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HISTORYOFLOCKS
The Yale Double Pindial Time Lock
Lock historian BRIAN MORLAND provides another fascinating insight
into the historical development of locks and safes, in which crimes and
criminals - such as notorious outlaw Jesse James - played a part.
Safes, in the scheme of
things are a relatively
modern invention.
Certainly, there were
boxes stoutly made of oak
and banded with iron, and
the later Georgian cast iron
strongboxes. From the early
19th century safes evolved
into those efficient steel doors
and receptacles with patent
anti-pick and anti-violence
properties and becoming
impregnable to those that
might wield a crowbar or try it
with black powder.
The years from around
the mid 1860s saw the birth
of another worrying trend
of safe opening. A spate of
intimidating and violent
armed bank robberies by
a gang headed by Robert
C Scott, Billy Connors and
Rufus Ring in the USA finally
convinced bankers to fit Time
Locks. Bankers and their
families were terrorised into
opening their safes and vaults
by armed gangs, sometimes
the banker paying the
ultimate price. The incident
known as the ‘The Great
Northampton, Massachusetts
Robbery’ was pivotal to
banking institutions adopting
time locks. Over one and a
half million dollars in cash
and securities were stolen
after hours of terrorising of
not just the bank officials but
also their families.
Another incident where
the infamous Jesse James
was thwarted by a time lock
thus proved its value. James
had fought for the south
during the American Civil
War, but after it was over he
carried on robbing banks,
stage coaches and trains.
Very often seeking vengeance
for the Confederate defeat,
although there were one or
two spectacular robberies
from banks the spoils very
often not amounting to
much, he revelled in the
publicity though, good or
bad, depending on where
sympathies were - in the
north or the south. What
was achieved , however, was
Jesse James c1886. In