THE SCIENTIFIC BURGLAR.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXII, Issue 8949, 15 October 1907, Page 4

THE SCIENTIFIC BURGLAR.

Some little time ago a burglar I made use of electricity in an attempt on the strong-room of a Sydney bank. Now it is reported that a burglar in Dresden opened a safe with, the aid of a blowpipe, a cylinder of compressed oxygen, and an acetylene generator. The operation was really a masterpiece. The burglar secured a room in an hotel above the office of a money exchanger. At night ho cut a hole in the floor. Under the boarding was a layer of cemeut. He made a small hole in the layer and pushed an umbrella through, which when opened received noiselessly the fragments of cement dislodged as the hole was made large enough to allow the operator to pass through. Then he lowered his apparatus, and before the intense heat of the blowpipe flame the door of the safe fused like lead in an ordinary gas jet. The burglar took the contents of the safe and disappeared without leaving a trace. The American Consul at Chemnitz who reports the burglary, foresees a duel between the safemaker and the safe-breaker, in which the former may be compelled to use most drastic measures. Dsvices may be introduced which, after a certain hour, will make it a fatal or physically impossible to remain near a safe when the door is tampered with. The volatilisation of a few drops of certain chemical would cause profuse weeping, and ultimately blindness, the breaking ot a tube of liquid ammonia would compel the burglar to withdraw under the ueril of suffocation, an apparatus for the generation of prussic acid would kill him instantly. However, it appears that English safe-makers some time ago | foresaw the use of oxygen blowpipes, i and constructed safes to withstand it land thermite. According to a famous I English maker, safes guaranteed against such attacks have been on the market for some years. One was tested by a clever burglar m the ' South of" Trance, who after working iit from Saturday till Monday, gave *up the task in disgust. This firm i recently received an order for a safe I that would withstand anything for ' a fortnight, and the contract was I accepted with the utmost confidence, j "Of course, safe-breaking is purely a I question of time. You can break ! any safe if you have plenty ot ,'machinery, but it might take a I month. Safes can certainly be conf structed to withstand anything during a reasonable period of time."