Safe

A safe is a strong box.

It keeps your things safe from thieves. It can also protect things from fire.

Some safes are made of metal. Others are made of plastic. A safe can be built into a wall. You might even find a hidden safe. It can look like a book or a candle!

These boxes help keep important things safe and sound.

A safe is a strong box used to protect valuables.

It keeps items safe from thieves or fire. Most safes are shaped like a cube or a cylinder. They have a door that can be locked. Some safes are made of metal like steel. Others are made of plastic.

Safes have been around for a long time. The first known safe was found in a tomb. It was made of wood. In the 1600s, some iron safes looked like barrels.

Today, we use different kinds of safes for different jobs. Some safes protect papers from heat. Others protect hard drives from fire. These are called data safes. They keep the inside cool even when it is hot outside.

Experts test safes to see how strong they are. In the United States, a group called Underwriters Laboratories does this. They give safes ratings. A fire rating tells how long a safe can stay cool during a fire. A burglary rating tells how long a safe can resist tools. Some safes are even built into floors or walls to hide them.

A safe is a secure, lockable box used to protect valuable things.

People use them to keep treasures safe from thieves or fire. Most safes are shaped like a cube or a cylinder. They usually have a door that is hinged or can be removed. The body might be made of metal like steel. Some are even made of plastic using a method called blow molding.

Some safes are even built into walls or floors to stay hidden.

Safes work in many different ways depending on their job. A fire-resistant safe is built to keep the inside cool during a fire. These safes have special ratings to show how long they can last. For example, some can protect things for one, two, or four hours. They must keep the inside temperature below a certain limit. Document safes keep paper below 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Data safes protect hard drives by keeping them below 125 degrees Fahrenheit.

Large companies might even use room-sized vaults made with ceramic fiber insulation.

People have been making safes for a very long time. The first known safe was found in the tomb of Pharaoh Ramesses II. This very old safe was made of wood. It used a locking system similar to a modern pin tumbler lock. In the 1600s, some iron safes in Europe looked like barrels. Later, in 1835, Charles and Jeremiah Chubb from England patented a safe. Their company, Chubb Locks, was an independent business until the year 2000. In 1886, Henry Brown patented a metal box to keep papers organized.

Experts use strict tests to see how well a safe works. In the United States, a group called Underwriters Laboratories provides ratings.

They test how long a safe can resist tools like drills or hammers. This is called a burglary rating. They also have residential security containers, known as RSC. RSC Level I safes must withstand a five-minute attack. RSC Level II safes must resist two people using tools like sledgehammers for ten minutes. Some very strong safes are called TL-15 tool-resistant safes.

Safes are all around us in many different forms. You might see a small key safe on a building wall. These are used to hold keys for people like carers or holiday guests. Some safes are even hidden inside ordinary objects like books or candles. These are called diversion safes. You may have seen movies where people try safe-cracking. This is the act of opening a safe without a key. Even the famous physicist Richard Feynman enjoyed safe-cracking for fun during World War II.

A safe, also known as a strongbox or coffer, is a secure and lockable enclosure. Its primary purpose is to protect valuable objects from theft or fire. Most safes are shaped as a hollow cuboid or a cylinder. One face of the object serves as a door, which is either hinged or removable. The body and the door can be cast from metals like steel. In some cases, they are formed from plastic using a process called blow molding.

Safes are designed with specific mechanisms to provide different types of protection. A fire-resistant safe is built to keep its contents safe from high temperatures. These devices are often rated by how long they can withstand extreme heat. They must maintain an internal temperature below a specific limit to protect what is inside. For example, document safes keep paper below 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Data safes are even more sensitive, keeping temperatures below 125 degrees Fahrenheit to protect magnetic media and hard drives.

There are many different types of safes used for various needs. Wall safes are designed to provide hidden protection for documents and valuables. They often have adjustable depths to fit different wall thicknesses. Some even feature pry-resistant doors with concealed hinges. Small key safes are attached to the outside of buildings to store keys for emergency use or holiday lets. Diversion safes are a unique type of hidden safe. These are made to look like ordinary objects, such as a book, a candle, or a can, to hide valuables in plain sight.

For much larger amounts of heat-sensitive material, organizations use room-sized fireproof vaults. These modular vaults are more economical than buying many individual safes. Corporations and government agencies often use them for large-scale data storage. These vaults use ceramic fiber, which is a high-temperature industrial insulating material, as their core. To achieve a high rating, every part of the vault must be protected. This includes the walls, the roof, the door assembly, and even the places where cables or air ducts enter the structure.

Humans have been developing ways to secure valuables for thousands of years. The first known safe dates back to the 13th century BC. It was found in the tomb of Pharaoh Ramesses II and was made of wood. It used a locking system similar to a modern pin tumbler lock. In the 16th century, blacksmiths in Germany, Austria, and France forged cash boxes from sheet iron. In 1835, English inventors Charles and Jeremiah Chubb patented a burglar-resisting safe. Their company, Chubb Locks, remained independent until it was sold in the year 2000.

To ensure safety, experts use rigorous testing standards. In the United States, Underwriters Laboratories, or UL, provides many important ratings. They test burglary resistance by seeing how long a safe can withstand an attack with tools. For residential security containers (RSC), there are different levels of protection. RSC Level I must withstand a five-minute attack by one technician using hand tools. RSC Level II must resist two technicians using tools like sledgehammers for ten minutes. The strongest commercial safes are often rated as TL-15 tool-resistant safes.

Safe-cracking is the act of opening a safe without the key or the combination. This can involve using brute force or attempting to guess the combination. One method is called "safe bouncing," where someone hits the top of the safe to move the locking pin. Even famous scientists have explored this topic. The physicist Richard Feynman famously practiced safe-cracking for recreation during the Second World War. He once successfully opened secure storage that contained highly important wartime secrets.