Diebold was founded in 1859 in Cincinnati , Ohio as the Diebold Bahmann Safe Company . Under the leadership of founder Charles Diebold , a German immigrant , the company 's 250 initial employees began manufacturing safes and bank vaults out of a factory in Canton , Ohio . Diebold states that 878 of its safes protected some of the only undamaged property in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 , and the following year Diebold moved its operations and headquarters to Canton to meet increased demand . In 1874 , Diebold was contracted to build the world 's largest safe , to be installed in the San Francisco branch of Wells Fargo . In 1876 , after becoming incorporated in Ohio , the company changed its name to Diebold Safe & Lock Company . Diebold secured its first international sale in 1881 , when it built a safe for the President of Mexico . Diebold debuted manganese steel doors marketed as TNT-proof in 1890 , and in 1921 , Diebold sold the world 's largest commercial bank vault to Detroit National Bank . Diebold became a publicly traded company in the 1930s . Also around that time , Diebold introduced a " robbery-deterrent system for banks that flooded the bank lobby with tear gas " to help deal with robbers such as the infamous John Dillinger
Great Chicago Fire
Great Chicago Fire
Diebold Nixdorf