A “SAFE” SAFE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 November 1938, Page 4

A “SAFE” SAFE

TRIBUTE OF A CRACKSMAN IMPREGNABLE VAULTS. MANUFACTURER v. BURGLAR. When the morning post of a famous ' London firm of safe-makers was open- , ed the secretary came upon one letter without name or address. It was written in a neat, well-educated hand- . writing, and it read as follows: — ’ “It may interest you to know that I have just spent a whole weekend trying to open one of your safes. Now I’ve decided to go straight, for there’s more money to be made out of sweeping roads than trying to open safes nowadays.” Such was the tribute from a sporting cracksman to the men who have beaten him. There are more than 6,00 C skilled men in Great Britain engaged in making new and burglar-proof safes, and some specimens of their work can defy the world’s cleveresi crook. Such is the present stage in a war that has been going on between safemaker and ever since the invention of safes, as we know them, about 100 years ago. Those early safes were primitive affairs, and crooks soon found they could wrench off the backs, knock out the rivets, or break the hinges in pieces. As the makers discovered new ways of outwitting the cracksman, so the crooks developed new tricks. When locks became unpickable the burglar used drill and cutter. The defenders of property then produced an undrillable steel, but the resourceful crook resorted to packing explosives (nitroglycerine) into the locks and door crevices to blow the safe open. The next stage was the explosionproof door. Instead of a lock with the conventional keyhole, makers devised the combination lock, with which went a compressing gear which tightened the door into its crevice and made it almost impossible to see the joins in the steel. The crook, however, now used an oxy-acetylene blow-pipe. With this it was easy to cut through several inches of steel. THE LAST WORD. But the safe-makers have the last word. One of the wonders of recent construction is a revolving safe. This is sphere-shaped and inside is an electric motor which whirls the safe round immediately the door is closed. Thus the burglar has no chance to concentrate on any one spot for a long enough period to cut through the metal. Recently Chubbs demonstrated a new safe made of a special alloy. If a cracksman tried to break this open he would have to devote a whole weekend, and at the end of that time he would probably have cut through half an inch of metal —that is, if he were free to make as much noise as he liked. This safe • can defy not only the burglar, but also fire. At the demonstration of its resisting powers the safe was heated in a furnace for over two hours, taken out and dropped from a Height of 17ft., and then put in the furnace for' another half an hour. Finally it was sprayed with cold water while still in a red-hot state — another severe trial. When prised open the papers inside were unharmed, and no water had penetrated. . ... In crime novels you often read of' daring raids where treasures are stolen froth'' “impregnable” places like the Bank of England. Well, fortunately, this happens only in fiction! There are elaborate schemes of defence of which the law-abiding citizen never knows. But the crook does, and that is why he makes no foolhardy attempt to raid the Bank of England or rob a' well-protected safe deposit. BULLET PROOF CARS. Nearly every day in London, for example, a number of motor cars go through the busy streets carrying on an average £10,000,000 in cash and notes. The motors are owned by the big banks, and they are engaged in carrying, money to branches which have run short of cash. No crooks attack these cars. For the big shots of the underworld know that these are built of the toughest steel, and are bomb and bullet proof. An armed guard sits beside the driver, and inside are three other men ready for emergencies. And even if crooks were able to stop the car, they would never have time to force open the small safes in which the money is kept. Nor would crooks have much chance if they attacked a big modern safe deposit, such as exist in Britain’s chief cities—not even if they were armed with machine guns. These safe deposits are miniature fortresses. The vaults are built of specially hardened steel which is absolutely undrillable. Except for openings for the doors, the great chambers are embedded —top. bottom, and sides—in beds of concrete reinforced with steel rods. ■ So the crook can’t even begin his raid by renting the house next door and borrowing his way in! Massive steel doors protect the vaults from intruders. The doors of a certain London deposit cannot be closed unless four officials are at separate posts. But once they have set the machinery in motion the great doors close by hydraulic power, and nothing can open them until these men are at their posts. If any attempt is made to operate the machinery a cistern above the vault it automatically set in operation —and 50,000 gallons of water pour into the vaults. INGENIOUS LOCKS. Other deposits have time and combination locks to protect the entrances. These time locks are most ingenious. The lock is set, say, to be opened in 12 hours. When the door is closed, an automatic mechanism bolts it from inside. No one can now open it until 12 hours have passed, when the mechanism draws back the bolts. But supposing the staff is late? Does this mean that anyone can open the doors? By no means. There is, in addition, a combination lock which as do all these devices, on one certain combination of numbers. There are so many possible combinations that, unless you know it, you would spend several million years in finding the correct one. As if all this were not enough io keep out intruders, these deposits also have elaborate systems of electrical alarms. These begin to operate the moment an unauthorised person steps inside the premises. One company has even arranged its alarms so that they ring in a nearby police station! But it is in the Mint and the headquarters of the big banks where the most elaborate precautions are taken. The strong-room of the Mint—where several million pounds of gold and silver are stored —can be opened only by the two men who know its secret. One keeps the key to one lock and sets the dial of another to his own combina-

cion. The other official guards the other two locks. Unless both officials work the locks together, the door remains closed. Now comes Britain’s most impregnable fortress, the Bank of England An enemy might suddenly capture London, Government offices, royal palaces and luxurious mansions of, the rich. But it could not seize the bank. PROTECTION OF STRONGROOMS. In recent years the governors have, at a cost of £6,000,000, built 550 special strongrooms which can hold several million pounds’ worth of gold and valuables. Each strongroom is surrounded by a wall of steel and concrete several feet thick. Dynamite and a fusillade of heavy bombs would not have the slightest effect upon them. The only approach to the vaults is by a deep shaft, and this could be floo'ued in emergency.. At the bottom of the shaft are several massive grill gates. Behind them is the great safe door. It weighs -25 tons, and not even the governor of the bank can open it. The combination code is divided up, and no one person knows the whole of it. i Beyond this are the doors to the various safes,- and the .safe-makers were pledged not to reveal any of the secret devices used to ensure that no person could ever. break into one of these strong rooms. It is the boast of rne bank’s officials that even if it were captured by a mob or an enemy force, and the captors ordered experts to force the safes, it would take more than a month to break down the complex defences of the vaults. As a final precaution, the bank has its own electric .power station, and water supply. In an emergency a defence force could live in the vaults for some time. There is only one fortress in Europe to match the Bank of England —and that is the Bank of France in Paris. When you visit this vault it really seems that you are in some vast underground city which exists only in the novels of an imaginative novelist. It lies in the bottom of a lake beneath the Paris streets, with 40ft. of water on top and at the sides. It is anchored on solid rock, but the walls are made of 20ft. of steel and concrete. In a national emergency 1,500 men could barricade themselves in the vaults. There would be ample bedding for them, elaborate sanitary arrangements, including baths, and plenty of food! The kitchens are as large as those! of hotels, with huge electric ranges, ana storage rooms with tens of thousands of cans of food. There are giant electric refrigerators, where fresh meat can be kept. It is, equipped with hundreds of gramophone records and a varied library of books. The strong doors which protect the vaults from any invader are designed on much the same lines as those usedby the Bank of England. But the French are known to have made special arrangements for communicating with the outside world, and there is a secret exit through which the defenders ! could escape. Before they left, however, their hoard of bullion would be protected by flooding the vaults. A French authority said recently: “We estimate that it would take two months for engineers, working day and night, to blast through. And, if they succeeded, a horrible thing would happen to them.” But he would not say what it was.