US52484A - Improvement in safes - Google Patents

Description

W9. SAEES, BANK PROTECTION RELATED DEVTCES.

UNTTED STATES PATENT EETCE.

IMPROVEMENT IN SAFES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 52,484, dated February 6, 1866; antedated December 9, 1865.

To all whom it may concern.

Beit known that I, LINUS YALE, Jr., of Shelbur-ne Falls, county of Franklin, State of Massachusetts, have invented certain Improvements in Burglar-Proof Safes; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and correct description thereof', reference being had to the annexed drawings, and to the letters of reference thereon.

My said invention relates to the hard castiron or other hard-metal lining or filling used in burglar-proof safes.

lt has heretofore been the practice to apply this material in the form of flat plates, and to rivet these plates to the wrought-iron inner portion of the walls ot' the safe, and then to put on the outer cover of Wrought-iron plates by riveting. This mode ot' construction is not burglar-proof, although a great protection against burglars by reason ot' the hardness of the hard cast-iron resisting the action of cutting-instruments, such as chisels, drills, Snc. Such safes may be opened by whatis called the peeling77 or stripping process. The outside wrought-iron plates are first peeled or stripped oft' by driving a chisel or other wedgeshaped tool between the wrought-iron plates and the cast-iron lining at the corners or edges of the safe, the position of the joints permitting this operation to be readily performed, the joints bein gat right angles to the rivets, so that every blow on the wedge or chisel tends to force the Wrought-iron plate away from the cast-iron lining and to break or cut ott the rivets as the chisel is driven in between the plates. The outer covering of wrought-iron being thus peeled oft leaves the hard cast-iron lining exposed to the burglar, who then proceeds to strip or peel it off from the inner wrought-iron box to which it is riveted in the same manner as one would go to work to open a common packing-box or to separate two dat boards that have been nailed together-that is, he drives a wedge or chisel into the joint at the corners, and the wedge or chisel will go in because the wrought-iron forms one side ot' the joint, and as the chisel goes in it cuts ott' or breaks ott' the rivets and forces the hard cast-iron armor from the wrought-iron inner box or safe, thus stripping the safe of its burglar-prooi` armor almost as readily with proper tools as one would open a box.

My invention consists in part in an improved form ot' the hard cast-iron lining, whereby I have remedied this great defect in burglarproof safes. Instead ot using iiat plates of hard cast-iron jointed at the corners and edges, I' cast the hard iron intended for safelinings in angular plates of a peculiar formthat is to say, I cover the wrought-iron inner box with hard cast-iron plates that have no joints at the corners, nojoints at right angles to the rivets, and no exterior joints of wrought and cast iron plates, the joints being all between the hard cast-iron pla-tes and all parallel with the rivets. Therefore should a burglar strip the outer cover of wrought-iron from my improved safe it would be next to impossible for him to get a prying-tool in between the joints of the hard cast-iron lining, and harder still to force it by the tool from the wrought-iron inner box, the joints being so disposed that the opcrationot stripping would be practically the same as that ot' attempting to raise, by a crowbar, thick slabs of iron laid on a tloor closely jointed together and riveted to the ioor it one has to begin in the middle of the door or at any place where the crowbar cannot be inserted between the Jdoor and the iron plates.

The difficulty ot' raising tiles or flags from their place in a pave1nent,where they are only bedded in sand, is a familiar instance ot' the eect of the mode of jointing I have embodied in my improved hard cast-iron linings for burglar-proof safes.

In carrying out my invention .l construct the hard-metal plates I use by casting them in whatl call corner-pieces and edge or tillin g pieces.77 The corner-pieces are castin the shape of three sides ot a hollow cube, the sides being, say, abontone-third the width of the sides of the wrought-iron box or safe to which they are to be applied. One of these corner-pieces is riveted on to each corner ot' the inner safebox, and between the corner-pieces are riveted the edge or illin g pieces, which are fplates of hard cast-iron ot' the form of two sides of a hollow cube, and oi' snflicient width to till up the space between the corner-pieces. lt' the edge or filling pieces be made of one size there will remain a square in the middle of each side ofthe safe, which may be lled by a fiat plate of the hard cast-iron; but by casting halt' of the lling-pieces enough longer than the others to ll up thisv middle space the centerplate need not be used.

In the manufacture of safes I prefer to cast my corner-pieces with Wrought-iron tie-rods or net-work embeddedin them, as described in my patent of October 19, 1862. I also make the oorner-pieces of one given size for several dit"- ferent sizes of safes, and vary the size of the filling pieces to suit the difference of size; but this is a matter of convenience in the manufacture. But more particularly to describe my invention I Will refer to the drawings, of which- Figure l is a perspective view, showing the mode of applying` the hard corner-pieces and edge or filling pieces to the inner wroughtiron box. Letter a. is the Wrought-iron inner box 5 b, the corner-pieces,fastened to the inner Wrought-iron box by means of the rivets c and rivet-holes a. Fig. 2 is a detached view of a corner-piece, b. Fig 3, detached view of edge or tilling piece e.

Thetie-rods d and rivets@ are shown in allthe figures and in section at Fig. 4, which latter figure represents two Ways of crooking the rivet-rods-onethemode of hooking to embrace the tie-rods, and the other a simple crook to make the same Wire or rod answer for rivets for both sides.

Although I prefer, for economical reasons, to make myimproved armor of hard cast-iron, I do not Wish to be understood as confining myself to that material, as it is evident that case-hardened wrought-iron, steel, and other hard metals can be used. Neither does my invention consist in fastening by rivets cast in, as ordinary rivets, bolts, or any known form of fastening may be used. If the corner-pieces are made large enough, the edge or filling pieces may be omitted; but it is more convenient to use them in the practical manufacture of safes.

I claim as my invent-ion and improvement in burglar-proof safes- The angular plates or sections of hard metal, consisting of corner-pieces, or cornerpieces and edge or filling pieces, when constructed, arranged, and applied tothe exterior of the inner Wrought-iron portion ofthe Walls vof a safe substantially in the manner and for the purposes hcreinbefore described.

LINUS YALE, JR. Witnesses:

F. C. TREADWELL, J u., O. A. DURGIN.

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