Introduction—Locks, ancient and modern—Copying keys—Ornamental keys—Breaking open padlocks—Chubb’s detector lock—Sets of locks—Elements of a good lock—Common locks

Planning burglaries—Bank robbery—The Cornhill burglary of 1865—Providing fit receptacles for valuables—False keys—Insecure premises—Modes of house-robberies, and means of prevention—Burglars’ tools—Statistics—Police notice—South-Eastern Railway robbery—Jewel robberies—Notice by Colonel Fraser

Patents for safes—Safes by Milner, Tann, Hobbs, and Chatwood—Chubb’s diagonal and new patent safes—Wedging open safes—Drilling, and mode of protection—Other methods for opening safes—The safe custody of keys—Amount of space required for bullion

The heat to be resisted—Three qualities necessary—Refractory and evaporating systems—Best materials to use for fireproofing—Public tests—Double enclosure for parchments—Safes once in fire to be re-proofed—Effects of Pantechnicon fire on safes—French safes—Gunpowder safes

Real and sham second-hand safes—Apparent and actual strength—Garden-turf for fireproofing—Bolts and locks unsuitable—Patentees’ names illegally used—Directions for purchasing safes—Weights of good safes—Worthlessness of guarantees

Planning a strong-room—Its position—Dampness and ventilation—Robberies by excavating through floor—Floor, walls, and roof—Entrance—Lighting—Fixing the door—Fittings—Design and estimate—Strong-room in a London bank—McNeill’s floating strong-room—Bullion on board ships

Fireproof buildings for business purposes—Mr. Braidwood’s opinion on warehouse construction—Use and strength of iron—Iron supports for house-fronts—Wood posts versus iron columns—Captain Shaw’s experiments—Dennett’s column—Danger from faulty building—Stone and concrete as fireproof materials—Iron girders—Stairs and doorways—Danger from windows—Iron sashes and shutters—Roofs and ceilings—Brick the best material

Names of patentees—Dennett’s construction—Patent concrete—Mode of constructing arches for floors, ceilings, and roofs—Vaults and domes—St. Thomas’s Hospital—Cost of arching—Insecurity of the Bodleian Library—Parliamentary report on British Museum, National Gallery, etc.—Extinguishing fire at South Kensington—Water-supply in public buildings—St. Paul’s Cathedral—Paris fires during the Commune

Loss from fire preventible—Official enquiries into fires—Rapid increase and statistics of fires—Causes of London fires in 1873—Tin, lead, etc. combustible—Watching buildings—Sweeping chimneys—Precautions against fire—Detection of fire—Danger to life—The smoke respirator—Escape from a burning house—Fire-escapes—Directions for saving and restoring life—Curious instances of fires

Two methods of fire-extinction, mechanical and chemical—Sinclair’s fire-exterminator—Hand fire-engines—Steam fire-engines—Messrs. Shand and Mason’s engines—Messrs. Merryweather and Son’s engines—Boilers of steam fire-engines—Water-supply at fires—Particulars of London Fire Brigade—Fires at country houses—Destruction of mills

Designs and Description of a Fireproof Warehouse

Complete Lists of Patents for Locks and Safes