A Brief History of The Safe

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A Brief History of The Safe
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• While fire was worshipped by much of mankind in
  centuries of old, it was also feared, and with
  good reason. Sadly, fire destroyed many of the
  written records of early human civilization,
  which simply werent able to be protected against
  the ravages of fire. As the centuries passed,
  more and more importance was placed upon
  protecting important documents and other
  possessions, and humankind began inventing ways
  to prevent fire from destroying such items. The
  Egyptians, for example, chose to bury their
  scrolls deep within the confines of the pyramids,
  while the Assyrians made copies of important
  documents, and buried them at different
  locations. The Greeks, on the other hand,
  inscribed important information onto ivory slabs,
  desperately trying to fireproof them.

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• Julius Caesar and his iron strong boxes
• However, as many of these methods proved
  inconvenient or ineffective, mankind continued to
  try and find ways to protect documents recording
  important information, and Julius Caesar was said
  to have kept his records in protective devices
  such as iron boxes. Even these couldnt withstand
  the might of flames though, and such strong boxes
  were found to readily conduct heat and
  exacerbated the problem.

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• Later still, feudal lords built underground
  vaults to store items in, and placed guards at
  the entrances for additional protection. In the
  15th century, the treasure chest found its place
  in history, with the iconic image of a pirate
  chest made from oak and banded with iron.
• Safes as we might recognize them today
• Gradually, as the centuries passed, iron
  constructions with inner walls made of stone,
  plaster, wood, cement, brick, asbestos, mica,
  alum, chalk, clay or dead-air space were
  createdto house important artefacts and
  documents. Before this date, most safes were
  simply insulated with water and cement as the
  water evaporated, there was nothing left to
  create the blanket of steam that protects
  documents from heat.

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• It wasnt until 1917, however, that a test was
  standardized to measure the effectiveness of
  safes against fire, and it was this test that
  prompted some big, radical changes to be made to
  the way safes were being constructed.

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• Modern safe construction
• Nowadays, and since the scientific tests for
  safes were carried out, the way that safes are
  made has changed almost beyond recognition, and
  protection against fire for up to 2 hours, and
  theft with the use of tools for as long as 30
  minutes, has made keeping valuable possessions
  safe, a much more reliable task. Without the heat
  being rapidly transmitted to the interior of the
  safe by the metal hinges, spindles and handles,
  and the openings between the door and frame
  allowing direct access for the heat of a fire
  such as was the case with safes of old safes
  now resist fire far more effectively, and for
  longer.

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• Modern safes have doors that are tongue and
  groove in design, to impede the heats path,
  while insulation casings are made of light
  materials, with methods of assembly engineered to
  allow for minimum heat penetration to the inside
  of the safe and its contents.
• While protecting valuable items has always been
  important to mankind, never have the methods been
  as effective as they are today, and with
  technology improving at an increasingly fast
  pace, who knows what the future holds for high
  security safes?

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