The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1906-05-15
SAFE BREAKERS
Abr 10 Compete With Every Device
Invented by Sciences

Invented by Sciences
One of the most interesting exhibits
OF a police department is its collec-
ton of burglars tools. The imple-
ments used by housebreakers and safe
crackers vary from the crudest of iron
bars to the most delicately fashioned
tools known to steel workers. The in
genuity shown by some of the more
expert yeggmen in fashioning tools to
overcome the best or the locksmiths
art is wonderful
Until the use of time-locks and cleo
trical safety appliances on safes, it
was comparatively easy for the skill
ful safe-cracker to open any safe with
the contrivance for cutting out the
combination or with the lever for tear
ing off locks and plates. The inn
prOvements to be found in all mod
ern safes made the old-fashioned tools
useless. The ingenuity of the yegg
men, however, was more than equal
to that of the safe manufacturer The
invention of nitroglyCerine soup"
which the burglar carries in little
phial in his vest pocket, has provid-
ed capable substitute for his for
mer cumbersome tools. With finely
tempered saws and files he makes a
fine crevice in the safe in which he
inserts the nitroglycerine. A percus-
sion cap fitted outside the crevice is
attached to a little pocket battery,
and the explosion that follows gen.
orally opens the contents of the
strongest safe to the eyes of the bur-
glar
The safety appliances of the mod
ern safe are such that without the
use Of explosives the burglar is prac-
tically helpless. Its use, however,
has added a new element of danger
to his life. Carelessly fitted caps, an
overcharge Of nitroglycerine or a fail
ure to cover the safe properly with
rugs or carpets to deaden the sound,
have all been the undoing of the bur
glar The explosion has either been
SO violent as to destroy the building
or injure the burglar.
Burglary is no longer crude robbing,
but an art The only men who ere
able successfully to overcome the OBJ
stacles of the safemakers and lock-
smiths, and at the same time avoid
the police, are the ones who employ as
much care and thought in their work
as thn SuppeSSfl1l huSinesS man uvba
man who once turned to burglary as
last resort, chose a dark night to
force his way into a store and after
hours of work with files and saws
forced the door from the safe can
no longer succeed. The only men who
succeed in their efforts to open safes
now are the ones who often spend
weeks studying conditions and prepar-
ing their instruments. The resistance
offered by the fine grades of steel used
in safes usually destroys the tools
used to open the locks.
The ingenuity of the safe-cracker
is greater only than that of the bur
glar and sneak thief who depends on
the use of skeleton keys and jimmies
TO make his way past locks and bolts.
The skeleton key can only be used in
picking locks with tumblers.
The most common styles of keys are
made rather thin on the end, which
is bent and has one or two prongs.
The burglars jimmy is often a plain |
iron bar, sharpened at one end that
permits it's insertion beneath a win
dow or at the side of a door. Some
of the professional burglars, however,
carry sectional jimmies that for eff
ficiency are greater than any other
burglar tool manufactured.