PROTECTION
FROM
FIRE AND THIEVES
LONDON: PRINTED BY
SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE
AND PARLIAMENT STREET
[Illustration: FIRE-ESCAPE AND STEAM FIRE-ENGINE IN ACTION
(_From a drawing supplied by the Royal Society for the Protection of
Life from Fire_)
_Frontispiece_]
PROTECTION
FROM
FIRE AND THIEVES
INCLUDING
THE CONSTRUCTION OF LOCKS, SAFES, STRONG-ROOMS, AND
FIREPROOF BUILDINGS; BURGLARY, AND THE MEANS OF PREVENTING IT;
FIRE, ITS DETECTION, PREVENTION, AND EXTINCTION; ETC.
ALSO
_A COMPLETE LIST OF PATENTS FOR LOCKS AND SAFES_
BY
GEORGE HAYTER CHUBB
ASSOC. INST. C.E.
_CAVENDO TUTUS_
LONDON
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
1875
_All rights reserved._
TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
LORD HENRY GEORGE CHARLES GORDON LENNOX,
M.P.
FIRST COMMISSIONER OF WORKS;
_THIS VOLUME IS, BY KIND PERMISSION_,
Respectfully Inscribed.
PREFACE.
A small book, embracing such subjects as herein treated of, is
necessarily somewhat disconnected in its character. In endeavouring to
be strictly practical, I fear I have made some portions of the book
uninteresting to the general reader; if so, it must be remembered that
my chief aim has been to place certain facts before professional and
business men, at the same time introducing matter that may be useful to
everyone.
I have to offer my best thanks to Colonel Fraser, Colonel Henderson,
Captain Shaw, and other Gentlemen, who have afforded me valuable help.
If the importance of protecting life and property becomes in the least
degree better understood and appreciated, I shall feel amply repaid for
the time and trouble incurred in the preparation of the book.
57 ST. PAUL’S CHURCHYARD, LONDON:
_January 1875_.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
LOCKS, KEYS, ETC.
PAGE
Introduction--Locks, ancient and modern--Copying keys--Ornamental
keys--Breaking open padlocks--Chubb’s detector lock--Sets of
locks--Elements of a good lock--Common locks 1
CHAPTER II.
THE ART OF BURGLARY.
Planning burglaries--Bank robbery--The Cornhill burglary of
1865--Providing fit receptacles for valuables--False keys--Insecure
premises--Modes of house-robberies, and means of prevention--Burglars’
tools--Statistics--Police notice--South-Eastern Railway robbery--Jewel
robberies--Notice by Colonel Fraser 10
CHAPTER III.
SAFES AGAINST THIEVES.
Patents for safes--Safes by Milner, Tann, Hobbs, and Chatwood--Chubb’s
diagonal and new patent safes--Wedging open safes--Drilling, and mode
of protection--Other methods for opening safes--The safe custody of
keys--Amount of space required for bullion 30
CHAPTER IV.
SAFES AGAINST FIRE.
The heat to be resisted--Three qualities necessary--Refractory and
evaporating systems--Best materials to use for fireproofing--Public
tests--Double enclosure for parchments--Safes once in fire to
be re-proofed--Effects of Pantechnicon fire on safes--French
safes--Gunpowder safes 44
CHAPTER V.
SECOND-HAND SAFES, ETC.
Real and sham second-hand safes--Apparent and actual
strength--Garden-turf for fireproofing--Bolts and locks
unsuitable--Patentees’ names illegally used--Directions for purchasing
safes--Weights of good safes--Worthlessness of guarantees 51
CHAPTER VI.
STRONG-ROOMS.
Planning a strong-room--Its position--Dampness and
ventilation--Robberies by excavating through floor--Floor, walls,
and roof--Entrance--Lighting--Fixing the door--Fittings--Design
and estimate--Strong-room in a London bank--McNeill’s floating
strong-room--Bullion on board ships 57
CHAPTER VII.
FIREPROOF BUILDINGS--GENERAL CONSTRUCTION.
Fireproof buildings for business purposes--Mr. Braidwood’s opinion
on warehouse construction--Use and strength of iron--Iron supports
for house-fronts--Wood posts _versus_ iron columns--Captain Shaw’s
experiments--Dennett’s column--Danger from faulty building--Stone
and concrete as fireproof materials--Iron girders--Stairs and
doorways--Danger from windows--Iron sashes and shutters--Roofs and
ceilings--Brick the best material 70
CHAPTER VIII.
FIREPROOF BUILDINGS--PATENT SYSTEMS OF CONSTRUCTION.
Names of patentees--Dennett’s construction--Patent concrete--Mode
of constructing arches for floors, ceilings, and roofs--Vaults and
domes--St. Thomas’s Hospital--Cost of arching--Insecurity of the
Bodleian Library--Parliamentary report on British Museum, National
Gallery, etc.--Extinguishing fire at South Kensington--Water-supply
in public buildings--St. Paul’s Cathedral--Paris fires during the
Commune 85
CHAPTER IX.
FIRE AND ITS DANGERS.
Loss from fire preventible--Official enquiries into fires--Rapid
increase and statistics of fires--Causes of London fires in
1873--Tin, lead, etc. combustible--Watching buildings--Sweeping
chimneys--Precautions against fire--Detection of fire--Danger
to life--The smoke respirator--Escape from a burning
house--Fire-escapes--Directions for saving and restoring life--Curious
instances of fires 98
CHAPTER X.
EXTINCTION OF FIRE.
Two methods of fire-extinction, mechanical and chemical--Sinclair’s
fire-exterminator--Hand fire-engines--Steam fire-engines--Messrs.
Shand and Mason’s engines--Messrs. Merryweather and Son’s
engines--Boilers of steam fire-engines--Water-supply at
fires--Particulars of London Fire Brigade--Fires at country
houses--Destruction of mills 118
_APPENDIX._
DESIGNS AND DESCRIPTION OF A FIREPROOF WAREHOUSE 137
COMPLETE LISTS OF PATENTS FOR LOCKS AND SAFES 142
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Fire-Escape and Steam Fire-Engine in action _Frontispiece_
PAGE
Master-Key of Dublin Exhibition, 1865 4
Ornamental Key-handles 6
Ornamental Key 9
Hopkinson’s Patent Window-Fastener 17
Chubb’s Patent Diagonal Safe; action of bolts 33
” ” ” corner section 34
Chubb’s New Patent Safe, 1874, corner section 35
” ” ” elevation _facing_ 36
Chubb’s Patent Drill-Preventive; hole made by cutter 38
” ” ” cutter used for do 39
” ” ” system as applied 39
” ” ” cutter destroyed by 40
Reward Label for recovery of Lost Keys 42
Chubb’s Gunpowder-proof Lock for Safes 53
Strong-Room Doors, method of fixing 61
Strong-Room, plan of 64
” section of 65
Dennett’s Fireproof Construction; treatment of columns 79
” ” ” sections of arches 86, 87, 88
” ” ” section of vaulted roof 90
Smoke Respirator 108
Sinclair’s Fire-Exterminator 119
Merryweather’s Steam Fire-Engine 124
” ” ” sections of boiler 125
Shand, Mason & Co.’s Steam Fire-Engine 127
” ” ” sections of boiler 128, 129
Fireproof Warehouse, plan and section _facing_ 138, 139
PROTECTION
FROM
FIRE AND THIEVES.
CHAPTER I.
LOCKS, KEYS, ETC.
When it is known that cash and securities to the value of upwards of six
millions are almost constantly kept in the strong-room of one only of
the London banks, it will be understood that the safe custody of
valuables is a subject of very great importance. Unfortunately it is a
matter that has hitherto been greatly neglected by the general public
and professional men; and the ignorance on the part of the majority of
people as to what is real security, has given rise to this attempt to
place a few facts together that will be of general use. The incidents
relating to fires, burglaries, &c. are gathered from authentic sources,
and from private records that have been compiled during many years.
Although before the last ten years there were but few persons who
employed their skill to foil the increasing attempts of safe-breakers,
the subject of locks had long been thoroughly considered. The great
interest taken in the lock controversy at the time of the Exhibition of
1851 showed that there were many persons not indifferent to the efforts
then made to improve the quality of locks; but it was not until the
great burglary at Cornhill, in 1865, that safe-making was fairly
investigated by the public. Sufficient proof of this is that in the
sixty-four years preceding 1865 only twenty-eight patents for safes were
registered, while in the nine years following there were no less than
122. Being myself engaged in the manufacture of locks and safes, I have,
of course, some knowledge of their construction; and shall endeavour to
state facts that apply to the work of every maker, and my opinions
formed by practical acquaintance with this manufacture, and guided by
others who have previously written on various branches of the subject.
Locks have, it is said, been in use for above four thousand years in
Egypt; anciently these were mostly made of wood, and it is a remarkable
thing that the locks that have been in use in the Faroe Islands for many
centuries so closely resemble those found in Egyptian catacombs as to be
scarcely distinguishable from them. More modern, but considered now to
be old-fashioned, are the letter lock and warded lock; later still are
the patent locks of Barron, Bramah, Chubb, and others. It is not
necessary to describe the variations in all these; it may suffice to say
that the most trustworthy are those with levers and tumblers, and
protected in other ways from false keys and picks. One chief point of
security consists in a lock being so unlike any other that no key but
its own will open it; and a 3 in. Chubb’s drawer lock can have no less
than 2,592,000 changes made in its combinations. Mr. Tildesley, in an
article published in ‘Once a Week,’ mentions a lock which had a chime of
bells connected with it in such a manner that no sooner was the
skeleton-key of an intruder applied to the lock than the latter began to
chime a plaintive air, such as--
Home, sweet home;
Be it ever so humble,
There’s no place like home.
A sentiment in which the housebreaker would doubtless concur as he took
his precipitate flight.
It is obvious that locks are only secure so long as their keys are
properly taken care of. This is of the utmost importance, for some keys
can under favourable circumstances be made merely from a wax impression
by a clever workman. Numbers of robberies take place through keys being
left about, and to the lock is laid the fault which ought rather to be
charged to the careless owner of the keys.
Some people expect perfect impossibilities, and imagine that, having
obtained a secure lock, they have done all that is necessary. No lock
whatever will guard against culpable negligence with regard to its key;
or, as in the famous South-Eastern Railway bullion robbery, the
treachery of supposed trustworthy servants. It will be remembered that
the notorious lock-picker Agar said the robbery on this railway would be
impossible unless copies of the keys could be taken. By the connivance
of a guard named Tester this was accomplished, and yet the duplicate
keys thus made were useless until Agar had travelled seven or eight
times to Folkestone with the chests, altering the keys until they
fitted.
Since 1851 many improvements have been made and adopted in Chubb’s
locks, and more still have been tried and rejected, as interfering with
their proper working. Complexity of action in any lock will sooner or
later invariably prove fatal to its success. A lock is unlike a
[Illustration: MASTER-KEY OF THE DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION, 1865.]
watch or other delicate machine that is treated with a considerable
amount of carefulness; it is subject to every day hard wear and usage.
Absolute perfection is perhaps as unattainable in locks as in other
matters; nevertheless the present is an age of progress, and a more
perfect lock may perhaps be invented some day. Lock patents by scores
have appeared within the last twenty-one years; some good, others
indifferent or bad in principle, and many of them embracing as new ideas
certain principles of construction long since exploded or laid aside. Of
those practically defunct (and they are many), my opinion of them is
that the ingenuity of the inventors has generally been allowed to
over-run their perception of the before-mentioned fact, viz., that a
lock is a very hardworked machine, and that in its construction
simplicity is as necessary an element as security.
A good lock cannot have a key made to it unless another key is available
to copy from or the lock itself can be broken open. Of this latter fact
London burglars have not been slow to avail themselves, and they have
tried it in the following manner. It should first be said, for those not
acquainted with the mode of securing warehouse and office doors at
night, where the buildings are left unoccupied, that such doors are
usually fastened with a large rim or mortise lock of the ordinary kind.
When this is locked from the outside a small flat bar, that is secured
at one end to the door, is put across the keyhole to a staple thereon,
fastened by a padlock. The advantage of this plan is that the inner lock
cannot be touched, the keyhole being closed while the outer lock is
secure; and this padlock being visible, the police in their rounds can
tell by a glance under the light of the bull’s-eye whether or not it has
been interfered with. But there is such a thing as forcing a padlock
completely open, with proper appliances; and some clever burglar
watching the policeman off his round past a warehouse in Watling Street,
one night, wrenched the padlock off and supplied its place by a common
one, the outside of which in the dark resembled the one previously on.
He then took the patent lock away, got one side off, cut out all the
works, so that anything like a key would at once open or close the bolt,
fastened the side on as neatly as was possible, took it back to Watling
Street again, and watching his opportunity took his own lock off and
refixed the empty shell of the patent lock. The purpose in all this was
that next night he might at once open the padlock, force the inner lock,
and enter the place, while a confederate would doubtless
[Illustration: SPECIMENS OF ORNAMENTAL KEY HANDLES, REPRODUCED, BY
PERMISSION, FROM ‘THE BUILDER.’]
replace the padlock as if all were right. The success of the scheme
depended chiefly upon the padlock or its substitute always being on when
the police came round; but, fortunately for the owner of the premises,
the attempt was frustrated by the mere chance of the patent lock (now
without works and found next day to open rather stiffly) being brought
to be examined, when the burglar’s attempt was at once discovered.
Further revelations of this trick were made to the police by a convict
who died while undergoing a long term of imprisonment, and after his
disclosures no less than _twenty-seven_ padlocks were found in use in
the City the works of which had all been taken out, to await the
thieves’ opportunity, and done in such a clever manner that only the
closest inspection could detect it. Two of the locks served thus were on
a jeweller’s door, which shows the importance of preventing this mode of
robbery. Such a well-planned scheme required an improvement to be made
in the padlocks, and there is now largely in use what is known as the
‘police padlock,’ a lock which when once forced asunder is so injured
that it cannot be repaired without being entirely re-made, so that if
one should be taken off its door by a thief it cannot be put back again.
This is but one of the numberless instances that require the attention
and thought of the careful lockmaker; and the other instances that will
be given show that with respect to safes it requires yet greater skill
to foil the cunning of modern burglars.
The whole of Chubb’s locks are made by hand, and differ one from
another. The difficulty is not to make them to differ, but when such are
needed to make several alike, for a touch of the file will completely
alter a lock.
It is so essential for good locks to be totally unlike each other that
we continue to make by hand only, although the cost is in consequence
high. Machinery would and does produce well-finished and serviceable
locks, but the changes and combinations cannot vary as with hand-work.
‘So extensive are the combinations,[1] that it would be quite
practicable to make locks for the doors of all the houses in London with
a distinct and different key to each lock, and yet there should be one
master-key to pass the whole. A most complete series was constructed
some years ago for the Westminster Bridewell, consisting of 1,100 locks,
forming one series, with master, sub-master, and warders’ keys.
‘At any time the Governor has the power of stopping out the under-keys;
and in case of any surreptitious attempt being made to open a lock, and
the detector being thrown, none of the under-keys will regulate it, but
the Governor must be made acquainted with the circumstance, as he alone
has the power, with his key, to replace the lock in its original state.
‘It need scarcely be stated, that Barron’s, Bramah’s, Chubb’s, and most
other locks are adapted for all purposes, from the smallest cabinet to
the largest prison-doors or strong-room.
‘As has been already stated, various and numerous patents have been
taken out. Ingenious, however, as are some of the arrangements, they
appear to have complicated, rather than simplified, the general
construction.
‘It is submitted that the true principles of perfect security, strength,
simplicity, and durability should be combined in every good lock.
‘1st. Perfect security is the principal point to be attended to, as
without it no lock can be considered as answering the intended purpose.
‘2nd. The works of a lock should, in all cases, possess strength, and be
well adapted, especially in the larger ones, to resist all attempts to
force them open; and both in the larger and the smaller kinds the works
should not be susceptible of injury, or derangement, from attempts with
picklocks or false keys.
‘3rd. Simplicity of action is requisite, so that any person having the
key, and being unacquainted with the mechanism of the lock, should not
be able to put it out of order.
‘4th. The workmanship, materials, and interior arrangement of a lock
should be so combined as to ensure the permanent and perfect action of
all its parts, and its durability under all ordinary circumstances.’
Besides the better class of locks made in South Staffordshire there are
really trumpery locks made in abundance, and Willenhall enjoys an
unenviable celebrity for the cheapness and worthlessness of its wares.
There is a familiar saying that if a Willenhall locksmith happens to let
fall a lock while in the process of manufacture he does not stop to pick
it up, as he can make another quicker. The late Mr. G. B. Thorneycroft,
who once lived at Willenhall, is said to have been taunted with the fact
that some padlocks made there would only lock once, but when told the
price of them was twopence each he replied, ‘It would be a shame if they
did lock twice for that money.’ The total weekly production of locks in
the whole district was stated in 1866 to be no less than 31,500 dozens.
A very large proportion of this enormous supply goes to foreign markets.
[Illustration]