IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF SAFES, STRONG ROOMS, AND OTHER SIMILAR DEPOSITORIES, AND IN THE LOCKS THEREOF
Year: 1865

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Antoine Grivel at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 9th December
1865.
I, ANTOINE GRIVEL, the younger, of King's Road, Chelsea, in the County
of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF SAFES, STRONG ROOMS, AND OTHER SIMILAR
DEPOSITORIES, AND IN THE LOCKS THEREOF," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object, first, a better and more effectual method
of securing the doors of safes, strong rooms, and other similar depositories to
the surrounding sides, frames, or cases thereof than heretofore; secondly, to
prevent the doors being bored or perforated through by instruments; and,
thirdly, an improved method of constructing the locks of such said depositories
so as to ensure the said locks against being picked or opened by other
instruments than the proper keys thereof.
The following are examples of the means by which I propose to effect the
above-mentioned objects:-First, as regards the mode of securing the doors
to the surrounding sides, frames, or cases of the safe or depository, the same
may be effected according to this Invention as follows, and I would here
remark that the description of lock we propose to employ in combination with
the mechanism which we shall presently describe is a lock without a key, and'
for which Letters Patent, bearing date the 7th February, A.D. 1868,
numbered 347, were granted to me the said Antoine Grivel and Claude
Parigot. I employ a lock of the above construction in combination with the

page_text: following mechanism, that is to say, according to the present Invention I
employ four or more bolts, each taking into one of the four sides of the case or
frame of the safe, strong room, or other depository. These bolts are put in
motion simultaneously by an excentric mounted on a rod which occupies the
position that a key would; upon the said rod tubes of metal are placed one
over the other, and to the under part of each of such said tubes three discs of
metal are fixed, two of which are serrated on their edges in opposite direc-
tions; the third of the aforesaid discs, which is situated between the two other
dises, is loose, and has a groove or slot in which takes a projecting piece fixed
on each of the bolts each time the door of the depository is opened, there
being as many of such said projecting pieces as there are discs in the lock.
Upon the outer ends of the aforesaid tubes which carry the discs are placed
index hands pointing to a circular line of numerals as described in the former.
Specification of the Patent of the 7th February 1863 aforesaid. By the
above means the sides of the case or frame of the safe, strong room, or other
depository are securely connected to the door thereof in such a manner as to
prevent the sides being separated from the door by levers or wedges; the
bolts being so formed as to take or hook either into holes in the inside of the
case of the safe or into projecting pieces of metal joined or otherwise con-
nected thereto; or instead of the foregoing arrangement projecting pieces of
metal may be fixed inside the door, and as the door closes the said pieces bo
made to enter holes made in the inside of the safe crosswise of the bolts.
Another method consists in fixing catches or studs in holes or to the sides
of the safe, so that as the bolts of the lock are shot out in the act of locking
the said bults coming into contact with the said catches or studs will securely
connect such said pieces to the several bolts of the lock, and thus prevent the
sides being separated from the door.
I now proceed to describe the means by which I propose to prevent the
perforation of the doors of safes, strong rooms, or other like depositories, as
follows:-I propose to adapt either between the inner and outer plates of
metal of which the door is formed, or on the outside thereof, a plate of tem-
pered steel cut similar to a file, the effect of which is to destroy the edge of
any tool which comes into contact therewith, and thereby to effectually prevent
perforation of the metal of which the door of the safe is composed; and this
applies to every portion of safes, whether constructed according to this
Invention or otherwise.
Another feature in this Invention relates to locks constructed with and
without keys, and consists in constructing such said locks with a new kind of
bolt formed with two prongs somewhat similar to the escapement used in

page_text: timepieces, the bent ends thereof taking alternately into notches formed in the
edges of the discs before mentioned at opposite points thereof or otherwise;
the axis of motion of the aforesaid bolt being upon a pin suitably placed.
Thus it will be seen that by employing one of such said bolts to each of the
several discs employed a very extensive combination may be produced, and
further by having two, three, or more keys differently formed, one key may
be used to disengage some of the aforesaid bolts from their respective discs,
and the other keys from their respective discs, thus requiring, if necessary,
several keys to open the lock, or one key only may be made to operate upon
all the bolts and dises as may be desired; the security of this lock consisting
in the nicety of movement of the aforesaid bolts to keep the hooked ends
thereof out of the notches of the discs at the same time, without which lock
cannot be opened.
Another feature in this Invention consists in employing one or more curved
hooked bolts mounted on the same axis as that on which the discs are
mounted. These bolts may be actuated either by the arrangements previously
described with reference to the keyless lock above mentioned, or by means of
a key, the mechanism operating so as to throw the hooked ends of the afore-
said curved bolts into curved grooves formed in the edges of the case of the
safe, strong room, or other depository, thus preventing the possibility of
separating the sides from the door thereof.