1960s Chubb 33 inch Treasury Doors

[Huw Eastwood]

I've always liked these clean-cut 'modern' doors from the 60's-

Chubb showed the preceding Treasury model at the 1951 Trade Fair and it achieved world-wide acclaim for it's appearance and innovation- although it was still a typically heavy looking door with the usual accompanying complexity of pressure bars and crane hinges. Apparently it was accredited with being years ahead of it's time, perhaps more so for it's anti-blow-pipe and torch and drill resisting technology than it's appearance.

The next generation in the 60's however, really set about a BIG change in heavy door design and appearance- from the outside you'd never guess it had the massive thickness of defence it has, and it's lack of crane hinges and pressure bars makes a really smooth uncluttered appearance. Here's an old photocopy from an old Chubb brochure:




The largest of these were the 33 inch doors pictured here- both main and emergency featured a 2 foot thick slab of their infamous TDR barrier material, 4 locking options, time-locks and glass/relocker protection. here's a scan from the 1968 Chubb book 'Contemporary observations on security from the Chubb Collectanea 1818-1968' by Noel Currer-Briggs:



Although they lack the lavish decoration of the old days they're impressive purely for their brute size and sheer simplicity- they may lack all the polished brass and rich engravings but they definitely have something!

here's another shot from an old Chubb brochure:



Mmm- anyone know the maximum weight capacity of Santa's sleigh this year?
Merry Christmas All

[Arcade Al]

I know what you mean - there's something very stylish about this design, I think it's the futuristic, almost James Bond feel about them.
Ground breaking at the time, the simplicity means they haven't really dated.

[wylk]

In the second image I presume that's an emergency door on the left. It seems much larger than was typical, as if to accomodate the plus-size vault technician or bank employee.

In the third image I note the use of four locks.

At least Chubb had the decency and confidence to put their name on the door, something that is generally lacking these days.

[Ian D. Lewis]

You're right wylk that is a emergency door. I think the plus size might also be due to the fact these are not treasury 1/crane hinge doors. All Chubb doos of that time came with up to 4 locks plus a time lock as optional.

[Huw Eastwood]

Yes, I think there's an element of space/geometry involved on the emergency doors as well- at this level Chubb always applied exactly the same spec to emergency and main, without any compromise, so there's a limit to how small the inner boltcase could be reduced to house the same pattern boltwork and locks. Like Ian said 4 locks were always offered on these doors and would have been the norm on the 33 inch Treasury 2/3s. Plus, the doors are swung on conventional hinges- hence the need for the massive taper on the leading door edge. All these factors combine to make the external size of the emergency doors considerably larger in proportion.

Clean, uncluttered and basic looking, but one heck of a product from the Golden days of the company- timeless like Al said

Here's a great shot from Peter Gunn's superb Chubb Archive site- it's hidden away in the 'Export is Fun' section and it's well worth a visit: http://chubbarchive.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/page15.html



Thought of you Doug when I saw this! Definitely not a quarter inch centre drill to start this one...

[Adrian Weber]

Hey Max,

Interesting post!
Garny also manufactured vault doors like this and they also started quite early with it. Are you sure it is an invention of Chubb? Not that I doubt it but I want to be sure.

What is the "infamous TDR barrier material" if I may ask?

Adrian

[wylk]

I found the following image of a Chubb 30-ton Treasury door. Of course this is one of the older crane-hinge doors. But notice there are three handwheels. I assume the largest operates the pressure bars, the middle operates the boltwork, but what about the small one? It looks like it might operate a lockable door blocking access to the lock dials (or keyholes). Is that a good guess?

[Huw Eastwood]

Hi Adrian- I haven't a clue as to which manufacturer would have been first with these changes- like everything else I would imagine they were all going down similar routes with similar ideas around the same time. I posted this purely to show this particular generation of the Chubb Treasury doors and their contrast with the more typically cluttered doors that preceded them.

Chubb's TDR was their legendary barrier material developed to be both Torch and Drill-Resisting- that's what the abbreviated initials stand for. Chubb always had an obsession with equal all-round protection, and for good reason- a safe is after all, a 5 sided box with the door forming the 6th side. Paying more attention to any one of the 6 sides means weakness. Lots of manufacturers would often build loads of defensive barriers into the door of a safe, but not in the safe's body, creating obvious weaknesses.

With booms in metal cutting techniques and attack technologies Chubb's idea was to produce a safe with equal high-level defences on all 6 sides-

The body of the safe being made as a hollow shell of heavy steel, folded and continuously welded. The TDR alloy was then poured molten into the hollow shell to form a solid, 5 sided 'bell' casting without any joints. The door followed the same construction with a single cast slab. It was an aluminium alloy with extremely hard nuggets randomly dispersed throughout the metal. Aluminium has a reasonably high level of heat conductivity, so the thick joint-less block provided good torch resistance without the excessive cost of using copper. The incredibly hard nuggets dispersed through the alloy gave superb protection against drilling. They did however use copper for one of their top-of-the-range freestanding safes- the 'Sovereign', but that's another story. I can remember the final model before withdrawal being priced at over £15,000 + VAT in the mid 1980's- a seriously expensive safe.
Interesting that some American websites I've seen still list the Chubb Sovereign as the highest grade free standing safe ever made- often a battle with Tann's Diamond and the SLS Gem, but only 2 of the SLS were ever made. This Chubb Sovereign is not to be confused with later models of the same name though- why manufacturers confuse by doing this escapes me.

Anyway back on subject, Chubb's TDR was a revolution in safe making, and the 2 foot thick slab cast into these 33 inch Treasury doors combined this modern barrier development with modern appearance.

Getting back to the original theme- the change to 'modern' uncluttered doors, I've got a few more examples which illustrate the transformation.

The 1938 Treasury door that wylk posted is a good example- typical of the day with massive crane hinges, huge pressure bars and capstan (or ships wheel) style handles. These typical heavy doors were made by all the manufacturers for a long time with little in the way of change, and if it wasn't for the Chubb badge on that one it would probably have a lot of people guessing.

Chubb's Treasury door launched at the 1951 festival of Britain was the start- this is the one which received high acclaim for both performance and appearance.
Picture from David Ibbs' superb site: http://www.historywebsite.co.uk/Muse...ollections.htm



Still has heavy pressure bars and crane hinges, but shows the start of the clean and smooth appearance with rounded edges on brackets and contoured handles.

This was 1951- at the same time Chubb also made doors for the Bank Melli and Bank Markazi of Iran, the main one of which was for the Persian Crown Jewels and the Peacock Throne. This door, completed in the same year is interesting in that it's of 1930's appearance- back to multiple steps on the door, heavy pressure bars and capstan style handles.

Here's a scan of the Bank Melli door from the Chubb Collectanea book:



This door's appearance could pass for being made 50 or 60 years earlier, and yet it was completed the same year as the door shown above at the Festival of Britain.

Only a decade or so passed before the Treasury door launched at the Festival of Britain lost it's smooth round handles, crane hinges and pressure bars for the uncluttered doors shown at the start.

So there you have it- between the Bank Melli door above, the Festival of Britain Treasury and the 1960s Treasury 2/3 doors there's little over a decade separating them, and yet in terms of appearance they could span more like a century.

[Ant]

The Picture of the SRD of the Chubb Stainless Door was installed in a large city bank branch primarly to house coin and some notes (this is all outdated now as most is contracted out to security firms as you all know) but I was one of the number that helped put this door in and all that stainless steel cladding I remember we were there for some weeks setting it all up and rubbing the scratches out of the stainless facia plates, plus assembling nearly a hundred steel shelves



I seem to remeber that the K/C/Locks could be yolked together so it could be opened by two or four people, Whole job was a nightmare though at least you knew what time you'd be home better than nomal service work where you could still be working well after 17.30.
It wasn't the Showpiece that people (chubb customers) were taken to see though as that was another large big door though an earlier type very close to their London head office.

[oldlock]

Unusual that it was used as a cash vault. I've worked on a few (maintenance only) and find that the stainless clad doors are almost exclusively used for 'public' ie safe deposit vaults and the cash vaults were usually painted.