US3715998A

US3715998A - Wall safe

Info

Publication number: US3715998A
Application number: US00154362A
Authority: US
Inventors: W Teleky
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1971-06-18
Filing date: 1971-06-18
Publication date: 1973-02-13
Anticipated expiration: 1990-02-13

Abstract

A wall safe is provided having an improved cooperation of the structural configurations of the door and of the walls of the opening which is closed by the door whereby the safe is made highly resistant to attempted entry by forcing the door. The door is substantially rectangular and when it is in closed position the margins of the door substantially throughout their entire length are overlapped by recesses along the margins of the opening that is closed by the door. This is accomplished by a door which slides laterally so that it may be slid into locked position with opposite margins inserted in recesses in combination with flanges along the other two margins of the door which extend normally with respect to the face of the door and penetrate into recesses in the safe opening while at the same time permitting lateral movement of the door. With this construction it is essentially impossible for a tool to get a grip behind the door in an attempt to pry it open.

Description

United States Patent 1 Teleky 1 Feb. 13, 1973 1 WALL SAFE Walter Teleky, 6050 Blvd. East, West New York, NJ. 07093 [22] Filed: June 18,1971

[21] Appl. No.: 154,362

[76] Inventor:

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 8/1932 Pyle ..l09/59UX 12/1969 Teleky ..109/58 Primary Examiner-David J. Williamowsky Assistant Examiner-Philip C. Kannan Attorneyl-loward Natter and Seth Natter wil I [57] ABSTRACT A wall safe is provided having an improved cooperation of the structural configurations of the door and of the walls of the opening which is closed by the door whereby the safe is made highly resistant to attempted entry by forcing the door. The door is substantially rectangular and when it is in closed position the margins of the door substantially throughout their entire length are overlapped by recesses along the margins of the opening that is closed by the door. This is accomplished by a door which slides laterally so that it may be slid into locked position with opposite margins inserted in recesses in combination with flanges along the other two margins of the door which extend normally with respect to the face of the door and penetrate into recesses in the safe opening while at the same time permitting lateral movement of the door. With this construction it is essentially impossible for a tool to get a grip behind the door in an attempt to pry it open.

3 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures PMENTEDFEB13 I975 SHEET 10F 2 FIG.2

INVENTOR HALTER TELEKY PATENTEDFEB13 197s SHEET 2 OF 2 INVENTQR WALTER TE LE KY WALL SAFE FIELD OF INVENTION This invention relates to wall safes and more especially relates to wall safes for the storage of money, jewelry and other valuables. The wall safe is especially suitable for installation in motels and hotels for the temporary safekeeping of valuables against theft.

This invention is adapted to be employed with the wall safe disclosed in my US. Pat. No. 3,481 ,288.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION While stopping at a motel or hotel the safekeeping of valuables such as money, jewelry or papers is a constantly recurring problem. The theft of valuables left in a motel or in a hotel room is a matter of alarming frequency. Facilities for the safekeeping of valuables are rarely provided by motels or hotels and, if provided at all it is a matter of great inconvenience to have a per son qualified and entrusted to open a large safe for the reception or withdrawal of ones valuables. Usually the problems result in makeshift expedients such as hiding the valuables in luggage or in the bedding or in some out-of-the-way spot in the furniture. However, such hiding places provide little or'no security. Wall safes such as have been used in residences are inconvenient and expensive for use in individual rooms of a motel or a hotel. Moreover, the provision of a key presents a problem inasmuch as a guest provided with a key so as to make the wall safe available for use would have an opportunity to have a duplicate key made or he might forget to turn in the key. Moreover, in all likelihood the motel or hotel would have at least one other key for the same wall safe.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION In my US. Pat. No. 3,481,288 I have disclosed a wall safe which is highly effective as well as convenient for use such as in hotels and motels. While the safe disclosed in my prior patent is highly resistant to forcible entry, it is an object of the present invention to provide even greater effectiveness in preventing forcible entry.

More specifically, the objective of greater resistance to forcible entry is obtained by the employment of a substantially rectangular door in combination with the opening that is closed by the door such that when the door is locked in closed position there is asubstantial amount of overlap of the outer surface of the door along substantially the entire length of each of the margins of the door. In other words, there is substantial spacing of each of the edges of the door from the exposed surface of the door that is not covered by the overlap with the result that when the door is locked in place there is no point along the periphery of the door at which a cold chisel, screwdriver or the like may be forced in so as to get a grip on a transverse edge face of the door in attempting to pry it open. In this way additional security is provided that is highly effective even against a thief equipped with the tools of a professional burglar.

The protective overlap along two of the margins of the door is afforded in accordance with the construction shown and described in my U.S. Pat. No. 3,481,288. According to this construction a bodily removable door is provided which is put in place in the opening of the receptacle by inserting one of the margins of the door in a recess which is disposed along one of the walls of the opening and which has substantial depth in substantial parallelism with the plane of the opening. While said margin is inserted in said recess the opposite margin is swung into juxtaposition with a recess in the opposite wall of the opening, which likewise has substantial depth in substantial parallelism with the plane of the opening. By then moving the door laterally without, however, removing the door margin from the recess first penetrated, both of the opposite margins of the door become overlapped by the recesses in the opposite walls of the opening. Lock means is provided for locking the door in this position and preferably actuation of the lock automatically accomplishes the desired lateral movement of the door.

In accordance with the improvement of this invention, a substantial amount of overlap likewise is provided along the extent of the other two margins of the door. To this end a flange extends rearwardly from the other two margins of the door in a plane substantially normal to the plane of the door and each flange is adapted to penetrate a recess which is in each of the other two walls of the safe opening and which has substantial depth in a plane that is substantially normal to the plane of the opening. These flanges do not interfere with the placing of the door in position to close the receptacle opening in the manner aforesaid since they permit lateral movement of the door into its locked position. These flanges preferably are in the form of an integral extension of the face of the door. However, they also may be in the form of separate parts securely fixed to the door margin as by welding. When the door is locked in position the flanges are overlapped by the recesses in which they are inserted so as to provide the said overlap along these two margins as well as the other two margins. There is no marginal edge of the door that is not protected by an overlap.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Further objects, features and advantages of this invention will become apparent from the following description of the illustrative embodiment of this invention that is shown in the accompanying drawings,

. wherein:

FIG. 1 is an end elevation of a pair of wall safes embodying this, invention permanently secured to opposite sides of a wall by securing means which passes through the wall;

FIG. 2 is a front elevation of a single wall safe embodying the invention with a portion broken away to show the construction of the wall in relation to a portion of the door;

FIG. 3 is a side view of the wall safe that is partially in section along the line 3--3 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken on the line 4-4 of FIG. 2 and on a larger scale showing the forward portion of the wall safe and illustrating the manner of putting the door in place and into locked position;

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the door with the lock mechanism removed; and

FIG. 6 is an enlarged detail side section showing the upper portion of the safe opening with the door in place.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT FIG. 1 illustrates a typical utilization of the wall safe of this invention in a hotel or motel. Two safes and 10A are disposed on opposite sides of the wall 11. They are held together by one or more tie bolts 12 which pass through the wall. Ordinarily the heads 13 of the bolt 12 are rendered unremovable, as for example by welding. When secured to the wall in this manner each of the safes is secured in place in such manner that they cannot be removed without destroying the wall.

The safe as illustrated in the drawings comprises the receptacle portion 14 which is suitable for the reception of valuables and which has a substantially rectangular opening adapted for the insertion and withdrawal of valuables. The receptacle ordinarily is made of steel and has no opening other than that which is closed by the door. The side walls of the opening are in the form of vertical frame members 15 which are permanently secured to the receptacle 14 by some suitable means such as welding 16. Each of the frame members 15 has an elongated recess 17 that has substantial depth in a plane parallel to the plane of the opening and which is dimensioned to receive one of the side margins of a door 18. The door 18 is preferably fabricated of a single panel having parallel vertical edges defined by a pair of

transverse edge faces

26, 28 which extend substantially perpendicular to the general plane of the panel. Adjacent the upper and lower ends of the door 18, the panel includes a rearwardly inturned flange 21, the distal-edges of each of which is defined by a transverse edge face 21a (extending transversely to the plane of the flange).

The upper and lower walls of the opening are provided by frame members 19, which likewise are permanently secured to the receptacle 14. The

frame members

15, 19, are preferably of one piece construction as shown in FIG. 2 and are secured in the receptacle as a unitary frame assembly. Each of these frame 19 members has a guard recess 20 which extends along the longitudinal extent thereof and which has substantial depth substantially normal to the plane of the receptacle opening. These recesses 20 are adapted to receive the flanges 21 which extend rearwardly from adjacent the top and bottom, respectively, of the door 18.

The door 18 in preferred embodiments is bodily removable and hingeless. It is provided with a lock mechanism 22 on the back surface thereof which is actuatable from in front of the door by means of a key which is insertable in and withdrawable from a keyhole 23. The key 24 is shown in place in FIG. 4. It is actuata- 'ble to effect the protrusion of the a bolt 25 from the lock mechanism 22 to the position shown in solid lines in FIG. 4 and to effect its retraction to the position shown in dotted lines in FIG. 4. When the bolt has been retracted the door key is removable.

FIG. 4 also illustrates the manner of putting the door in place and removingit again. Prior to putting the door in place the lock mechanism 22 is actuated by the key 24 to position the bolt 25 in retracted position. The transverse edge face 26 of the door is inserted into the recess 17 to the position shown in dot and dash lines in FIG. 4. It is to be noted that the innermost interior wall 27 of the recess 17 is inclined so as to permit the insertion of a marginal zone the door while the plane of the door is at a substantial angle to the plane of the opening of the receptacle. In positioning the door in this manner the vertical disposition of the door is such that the flanges 21 of the door penetrate into the recesses 20 in the frame members 19 at the upper and lower walls of the opening. The door is then swung about with the right-hand recess 17 as a pivot until the transverse edge face 28 of the door comes into juxtaposition with the recess 17 in the frame at the left side of the opening. The door then is in position such that it is movable laterally to the left until it comes to the position shown in solid lines in FIG. 4 and in FIGS. 2 and 3. This can be done without actuating the lock mechanism. However, in ordinary usage the lateral movement is powered at least in substantial part by manually actuating the key to cause the bolt 25 to move to the protruding solid line position shown in FIG. 4.When this movement is effected the end of the bolt 25 is pressed against an abutment 28a of the frame member 15 at the right side of the opening so as to propel the door to the left. The leftward movement of the door is limited by the stop 29 which comes into opposed relation with an abutment 30 of the opposite frame member 15 as shown in FIG. 4. It will be appreciated that the length of the recess 20 is greater than the width of the door to permit sliding movement of the flange 21 within the recess 20 when the door is inserted into or removed from the opening. If the key 24 is removed when the bolt 25 is shown in the extended position in FIG. 4, the door is locked in place so that it cannot be moved laterally in either direction without using the key. It also is to be noted that the lateral extent of the door 18 is such that a substantial peripheral zone along the outer surface of the door 18 adjacent each of the transverse edge faces 26 and 28 is overlapped by a receptacle face 32 of the frame members 15 with the peripheral zones seated in the recesses 17. Thus the door is effectively retained and cannot be removed. Moreover, the innermost side walls of the recesses 17 extend perpendicular to the plane of the door panel to provide a stop which prevents the door from being pushed inwardly as does a shoulder 33 of the frame 19 which also abuts the inner face of the door.

Since the transverse edge face 21a of the flanges 21 penetrate into the guard recesses 20 along the upper and lower walls, respectively, of the safe opening, there is a substantial amount of overlap of the flanges 21 along substantially the entire length of said flanges which in turn extend along substantially the entire length of the upper and lower margins of the door. Since the outer surface of the door along substantially the entire length of the side margins thereof likewise are overlapped by the faces 32 of the frame members 15, the door along the entire peripheral margin thereof is overlapped to a substantial extent and so that at no point along said peripheral margin is it possible for a tool to get a grip on a transverse edge portion of the door much less get any tool behind the door to wedge or pry the door outward by applying a force on the rear face thereof. The door is thereby rendered extremely difficult to open by any means short of physical destruction of the safe itself. At the same time the door is such that its removal and replacement may readily be accomplished by a guest at a hotel or motel who is provided with a key that is capable of actuating the lock mechanism.

I claim:

1. A wall safe for the fortified storage of valuables, said safe comprising a walled receptacle, means forming a substantially rectangular opening in said receptacle, a door selectively closing said opening to preclude access to the receptacle interior, said door including a substantially rectangular panel having an inturned flange adjacent each of two opposed edges, said flange extending beyond the panel thickness, the safe further including a frame assembly secured in said receptacle adjacent the opening, the frame assembly having first and second pairs of substantially parallel frame members, the first pair perpendicularly intersecting the second pair at mutual terminal ends of each member, each of the members of the first pair including stop means abutting the rear of the door on opposite sides of the opening, the stop means preventing movement of the door toward the receptacle interior, said stop means being positioned rearwardly of the receptacle opening, means forming a recess 17 in cooperation with the receptacle along said opposite sides of the opening and adjacent said stop means, means forming a receptacle face overlying each recess, each face overlapping a peripheral zone of the door with each zone seated in a corresponding recess when the door is in a position closing the opening, each of the members of the second pair of frame members including means forming a guard recess 20, each guard recess including substantially parallel walls extending perpendicular to the plane of the opening and within which one of the flanges is seated, the flanges being of uniform thickness and extending perpendicular to the plane of the door, the distance between the guard recess walls being only slightly greater than the thickness of the flange, yet permitting sliding movement of the flanges for insertion or removal of the door, the door being placed in its position protectively closing the opening by inserting one of the zones in one of the recesses of the first pair of members, with the plane of the door at an acute angle to the plane of the opening, pivoting the door at the one recess to a position parallel to the plane of the opening and laterally sliding the door to a position wherein the other zone is seated in the recess of the other member of the first pair, the door further including lock means to selectively preclude lateral sliding movement of the door to prevent removal of the door, whereby unauthorized forcible'removal of the door with a prying implement is prevented.

2. A wall safe constructed in accordance with claim 1 wherein the flanges are formed in one piece construction with the door panel.

3. A wall safe constructed in accordance with claim 1 wherein weld means securing the frame assembly to the receptacle is provided.

Claims

1. A wall safe for the fortified storage of valuables, said safe comprising a walled receptacle, means forming a substantially rectangular opening in said receptacle, a door selectively closing said opening to preclude access to the receptacle interior, said door including a substantially rectangular panel having an inturned flange adjacent each of two opposed edges, said flange extending beyond the panel thickness, the safe further including a frame assembly secured in said receptacle adjacent the opening, the frame assembly having first and second pairs of substantially parallel frame members, the first pair perpendicularly intersecting the second pair at mutual terminal ends of each member, each of the members of the first pair including stop means abutting the rear of the door on opposite sides of the opening, the stop means preventing movement of the door toward the receptacle interior, said stop means being positioned rearwardly of the receptacle opening, means forming a recess 17 in cooperation with the receptacle along said opposite sides of the opening and adjacent said stop means, means forming a receptacle face overlying each recess, each face overlapping a peripheral zone of the door with each zone seated in a correspondinG recess when the door is in a position closing the opening, each of the members of the second pair of frame members including means forming a guard recess 20, each guard recess including substantially parallel walls extending perpendicular to the plane of the opening and within which one of the flanges is seated, the flanges being of uniform thickness and extending perpendicular to the plane of the door, the distance between the guard recess walls being only slightly greater than the thickness of the flange, yet permitting sliding movement of the flanges for insertion or removal of the door, the door being placed in its position protectively closing the opening by inserting one of the zones in one of the recesses of the first pair of members, with the plane of the door at an acute angle to the plane of the opening, pivoting the door at the one recess to a position parallel to the plane of the opening and laterally sliding the door to a position wherein the other zone is seated in the recess of the other member of the first pair, the door further including lock means to selectively preclude lateral sliding movement of the door to prevent removal of the door, whereby unauthorized forcible removal of the door with a prying implement is prevented.