LONGVIEW, Wash. - A locksmith has managed to open a 159-year-old safe from Oregon that baffled other professional safecrackers and an expert from MIT.

In 2½ hours, Tom Gorham of Longview got the safe open by spinning the dial and feeling for grooves to get the combination, a technique called manipulation.

"You've got to have a lot of patience, and concentration doesn't hurt," Gorham said.

Gorham trekked to Astoria, a town about 40 miles west of Longview and 70 miles northwest of Portland, Ore., to try his luck with the 1-ton safe found during renovation at a cannery there. The cannery's owner, Floyd Holcomb, wanted it opened without damage.

Gorham and his wife, Kelly, also a locksmith, asked to try after watching a television report on unsuccessful attempts to open the safe. He said an expert from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology had tried, as did another professional locksmith who gave up after 14 hours.

Holcomb won't reveal what was inside until he tells the cannery's board next month, Kelly Gorham said.