to make the circuit and, with the
carbon for a boring tool, he proceeds
to drill his way towards the interior
Of the strong box. Before the tremen-
/ dous force Of electric power the bur-
glar is able to bring to bear on the
door OF the safe the tOughened metal
melts away. There is no limit to the
power. The whole electric force of the
strest-lghting department is behind
that white-hot carbon. The burglar
hoe Ha.aaN aN..I.H Hns III l.. Al.
towns dynamOs to enable him to crack
the safe scientifically, easily and with
1 comparative safety to himself. Having
T drilled one hole where he wants it, he
bores another and another until the
vicinity Of the lock is riddled like a
sieve and the bars and bolts drop from
their useless sockets, leaving the bur
glar free access to the contents of the
safe
All this might be ridiculed as ro-
{ nance, were it not for the fact that a
4 safe has actually been robbed in the
5 Identical manner described. The bur
r glar had covered up his tracks nicely
D and the detectives and safe experts
We're atfrst puzzled to know what new
trick they were confronted by. When
j. they discovered that the burglar had
utilized the electric light supply to
: bore his way 10 the interior OF the safe
they stood aghast Well they might
f0r this means OF reaching the re-
posing place of the Office valuables is
provided in every business establish
ment and it looks as though the safe
breaker had played a card that could
not be beaten. II looks so still. The
key OF the safe can be under the pillow
of fha haad of tho Arm huf who cau
lock up this new key that opens every
strong box? The safe-makers must gel
to work again.