FEATS OF SCIENTIFIC BURGLARS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 30, 29 July 1911, Page 10 (Supplement)

FEATS OF SCIENTIFIC BURGLARS.

KEEPING PACE WITH SCIEXGE. Tliu burglar of to-day is as far removed from the Bill Sikes of a generation or two ago as the man who skims through the air with the. speed of a swallow on his aeroplane is removed from his predecessor who risked his holies in a lire balloon. The modern burglar is often a highly-trained man of science, who knows as much of chemistry, the properties of heat, and the resistance of metals as many, a professor.

This startling fact is brought home to us by recent discoveries in London, at the scene of the murder of the three city policemen a short time ago, where a formidable scientific armory was found. This included a cylinder, containing 40ft of oxygen, with a pressure of lTtiOlb to the square imdi, equipped with a gauge, the dial of which registered the amount of gas in the cylinder. There was also a wonderful blow-pipe, of the latest design, capable of fusing the hardest steel; and a cutter-wrench, 3ft long, which which the white-hot metal could be cut as easily as a sardine tin with an opener.

Such are some of the formidable weapons with which the up-to-date burglar plies his nefarious trade; and these are by no means the most rcjnarkahlc weapons in his armory. During 'the last century the fight* between the safemaker and the safebreaker lias been waged incessantly, and every step which the one has advanced has been quickly, overcome by the other. The strong oak, box, clamped with iron and provided with most formidable hasps and locks, had to give way to the all-iron- box, which was guaranteed dire and burglar proof. The safe-breaker's reply to this was a tiny hand-drill, which speedily cut holes all round the lock in the iron door. The thickness of the iron sides and door of the safe was then increased, and stronger locks and hinges were introduced. But the burglar merely smiled. With his blowpipe he could make the iron as easy almost to cut through as butter. • Again the safemaker took up the challenge. He substituted steel for iron, ami introduced double doors, locks and hinges. The" steel plates were made of exceptional hardness and toughness, able to resist the vastly-improved drills and jemmies of the burglar. The burglar merely smiled again. "There is no such' thing as a burglar-proof safe," he chuckled; and, to prove it, he met the challenge with a small pinch of nitroglycerine, scientifically applied and exploded. It was even easier than the obsolete method of the drill. Again the safemaker took up the gauntlet, determined to baffle the enemy at last. He thought he had solved the problem by producing a five-ply welded plate, consisting of five welded layers of steel—the two outer layers of tough steel, file next two of hard steel, and the centre a somewhat thicker layer of tough steel. "At last I have done it!" he exclaimed, in his pride. Once more the burglar smiled. His answer took the form of a retort, carbon, a few yards of electric-light wire, a pair of black-eyed glasses, and a plate pierced in the middle. He attached two wires to the nearest electric wires; one he fastened to the safe and flie other to the end of the carbon stick. He then inserted the carbon through the hole In the plate, to protect himself against the intense heat and glare, and a voltaic arc of immence power between the carbon point and the metal of the 3afe was produced, melting the metal with surprising ease. In imagination the outwitted safemaker could see his rival, the burglar, melting holes around the safe lock almost as fast as he could count, and laughing at the easiness of the task.

The newest safety vaults are of the "battleship" type, with Bin armor plates and 12in doors, marvels »f strength and ingenuity, in which the joists of the plates are dovetailed and made additionally tight with wedging strips arid kep pieces. But even these formidable vaults are not proof against the scientific burglar, who has now enlisted in his service that terrible explosive, thermite, which, it is said, nothing made by human hands can resist.