IMPROVEMENTS IN SAFES AND STRONG ROOMS
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Geering, of Birmingham, in the County
of Warwick, Safe and Metallic Bedstead Manufacturer, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN SAFES AND STRONG ROOMS.”
Sealed the 3rd February 1874, and dated the 10th October 1873.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Geering at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
10th October 1873.
I, HENRY GEERING, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick,
Safe and Metallic Bedstead Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SAFES AND STRONG ROOMS," to
be as follows :-
-
My Invention consists of the improveinents herein-after described in
safes and strong rooms, the object of my Invention being to wholly
prevent or to impede the drilling of the door of the safe or strong room

page_text: for the purpose of obtaining access to the lock of the door, and also
to prevent the drilling of other parts of the safe or strong room. This
object I effect by arranging at the back of the door and in front of the
lock or at any other required part a series of cylindrical steel rods or
bars, the said steel rods or bars being carried by a framing or bearing
picces in which the ends of the said steel rods or bars are supported and
in which they are capable of freely rotating. The said rotating steel
rods or bars are arranged side by side and as near together as is
compatible with their perfect freedom of motion excepting immediately
in front of the keyhole in the door, at which part a space is left for the
passage of the key to the lock. One or two series of the said rotating
steel rods or bars may be employed. When I use two series the
axes of one series may cross the axes of the other series or be parallel
therewith.
Instead of cylindrical rotating steel bars flat or angular rotating bars
may be employed.
When the door of a safe or strong room is provided with my Invention
the drill after it has drilled through the plate of the door comes against
one or more of the rotating steel bars, which bar or bars by the pressure
of the drill turn on their axes and move from under the drill, thus
preventing the drill obtaining a bearing upon them. By this means the
drill is made incapable of operating upon the rotating bar or bars situated
in front of the lock, and access to the said lock for picking or destroying
the same thereby effectually prevented.
For still greater security a plate of hardened steel or chilled cast iron
may be fixed in front of the rotating steel bars. The said plate of
hardened steel or chilled cast iron is perforated with angular perforations
or is provided with ribs or projections on the face turned towards the
outside of the safe. By the said angular perforations or ribs or
projections the drill of a burglar is so much injured or broken before it
can reach the rotating steel bars as to be almost inoperative.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Henry Geering in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 4th April 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
GEERING, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Safe and Metallic
Bedstead Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Tenth day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the thirty-seventh⚫
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said Henry Geering, Her special license that I,:
the said Henry Geering, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said Henry Geering, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to
time and at all times thereafter during the term therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands,
and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SAPES AND STRONG
Rooms," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Henry
Geering, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly
describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed
in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Henry Geering, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
My Invention consists of the improvements herein-after described in
safes and strong rooms, the object of my Invention being to wholly
prevent or to impede the drilling of the door of the safe or strong room
for the purpose of obtaining access to the lock of the door, and also.
to prevent the drilling of other parts of the safe or strong room. This
object I effect by arranging at the back of the door and in front of the
lock or at any other required part a series of cylindrical steel rods or

page_text: bars, the said steel rods or bars being carried by a framing or bearing
pieces in which the ends of the steel rods or bars are supported and in
which they are capable of freely rotating. The said rotating steel rods
or bars are arranged side by side and as near together as is compatible
with their perfect freedom of motion excepting immediately in front of
the keyhole in the door at which part a space is left for the passage of
the key to the lock. One or two series of the said rotating steel rods
or bars may be employed. When I use two series of bars or rods the
axes of one series may cross the axes of the other series or be parallel
therewith.
Instead of cylindrical rotating steel bars flat or angular rotating bars
may be employed.
When the door of a safe or strong room is provided with my Invention
a drill after it has drilled through the plate of the door comes against
one or more of the rotating steel bars, which bar or bars by the pressure
of the drill turn on their axes and move from under the drill, thus
preventing the drill obtaining a bearing upon them. By this means the
drill is made incapable of operating upon the rotating bar or bars
situated in front of the lock and access to the said lock for picking or
destroying the same thereby effectualy prevented.
For still greater security a plate of hardened steel or chilled cast iron
may be fixed in front of the rotating steel bars. The said plate of
hardened steel or chilled cast iron is perforated with angular perforations
or is provided with ribs or projections on the face turned towards the
outside of the safe. By the said angular perforations or ribs or
projections the drill of the burglar is so much injured or broken before it
can reach the rotating steel bars as to be almost inoperative.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawing represents in perspective a
safe, the door of which is provided with mechanism constructed according
to my Invention for preventing the drilling of the said door and gaining
access to the lock.
Figure 2 is a horizontal section of the safe door drawn to a larger scale,
and Figure 3 is a portion of the same.
a is the door of the safe, and b is the lock of the same; c, c, are the
series of cylindrical steel rods or bars at the back of the door a and in
front of the lock b. These steel rods or bars are carried by or work

page_text: between the framing or bearing plates d, d, secured to the door, and the
ends of the said rods or bars turn in guide plates e secured to the
plates d, d. The construction of the guide plates e in which the rods or
bars c, c, turn is best seen in the detached views of one of the said guide
plates in Figure 3. The said rotating steel rods or bars c, c, are arranged
side by side and at the distance apart best seen in Figure 2. The front
of the keyhole is left clear of the said rods or bars c, c, for the passage
of the key to the lock. The way in which the drill coming in contact
with one or more of the cylindrical rotating rods or bars c, c, causes the
rod or rods to rotate so as to prevent the drill taking a bearing upon
it or them will be understood by an examination of the Drawing.
Figure 4 represents in front elevation, and Figure 5 in vertical
section, the door of a safe provided with two series of rotating steel rods
or bars, one series of horizontal bars or rods marked c³ crossing the other
series of vertical rods marked c. In this arrangement a complete
frame d, d³, is employed for supporting the two series of bars or rods.
The ends of the series of vertical rods c bear against the plates d and
turn in the guide plates e, and the ends of the series of horizontal rods c³
bear against the plates & and turn in the guide plates e². Instead of
making the second series of rotating steel bars cross the axes of the
other series as represented in Figures 4 and 5, the second series of
rotating bars may be situated parallel to the first series.
Although I prefer to employ cylindrical rotating steel bars as
represented in the Drawing yet flat or angular rotating bars may be
employed.
In the Drawing I have represented my Invention applied to the parts
of the safe door situated around the lock, as it is generally the lock which
the burglar attacks by drilling, but the rotating steel rods or bars
constituting the essence of my Invention may be applied to any other
part of the door or to any part of the body of the safe which may require
to be protected against the action of a drill.
My improvements are applicable to strong rooms as well as to safes.
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, I wish it to be understood that I do
not limit myself to the precise details herein described and illustrated as
the same may be varied without departing from the nature of my
Invention, but I claim as my Invention the improvements in safes and

page_text: strong rooms herein-before described and illustrated in the accompanying
Drawing, that is to say, preventing or impeding the drilling of the door
and other parts of safes and strong rooms, by arranging in front of the
part to be protected against drilling, one or more series of cylindrical or
flat or angular steel rods or bars, the several bars or rods being arranged
near together and being capable of freely rotating when pressure is put
upon them, substantially as described and illustrated.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Geering, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of March, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
four.
Witness,
GEORGE SHAW.
HENRY GEERING. (L.S.)