Structures.
Year: 1886

page_text: Date of Application, 19th Nov., 1886.
Complete Left, 29th July, 1887.
Complete Accepted, 30th Aug., 1887.
and Structures.
I GEORGE ALLAN of Corngreaves Hall in the County of Stafford Iron Master do
hereby declare the nature of this Invention to be as follows:-
My invention has reference principally to the doors of safes and strong rooms and
has for its object to render the said doors proof against drills or boring instruments.
My improvements are however also applicable to other parts of safes and strong
rooms and to other articles and structures where great strength and security against
burglars is required.
I will describe my invention as applied to the door of a safe. I take two or more
plates of sheet steel the said steel being of a quality that will readily harden by the
ordinary hardening process. I form in each of the said plates a series of slots parallel
to each other and to two opposite edges of the plate I make the said slots preferably
equidistant. A series of small slots in the same line may also be formed parallel
to the other two edges of the plate and between the ends of the larger slots and the
edges of the plate.
In making these steel plates I arrange the slots differently in the several plates so
that when two or more of the said plates are placed upon one another the slots in the
different plates "break joint" that is opposite each of the slots in one plate an unslotted
portion of the next plate is situated.
Two three or more of the said plates are supported at a short distance apart in the
mould in which the safe door is to be cast the said plates being supported parallel to
each other and to the sides of the mould against which the inner and outer faces of the
door are to be cast.
The mould being filled with melted mild steel there is formed a safe door consisting
mainly of mild steel having embedded in it a series of the plates described the slots in
each of which filled with the mild steel "break joint" with the slots in the other
plates.

page_text: The safe door thus formed is subjected to a hardening process that is to say it is
heated to bright redness and quenched in cold water the embedded slotted plates are
thereby hardened and the door is rendered proof against the action of a drill or
boring instrument.
The object of the slots in the said steel plates is to permit of the ready flow of the
mild steel around every part of the said plates in the casting process and thereby
to produce a sound or compact casting having no hollows or unfilled interstices.
Instead of plates of steel having parallel slots a series of flat bars placed a short
distance apart may be used with the same or nearly the same effect.
I prefer
however to use perforated plates as described excepting in special cases where it may
be more convenient to use flat bars.
My improvements in the doors of safes as described may be applied to the sides or
walls of safes and other articles and structures where great strength combined with
security against the action of drills or boring instruments is required such modification
being made as the particular purpose to which my improvements are to be applied
render necessary or desirable.
Dated this Nineteenth day of November 1886.

page_text: Improvements in Safes and Strong Rooms and other like Articles
and Structures.
I GEORGE ALLAN of Corngreaves Hall in the County of Stafford, Iron Master, do
hereby declare the nature of my Invention and in what manner the same is to be
performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
My invention has reference principally to the doors of safes and strong rooms and
has for its object to render the said doors proof against drills or boring instruments.
My improvements are however also applicable to other parts of safes and strong
rooms and to other articles and structures where great strength and security against
burglars is required.
I will describe my invention as applied to the door of a safe. I take two or more
plates of sheet steel the said steel being of a quality that will readily harden by the
ordinary hardening process. I form in each of the said plates a series of slots parallel
to each other and to two opposite edges of the plate. I make the said slots preferably
equi distant. A series of small slots in the same line may also be formed parallel to
the other two edges of the plate and between the ends of the larger slots and the edges
of the plate.
In making these steel plates I arrange the slots differently in the several plates so
that when two or more of the said plates are placed upon one another the slots in the
different plates "break joint," that is, opposite each of the slots in one plate an
unslotted portion of the next plate is situated.
Two three or more of the said plates are supported at a short distance apart in the
mould in which the safe door is to be cast the said plates being supported parallel to
each other and to the sides of the mould against which the inner and outer faces of
the door are to be cast.
The mould being filled with melted mild steel there is formed a safe door consisting
mainly of mild steel having embedded in it a series of the plates described the slots in
each of which filled with the mild steel "break joint" with the slots in the other
plates.
The safe door thus formed is subjected to a hardening process, that is to say, it is
heated to bright redness and quenched in cold water; the embedded slotted plates are
thereby hardened and the door is rendered proof against the action of a drill or boring
instrument.
The object of the slots in the said steel plates is to permit of the ready flow of the
mild steel around every part of the said plates in the casting process and thereby to
produce a sound or compact casting having no hollows or unfilled interstices.
Instead of plates of steel having parallel slots a series of flat bars placed a short
distance apart may be used with the same or nearly the same effect. I prefer however
to use perforated plates as described excepting in special cases where it may be more
convenient to use flat bars.

page_text: My improvements in the doors of safes as described may be applied to the sides or
walls of safes and other articles and structures where great strength combined with
socurity against the action of drills or boring instruments is required such modification
being made as the particular purpose to which my improvements are to be applied
renders necessary or desirable.
I will now proceed to describe with reference to the accompanying Drawings the
manner in which my invention is to be performed.
Figure 1 represents in section the door of a safe made according to my invention
and Figure 2 also represents a section of the same, the section Figure 1 being taken
in a plane parallel to the face of the door, that is on the line A A Figure 2 and the
section Figure 2 being taken in a plane at right angles to that in which the section
Figure 1 is taken, that is, the section Figure 2 is taken on the line B B Figure 1.
a, a, a are three plates of hard steel the said steel being of a quality that will readily
harden by the ordinary hardening process. A series of long parallel slots b, b, b is
made in each of the said plates a, a, a the slots being preferably parallel to two
opposite edges of the door. Two other series of short slots c, c are also made in the
hard steel plates a, a, a the said short slots c, c being at right angles to the slots b, b
and occupying
those portions of the plates a, a, a between the ends of the slots 6 and
the opposed edges of the plates. I make the said slots b, b as well as the slots c, c
preferably equidistant and I arrange them differently in the several plates so that
when they are placed one above the other the slots in the several plates break joint,
that is, opposite each of the slots in one plate an unslotted portion of the next plate is
situated as will be understood by reference to the section Figure 2.
In casting the door Figures 1 and 2 the plates a, a, a are supported at a short
distance apart in the mould in which the safe door is to be cast, the said plates being
supported parallel to each other and to the sides of the mould against which the inner
and outer faces of the door are to be cast. In Figure 2 I have represented the door
of a safe in which three of the slotted plates are employed but I do not limit myself to
any particular number of the said plates.
When the mould in which the door is cast and in which the parallel slotted
plates a, a, a are supported is filled with melted mild steel, the said melted steel running
through the slots in the said plates a, a, a and filling the mould the said plates become
embedded in the mild steel and a safe door is produced consisting mainly of mild steel
but having embedded in it slotted plates of hard steel the slots in which break joint.
The safe door thus made being subjected to a hardening procees, that is, being
heated to redness and quenched in cold water the embedded slotted plates are
hardened and the door is rendered proof against the action of a drill or boring
instrument. The cast mild steel is indicated in Figures 1 and 2 by the letter d and
the embedded hard steel plates by the letter a. The way in which the melted mild
steel when poured into the mould runs through the slots in the hard steel plates a, a, a,
filling the mould and embedding the plates in the said cast mild steel, will be best
understood by an examination of Figure 2. In Figure 1 the plain parts of the said
figure represent the top steel plate of the series, the portions of Figure 1. having section
lines representing the slots in the said plates filled with the cast mild steel.
In Figures 3 and 4 I have represented a box safe without its door in which flat
bars placed at a short distance apart are substituted for the perforated plates herein-
before described excepting at the back of the safe or the side of the safe opposite to
the door.
Figure 3 is a horizontal section and Figure 4 a vertical section of the same, the
line A A Figure 4 indicating the direction in which the section Figure 3 is taken.
In making the said box safe I construct a mould in sand or other refractory
material or of iron, the said mould having a core which forms the internal space of
the safe, the outer walls y, y, y, y of the mould being sufficiently far from the sides of
the core to leave a space equal to the required thickness of the walls of the safe. The
metal cast in this space constitutes the walls or sides of the safe. Within the mould I
fix either by supporting on or attaching to the core or walls of the mould a series of
very hard steel bars e, e which are so arranged as to permit a ready flow of molten

page_text: metal. The said bars being arranged to break joint prevent the penetration of the
walls of the finished safe by a drill or boring tool. In Figure 3, ƒ and g are
perforated hard steel plates and the hard steel bars e, e are riveted or otherwise
fastened at one end to either of the hard steel plates for g, their other ends resting
upon the core of the safe at h, h, h, h. The plate g through which the hard steel bars e, e
are not riveted may be supported in the mould by attachment to the other plate f
or by projections from the walls of the mould or core. The holes or slots in the
plate g do not come opposite those in the plate fand therefore at no point can a drill
penetrate through the wall of the safe in which they are placed.
By reference to the section Figure 4 it will be seen that the hard flat bars e, e and
the angle bars k, k are also so arranged as to prevent the penetration of a drill through
the walls or sides of the safe at any point.
The peculiarity of the perforations in the plate 9 Figure 3 I will hereinafter
describe.
I do not confine myself to this form or arrangement of bars or plates but may vary
them in any other way to attain the desired object, namely to prevent the penetration
by a drill or boring instrument of the whole or any part of a cast safe or other
structure and I may attach them one to the other or support them in the mould in any
of the ways described herein or included in the accompanying Drawings or in the
specification of the patent granted to myself and Thomas Turner entitled "Appliances
for producing ingots compounded of iron or steel" No. 12615 dated October 21st
1.885.
In Figures 5 and 6, a box safe is represented, Figure 5 being a horizontal section
taken through the line A A in Figure 6 and Figure 6 a vertical section taken in a
plane parallel to the door of the safe. In each of the sides of the safe Figures 5 and 6
a single perforated hard steel plate is used the said plate being so perforated that a
single plate being embedded in the side of the safe makes the said side impenetrable
to a drill or boring tool whilst the character of the perforations is such as to permit
the soft steel forming the walls of the safe passing through them from one side of the
hard steel plate to the other side of the said plate.
In the said Figures 5 and 6 the perforated steel plates are marked l. The character
of the perforations in the said plates will be best understood by an examination of
the sections Figures 7 and 8, the said sections being taken at right angles to one
another. By means of a punch of the kind represented in Figure 9, a series of
depressions is made in the plate those sides of the depressions made by the inclined
sides of the punch being continuous as seen in Figure 7 but the sides of the depressions
made by the parallel sides of the punch are open. In other words the inclined sides
of the punch depress but do not cut the metal plate while the parallel sides of the
punch descending vertically and operating on the plate at right angles thereto effect
the cutting of the metal. The resulting depression consequently is open at the
sides m, m and the melted steel in the process of casting can readily pass through the
openings m, m from one side of the plate to the other side thoroughly embedding
the said plate in the cast steel as represented in Figures 5 and 6. The arrows in
Figure 8 indicate the passages through which the melted steel passes in the casting
process.
g
In place of the perforated plate last described with reference to Figures 5. 6. 7. 8
and 9, a plate of the kind represented at 9 in Figure 3 may be employed. In this
plate a series of tongues is cut in the said plate, the said tongues being depressed out
of the plane of the plate to a sufficient depth to permit the melted steel in the process
of casting to pass from one side of the plate to the other side. A single plate of this
kind embedded in the walls or door of a safe prevents the passage of a drill or boring
instrument.
The plate g Figure may either be used alone or combined with the other per-
forated steel plates or bars.
Although I have described the door and walls of safes in which the plates or bars of
hard steel are embedded as being made of cast mild steel yet other kinds of cast steel
or cast iron may be employed as I do not limit myself to any particular kind of cast

page_text: steel or iron. And although I have described the cast door or body of the safe as
being subjected to a hardening process yet some kinds of steel are not softened or
only partly softened by the heat employed in the casting process and when the plates
or bars are made of such steel the hardening process may be dispensed with as the
said plates or bars remain sufficiently hard after the casting process to resist drills or
boring instruments.
Instead of embedding the perforated steel plates or bars in the doors or sides of the
safes or structures, slabs or thick plates made in the manner herein before described
and represented with respect to the door and body of a safe may be used for lining
safes and other like structures by being fixed by riveting or otherwise in the interiors
of the said safes or structures.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my invention and
the manner in which the same is to be performed I declare that I claim as my
invention
First. Making the doors and sides of safes and strong rooms and other like articles
and structures of mild cast steel or other cast steel or cast iron in which cast steel or
iron are embedded by the casting process, two or more parallel perforated hard steel
plates, the said perforated plates being so arranged that the slots in them shall break
joint, the said doors and sides of the safes, articles or structures being subjected after
the casting process to a hardening process when the said plates are made of steel
which, is softened by the casting process substantially as herein before described and
illustrated in Figures 1 and 2 of the accompanying Drawings.
Secondly. Making the doors and sides of safes and strong rooms and other like
articles and structures of mild cast steel or other cast steel or cast iron in which cast
steel or iron are embedded by the casting process two or more series of parallel bars
of hard steel, the said bars being so arranged that the spaces between the bars of one
series shall break joint with the spaces between the bars of the adjacent series, the said
doors and sides of the safes, articles or structures being subjected after the casting
process to a hardening process when the said bars are made of steel which is softened
by the casting process substantially as hereinbefore described and illustrated in
Figures 3 and 4 of the accompanying Drawings.
Thirdly. Making the doors and sides of safes and strong rooms and other like
articles and structures of mild cast steel or other cast steel or cast iron in which cast
steel or iron is embedded by the casting process a single perforated steel plate of the kinds
hereinbefore described and illustrated with reference to Figures 5. 6. 7. 8 and 9 of the
accompanying Drawings; also the modification of the perforated plate marked g in
Figure 3 of the accompanying Drawings alone or in combination with slotted steel
plates or a series of steel bars.
1000