Dads and moms when just the rich needed to keep their possessions "safe" they'd be guarded by trusted armed men. Locks and bolts of numerous sorts might be used to increase security but a lock on a wooden box would only delay a determined thief who could hack the box open reasonably easily.
Within the late eighteenth century it became possible for more secure boxes to become made using surefire. This resulted in the lock was now the weakest link and in 1784 Joseph Bramah patented the security lock that was considered unpickable. It comprises metallic tube with slots cut in the end. A cylindrical key with slides precisely the right length must squeeze into the slots or the bolt won't move. Bramah am convinced the lock could not be picked he offered an enormous reward for anyone who succeeded. The reward was claimed 65 years later by an American locksmith but it took him 51 hours to pick the lock!
The name "safe" (instead of "strong box") came to exist to explain boxes made to force away fire in addition to theft. Richard Scott took out a patent as early as 1801 for the fire-proofing of "coffers"; William Marr patented another design in 1834 and Thomas Milner expanded on them in 1840 however it wasn't until 1851 that Silas C. Herring exhibited a "Fire-Proof Safe" in the Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace. This was judged an infringement of Thomas Milner`s patent later that year.
The nineteenth century saw various innovations as both thieves` and safe-maker`s techniques developed. In 1818 Jeremiah Chubb patented a "detector lock" based on levers, which would not open if someone attempted to pick it. In 1848, Linus Yale patented the Yale compact cylinder lock, based on ancient Egyptian pin-tumbler locks. This design was improved by his son, also named Linus and the Yale lock has become probably the most commonly used domestic locks.
As safes became harder to hack, thieves resorted to terrorising bank staff to open them and also to counter this; James Sargent, inventor from the key-changeable, combination lock in 1857, introduced a time-lock mechanism, patented in 1873.
Through the twentieth century, advances in steel production resulted in a reduction in the incidence of safe-cracking. Safes could now be manufactured by bending just one piece of steel up to 12mm thick, producing the rounded edges familiar today. Explosives were more commonly used to open such safes by the 1930s, safes were protected by "anti-blowpipe" technology.
By the 1940s, with former servicemen acquainted with cutting torches, the 1930s designs weren't sufficient to repel the post-war increase in burglaries, although in 1945 the items in a safe only 300m from the centre from the atomic blast at Hiroshima survived intact.
Today safes incorporate torch- and drill-resistant materials and even concrete. In 1997 a house Office report found that attacks on banks decreased by 46% in 1994 and by an additional 19% in 1995, evidence of the legacy of improvements in security and a comforting thought the next time you utilize your door type in the doorway lock cylinder of your front door.
Author Resource:
Thanks for reviewing the content, I'm certain you have learnt some thing from this but if you haven't please make reference to: History Of Safes
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.look4articles.com/images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.look4articles.com/images/rss.jpg "XML Feed For RSS")