SAFES
SPONSORED BY DAVENPORT BURGESS
torches, angle grinders, disk
cutters, even thermic lances.
Means have been found to
protect even the most highly
sensitive of computer memory
media using the very latest
technological spin-offs from
space exploration.
And yet, when did you last
read a feature about safes
or security cabinets in any
trade journals other than this
one? How many high grade
safes did you see on display
when you last visited a major
security exhibition? It seems
that we are so dazzled by the
latest electronic wizardry;
so engrossed in the latest
legislation affecting the
manned guarding sector
that we fail to notice the
steadfastness and excellence of
the modern safe-maker’s art.
Ask an insurer when he/
she last had to settle a major
claim following an attack on
a modern, high grade safe.
Certainly there are losses but
almost always these are from
either ancient safes made
more than100 years ago- that
could not possibly be expected
to resist the modern safe
breaker - or cheap, low-grade
imports.
It takes a highly experienced,
immensely skilled cracksman
equipped with a wide
range of expensive tools to
stand any chance at all of
penetrating a good quality
safe. The downside of this
is the growth in the number
of armed robberies but even
this has been effectively
countered by the development
of electric safe locking
systems incorporating anti
hold-up time delay, time
locking facilities and remote
monitoring, widely recognised
as the only really effective
deterrent to armed robbery.
Few people realise that it
was the need to keep valuable
ledgers safe from fire that led
to the development of the
first safes. At the end of the
Industrial Revolution so much
business was conducted on
credit that the loss of these
books of account could spell
ruin. There was such a market
for these early ‘fire-proof’ safes
that soon there were scores of
Midlands-based safe-makers.
Later the emphasis became
focused on safes “proof
against the tools of thieves and
burglars” to quote a line from
Chubb’s patent application
for the first burglary-resistant
safe.
Now the pendulum may
be swinging the other way.
The first computer data safes
introduced in the late 1960s
were monsters weighing in
well over 1 ton. They housed
large reels of magnetic tape
or giant disk holders shaped
like cake stands. They were
required to resist furnace
temperatures of up to 1,500ºF
for two hours, after which the
tapes or disks should not only
be preserved, but the stored
data should remain completely
uncorrupted.
To read more, visit www.locksmithjournal.co.uk
A modern CD is so sensitive
to heat that its data could
be affected just by leaving
it in strong sunlight. Yet,
not only do we expect little
cabinets no bigger than a
microwave oven to provide
the same level of protection
against heat, humidity, stray
electromagnetic fields, soot
and fireman’s hoses as the
heavyweights of yesteryear, but
we expect them to do so at a
fraction of the cost.
Cash safes, fire resistant
document cabinets and data
safes have never been such
great value. Modern standards
for testing and rating safes
and cabinets have opened the
market to low priced foreign
imports, holding down costs
for so long that we can now
purchase at the same price
we were paying 15 years ago.
What other product is going
to remain in place for so
many years, require so little
attention and provide such an
exceptional level of service?
The safe-maker is truly an
unsung hero standing quietly
in a dark corner of the security
industry. Yet when push
comes to shove, it is that ‘sixsided box’ that stands alone
as the last bastion of defence
against the perils of the
terrorist, thief and inferno.
Contact information:
Tel: 07552 590739,
Email: info@
mikepalmerconsultancy.co.uk,
Web: www.
mikepalmerconsultancy.co.uk,
www.eurosafeuk.co.uk,
www.eurosafe.uu.com/
THE JAN/FEB 2014 ISSUE
SPONSORED BY ASSA ABLOY Security Solutions
47