A safe executed in this way, though requiring a considerable expenditure at first, if well done, might bid defiance to anything almost, even unlimited gunpowder, for some days. The only addition of safety that almost could be conceived would be that adopted at the bullion vaults of the Bank of France in Paris, where these, situated in casemates two stories under ground, are only approachable by one narrow, winding staircase, which can be itself, in case of emergency, rapidly rendered useless, and the cylindrical well in which it is placed filled up with about 30 feet in depth of water, which cannot be pumped out until a continuous supply be shut off by distant means only known to one or two trusted employés.
Since this revision has been in type the great “safes’ contest” or wager of battle between the rival safes of Mr. Herring of New York, and Mr. Chatwood of Bolton, for £600 a side, has come off, at the International Exhibition, Paris, Mr. R. Mallet and Mr. Robert F. Fairlie, C.E., being the representatives of the English interests upon the occasion. The result, which, owing to the conduct of some of the parties concerned, assumed an unpleasant and incomplete form, may be found detailed fully in a pamphlet published by Tinsley Brothers, London. It is referred to here because, although no decision of the wager made could be come to, the facts ascertained are of great interest and importance as respects the proper construction of safes. They show conclusively that an effectively constructed door and jambs is really the one thing needful to absolute security, provided the safe itself be built up, as we have urged, into masonry.
They also show that there are good grounds for doubting that the American (Herring’s) “safe within safe” construction, with a thick mass of so-called fire-proofing powdery composition between them, is at all as protective against mere violence and the persevering use of wedges, as Chatwood’s simpler but far more effective construction, especially of his door and jambs. If one of the latter safes, wholly of steel plating, be fairly embedded into masonry, and another outside flush door of his construction, with curved rabbates and hooking locking bolts, be supplied to the masonry ope itself, it is scarcely an exaggeration to call such a safe “Invincible,” so far as anything that burglars, in any civilised place in Europe at least, can effect.
INDEX.
- Adytic lock, [176]; machine for manufacturing the keys of the, [185]; number of changes in the lock, [188]; advantages of, [189]; discussion on its value, [192].
- Ainger on the Bramah lock, [111].
- Ainger’s lock, [61].
- Alarum lock, [40].
- American locks, [82]; Stansbury’s lock, [83]; Yale’s lock, [83]; Dr. Andrews’s lock, [84]; Day and Newell’s locks, [86]; their Parautoptic lock, [89]; Hobbs’s Protector lock, [99].
- Ancient locks, [8].
- Andrews’s lock, [84]; snail wheel lock, [85].
- Appendix, [173].
- Aubin’s lock trophy, [166]; locks forming it described, [168].
- Barron’s tumbler lock, [49]; Bramah on, [68].
- Bird’s tumbler lock, [52].
- Bramah on Barron’s tumbler lock, [68]; on the defects of the tumbler lock, [68]; on the defects of the warded lock, [66].
- Bramah lock, [70]; cylinder lock, [73]; number of changes in the Bramah lock, [81]; picked by Mr. Hobbs, [121]; report of the arbitrators, [123], [124]; a description of the lock picked, [125]; letters from Messrs. Bramah questioning the fairness of the trial, [126]; method of picking, [110]; method employed by Mr. Hobbs, [129]; Ainger on the Bramah lock, [110]; Farey on the Bramah lock, [113]; improvements made since 1851, [131].
- Brown’s letter lock, [23]; picked by Mr. Hobbs, [139].
- Bullion vaults of the Bank of France, [206].
- Chatwood’s safes described, [203].
- Chinese locks, [171].
- Chubb on Davies’s lock, [112]; on lock picking, [132].
- Chubb’s lock, [53]; described, [54], [56]; key of, [57]; attempt to pick, [58]; experiments on, [59]; number of changes in the lock, [55]; the detector lock picked by Mr. Hobbs, [115]; value of the detector questioned, [117]; improvements, [121]; Mr. Hodge on the Chubb lock, [114]; Chubb’s new locks, [147]; bank locks, [149].
- Clockwork, application of, to locks, [39].
- Closet-lock, [17].
- Commercial importance of locks, [2].
- Contrivances for adding to the security of locks, [35].
- Cut locks, [18].
- Davies’s lock, Captain O’Brien on 112; Mr. Chubb on, [112].
- Davis’s lock, [60].
- Day and Newell’s lock, [86]; Parautoptic lock, [89] et seq.
- Dead-lock, [17].
- Denison’s large lock, [142]; small ditto, [146].
- Dial locks, [23]; method of picking, [138].
- Duhamel du Monceau’s Art du Serrurier, [4].
- Egyptian door-fastenings, [13].
- Egyptian pin-lock, [14]; method of picking, [139].
- Escutcheon, uses of the, explained, [37].
- Exhibition of 1851, effects of the, in improving English locks, [140]; Jury Report on locks, [131]; observations on the Report, [133].
- Farey on the Bramah lock, [113].
- Fenby on warded locks, [173]; on tumbler locks, [174].
- Fenby’s adytic lock, [176]; machine for making the keys of, [185]; number of changes in the, [188]; advantages of, [189]; discussion on the value of the lock, [192]; stop-lock, [196]; machines for the manufacture of the locks, [200].
- Fons, Mr. de la, his improvement in locks, [148].
- French locks, ancient, [32].
- Friend’s secret lock, [39].
- Greek locks, [9].
- Hobbs on English locks made before 1851, [115]; he picks a Chubb lock, [116]; a Bramah lock picked by Mr. Hobbs, [122]; his mode of picking the Bramah lock described, [129]; Mr. Brown’s letter-lock picked by him, [139].
- Hobbs’s protector lock, [99].
- Hodge on the Chubb lock, [114].
- Iron-rim lock, [17].
- Iron safes, value of, [201]; the best position for a safe, [204]; chamber for jewellers’ safes described, [205]; arrangement of bank safes, [205]; Chatwood’s safes, [203].
- Kemp’s union lock, [81].
- Keys, master, [31]; skeleton, [30]; Mackinnon’s key, [62]; Machin’s web key, [154].
- Knob lock, [17].
- Lacedæmonian lock, [11].
- Left-hand lock, [17].
- Letter locks, [22]; method of picking, [138].
- Lever locks, [43].
- Literature of lock-making, [4]; list of references to the “Transactions of the Society of Arts” relating to lock-making, [166].
- Lock classification, [17].
- Lock controversy, [102]; previous to the Great Exhibition, [103]; Mr. Chubb on Davies’s lock, [112]; Captain O’Brien on Davies’s and other locks, [112]; Mr. Farey on the Bramah lock, [113]; Mr. Hodge on locks, [114]; lock controversy during and since the Great Exhibition, [115]; Mr. Hobbs on English locks, [115]; he picks the Chubb lock, [116]; the Bramah lock picked by him, [121]; statements of Messrs. Bramah, [125]; attempt of Messrs. Garbutt to pick the parautoptic lock, [134].
- Lock manufacture at Wolverhampton, state of, described, [154].
- Lock-picking, distinction between “picking” and “ringing the changes” on a lock, [136]; tentative process of picking, [110]; method of picking letter and dial locks, [138]; mode of picking the Egyptian lock, [139]; method of picking tumbler locks, [118]; method of picking the Yale lock, [140]; Mr. Chubb on lock-picking, [132]; contrivances to prevent the picking of locks, [105].
- Lock trophy, Aubin’s, [166]; locks composing the, described, [168].
- Lock and key, improved, [176].
- Locks, English patents for, [164]; Jury Report, Exhibition of 1851, on, [131]; observations on the Report, [133]; effects of the Exhibition of 1851 in improving English locks, [140]; use of machinery in the manufacture of, [163], [200].
- Locks, &c., invented by the Marquis of Worcester, [35].
- Locks and keys, literature of, [4]; list of references in the “Transactions of the Society of Arts” relating to, [166].
- Louis XVI., his fondness for lock-making, [26], [35].
- Machin’s web key, [61].
- Mackinnon’s key, [62].
- Manufacture of locks and keys at Wolverhampton, state of the, [154].
- Marshall’s secret escutcheon, [37].
- Master keys, [31].
- Meighan’s alarum lock, [40].
- Mitchell and Lawton’s tumbler lock, [52].
- Mortise locks, [17], [18].
- Multiple-bolt locks, [41],
- Nettlefold’s lock, [60].
- Newell’s parautoptic lock, [89].
- O’Brien, Captain, on Davies’s lock, [112].
- Owen’s experiments on Chubb and Bramah locks, [59].
- Parautoptic lock, [89]; key, [91]; Austrian Report on, [93]; English patent for, [98]; attempts to pick the, in America, [106]; Report of the American Institute on the lock, [107]; latest challenge issued by Messrs. Day and Newell, [108]; Mr. Garbutt’s attempt to pick the, [134]; failure of the attempt, [135].
- Parnell’s defiance lock, [141].
- Parson’s lock, [61].
- Patents, English, for locks, [164].
- Pin-lock of Egypt, [14].
- Puzzle-lock, [19].
- Regnier’s puzzle locks, [21].
- Right-hand lock, [17].
- Ring lock, [17].
- Roman locks, [10].
- Rowntree’s tumbler lock, [50].
- Russell’s screw-lock for casks, [38].
- Russian locks, [171].
- Rutherford’s lock, [39].
- Ruxton’s detector for tumbler locks, [53].
- Safes, value of iron, [201]; Chatwood’s, [203]; see also [Iron Safes].
- Saxby’s prize lock, [152]; picked by Mr. Hobbs, [153].
- Screw locks, [38].
- Skeleton keys, [30].
- Society of Arts’ prize lock, [30].
- Somerford’s lock, [60].
- Spring-stock lock, [17].
- Stansbury’s lock, [83].
- Stop lock, Fenby’s, [196].
- Straight locks, [18].
- Tentative process of lock-picking, [110].
- Three-bolt lock, [17].
- Tumbler locks, [43]; lock described by M. de Réaumur, [46]; modern tumbler lock, [52]; introduction of the detector, [53]; Chubb’s lock, [53], [56]; key of, [57]; advantages and defects of tumbler locks, [63]; Hobbs’s method of adjustment, [63].
- Tumbler locks, Mr. Fenby on, [174]; method of picking, [118]; double action, [49].
- Two-bolt lock, [17].
- Ward locks, [18].
- Warded locks, [27]; action of the key on the wards, [28]; insecurity of, [29]; warded locks of the last century, [31]; insecurity of, illustrated by Mr. Chubb, [34]; Bramah on the defects of, [66]; Mr. Fenby on, [173].
- Wheel locks, [18].
- Wheel and pinion, application of, to locks, [39].
- Williams’s lock, [62].
- Wolverhampton, account of the state of the lock and key manufacture at, [154].
- Worcester, inventions of the Marquis of, relating to lock-making, [35].
- Yale’s lock, [83]; method of picking, [140].
- Yale’s cylinder lock, [152].
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