IMPROVEMENTS IN SAFES AND STRONG ROOMS
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Richard Cromwell Taunton, of the Firm
of John and Joseph Taunton, of Balsall Heath, near Birmingham,
in the County of Warwick, Manufacturers, for the Invention of
“IMPROVEMENTS IN SAFES AND STRONG ROOMS.”
"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Richard Cromwell
Taunton at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 10th December 1873.
I, JOHN RICHARD CROMWELL TAUNTON, of the Firm of John and
Joseph Taunton, of Balsall Heath, near Birmingham, in the County of
Warwick, Manufacturers, 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 improvements herein-after described in.
the construction of safes and strong rooms, the object of my said im-
provements being to frustrate the attempts of burglars to open the safe
or strong room by drilling.

page_text: My Invention is especially applicable to the protection of the keyhole
of the safe or strong room, but is also applicable to the whole of the door
or other parts of the safe or strong room.
I will describe my Invention as applied to the protection of the
keyhole of the door of a safe or strong room. At the back of the door of
the safe are two parallel plates of iron or steel, and between the said
plates and around the keyhole I arrange four or other number of hard
steel circular discs, the axes of the said dises turning freely in holes or
bearings in the said parallel plates of the door. The said loose discs are
so arranged that when the key is introduced into the keyhole a portion
of the periphery of each disc comes nearly into contact with the stem or
barrel of the key. When a burglar attacks the safe by drilling at the
keyhole, immediately the drill has enlarged the keyhole so much that
the said drill reaches the said discs, the action of the drill comes to an
end, for in its rotation it bears against the peripheries of the rotating
discs and carries them round without cutting them away, and the
further progress of the drill is arrested. I prefer to make the said loose
or rotating discs and their axes solid, that is, of one piece of steel, and I
harden the said discs to a point short of that which would make them
brittle and liable to fracture by percussion.
In order to make the whole of the door or other part of the safe or
strong room drill proof, according to my Invention, I fill the space
between the double walls of the door or other part of the safe with loose
or rotating steel discs of the kind described, that is to say, I arrange in
parallel rows a series of large discs as close together as will permit them
to freely rotate, and in the spaces left between the peripheries of the said
large discs I place smaller discs. If the burglar's drill enter the space
between the said dises the said drill comes in contact with the peripheries
of the said discs and turns them round without cutting them away.
When the drill comes against the face of one of the discs it also produces
rotation, and the drilling of the safe is frustrated.
Instead of making the discs in one piece with their axes they may be
made of separate pieces, and the discs may be used without axes.
Instead of making the discs of steel they may be made of iron or
other metal, but with less effect than when made of steel.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Richard Cromwell Taunton in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 8th June 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
RICHARD CROMWELL TAUNTON, of the Firm of John and Joseph
Taunton, of Balsall Heath, near Birmingham, in the County of Warwick,.
Manufacturers, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Tenth day of December, 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 John Richard Cromwell Taunton, Her special
license that I, the said John Richard Cromwell Taunton, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John Richard
Cromwell Taunton, 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 King-
dom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of
Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SAFES AND STRONG Rooms," upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said John Richard Cromwell
Taunton, 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 John Richard Cromwell Taunton,
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
the construction of safes and strong rooms, the object of my said im-

page_text: provements being to frustrate the attempts of burglars to open the safe
or strong room by drilling.
י
My Invention is especially applicable to the protection of the keyhole
of the safe or strong room, but is also applicable to the whole of the
door or other parts of the safe or strong room.
I will describe my Invention as applied to the protection of the
keyhole of the safe or strong room. At the back of the door of the safe
are two parallel plates of iron or steel (the door itself may form the
front plate), and between the said plates and around the keyhole I
arrange four or other number of hard steel circular disks, the axes of the
said disks turning freely in holes or bearings in the said parallel plates of
the door. The said loose disks are so arranged that when the key is
introduced into the keyhole a portion of the periphery of each disk
comes nearly into contact with the stem or barrel of the key. When a
burglar attacks the safe by drilling at the keyhole, immediately the
drill has enlarged the keyhole so much that the said drill reaches the
said disks the action of the drill comes to an end, for in its rotation it
bears against the peripheries of the rotating disks and carries them
round without cutting them away, and the further progress of the drill
is arrested. I prefer to make the said loose or rotating disks and their
axes solid, that is of one piece of steel, and I harden the said disks to a
point short of that which would make them brittle and liable to fracture
by percussion.
.
In order to make the whole of the door or other part of the safe or
strong room drill proof, according to my Invention, I fill the space
between the double walls of the door or other part of the safe with loose
or rotating steel disks of the kind described, that is to say, I arrange in
parallel rows a series of large disks as close together as will permit them
to freely rotate, and in the spaces left between the peripheries of the
said large disks I place smaller disks. If the burglar's drill enter the
space between the said disks the said drill comes in contact with the
peripheries of the said disks and turns them round without cutting them
away. When the drill comes against the face of one of the disks it
also produces rotation, and the drilling of the safe is frustrated.
Instead of making the disks in one piece with their axes they may be
made of separate pieces, and the disks may be used without axes.

page_text: Instead of making the disks of steel they may be made of iron or
other metal, but with less effect than when made of steel.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawing represents in front elevation
and Figure 2 in end elevation a part of a door of a safe or strong room
made drill proof according to my Invention; Figure 3 represents the
the same with the front plate removed; Figure 4 is a vertical section of
the same taken on the line a, Figure 3; and Figure 5 is a horizontal
section of the same taken on the line 6, Figure 3.
In the Drawing I have represented a series of loose or rotating disks,
some with and others without axes. Around the keyhole c of the door
are four circular disks d (one of which is shown separately in Figure 6)
of hard steel or other metal, the said disks having such a thickness that
they nearly fill the space between the plates e, f, of the door or part of
the door, the said disks being free to rotate in the said space. The
disks dare provided with axes d² (one of which is shown in Figure 7)
supported in the plates e, f; the said axes d³ may either be solid with or
connected to the disks so as to turn with them, or the disks may be loose
on their axes, the said axes being fixed in the plates e, f. The other
large disks g, g, surrounding the middle disks d, d, are without axes, the
said disks filling up the space between the two plates e, f, of the door.
In the spaces between the large disks d and 9 small rotating discs h
are placed. The action of the said loose or rotating discs when the
burglar's drill is applied to them has been herein-before stated, and will
be readily understood by an examination of the Drawing.
Rotating disks of the kinds described and represented may be applied
to the whole of the door or other parts of the safe or strong room to
protect it or them from being drilled.
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
claim as my Invention, the improvements in protecting safes and strong
rooms from being drilled. herein-before described and illustrated in the

page_text: or rotating disks, the said disks being combined and arranged and acting
substantially as described and illustrated.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Richard Cromwell Taunton,
have hereunto set my hand and seal, the Fourth day of June,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
four.
Witness,
JOHN RICHARD CROMWELL TAUNTON. (L.S.)
HENRY SKERRETT,
Clerk to George Shaw,
Birmingham.