The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-12
Plainfield. N. J., May 31, 1911


 To the Editor of Harpers Weekly: SIR-The article in IIarper's Weekly
 of May 13, 1911, "Safemaker vs. 0 Safebreaker," gives such an erron- eous idea of the present state of the art of securing treasure that it ought not to pass unanswered.
 There are safes and safes. One safe may really be burglar-proof or liquid tight, while another may be untruthfuly called so. Because of the fact that the great majority of safes are never at tackled by burglars a chance is afforded for unlimited misrepresentation regard ing safe on the assumption that, once it is installed, however poor or weak 1t may be, the lack of security it affords will never be revealed by burglarious at tack. Many comparatively new safes now in use, made of poor, cheap materials and of incorrect design, await only the attack of a skilled burglar for them and their whole class to be discredited Yet their owners believe them to be good even though they were low-priced.
 Resistance to fire and resistance to bur glars call for such different properties that in this country, in places where con- siderable treasure is kept, they are not usually sought to be established in the same structure. A brick or concrete wall is the best protection against fire and a high-grade steel safe or vault the best against burglars or mobs. When such a safe is located within or surrounded by such walls it's contents are safe.
 The burglars aids, with which the criminal brain" threatens a bankers money, may be considered briefly in de- tail.
 We come first to nitroglycerin, the greatest friend the burglar has. It is not too much to say that of all dangers which money faces from burglars, this one aid represents from 95 to 99 per cent. It is very unusual to hear of safe burglary accomplished by any other means. The liquid explosive is readily extracted from dynamite. which may be bought or stolen in nearly every country town, and a safe to resist attack made with it by a skilled cracksman must be of good ma ierial and workmanship.
 There are certain imaginary dangers, as I may call them, which, while appear ing formidable in certain aspects, have never been used In consummating safe burglary. The burglars have done noth- ing with these imaginary aids, nor have they contributed anything toward demonstrating their importance. In fact, they do not seem to be aware of them. Such aids are chiefly or wholly the off, spring of the scientific brain imag- ming what it would do under certain hy- pothet1cal conditions. Of these "imag- mary aids" the methods for generating high heat are those most generally feared. As for electricity. the fusion of metals by electric current has been known over loo years, strong currents have been com mon for 90 years, and the possibility of burglarizing safes or vaults by their use has been widely advertised for the past 15 years; yet not one dollar has been stolen from safe by suclr means. Thermit and the oxyacetylene blow pipe are later and pewer, but have not yet cost bank CTS anything except some loss of sleep and the price of devices to defeat attack l made through their use By all of these heating means plates of steel and iron have been perforated in the laboratory, with the production of terrifying exhibits; | but the burglar, fortunately, would have to establish his laboratory at the safe and the difficulties are too great. He sticks to his familiar, compact and ef- | fective nitroglycerin. Attack on a safe 1 by guns, referred to in MT. Nathan's ar ticle, is seriously urged by some as real | possibility of danger which ought to be l guarded against. To show how negligible | is this imaginary danger-which, of course. could in any case be conceivable only as the result of a mob attack-it is only necessary to point out that field ar ltillery, which alone could be used, is never supplied with armor-piercing pro- jectiles or solid sobt. Such artillery is for use against. troops or earthworks, and for such purposes only shell. shrapnel grape and canister are used.
 The quotation, "There is nothing made by the hand of man that cannot he un- made by the hand of man. while true