The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1867-05-03
nisteIIaaeUus.
The Sub.Treasury-Ninety Tons of Coin
in Safe,

The vaults Of the United States Sub.
Treasury are said to exceed in size those
of the bank of England. The strong and
burglar proof manner in which they have
been constructed excites the admiration of
all beholders. There are two of these
immense vaults, one at each corner of
the Pine street end of the rotunda. The
rooms are, perhaps twenty feet long by ff-
teen feet wide, and ten or twelve feet
high. They contain no window; there is
but one door opening into each, and gas
lights are kept burning inside.
The internal appearance of these vaults
has striking resemblance to fashion
able tomb in Greenwood Cemetery, rows
of cases being arranged around the sides
of the room, each about two feet square,
with iron doors attached. There is one
door for each ease, and when the apart.
ment has been filed with bags of gold or
bundles of greenbacks, the doors are
closed. Each case will contain half a mil
lion of dollars each. When case is thus
filled, the door is closed, and a seal is at.
fixed in the presence of the Naval Officer
and the Surveyor of the Port. 1t takes
one hundred bags to hold half million of
dollars. In the first vault entered, there
were seventy-two compartments arranged
around the room, which formed a tier
somewhat higher than mans head.
Running over the top of these was a
balcony with an iron railing in 'front.'
There was piled in this balcony, in one
heap, six millions of dollars in five and
ten dollar bills; one million of dollars
in internal revenue stamps, fifty thousand
dollars in fractional currency, pat up in
large paper boxes, and five and one.half
millions in United States bonds.
The floor of the vault rests on thirty
feet of solid masonry, from the ground
up. On the top of this granite there are
two feet of wrought iron, aud between the
iron plates space filed up With bu llets.
If rogue should succeed in boring
through the granite and iron, the moment
his drill touched bullet, it would COM
mence to revolve, and by the time he had
penetrated it, another would drop in its
place in this way he would soon find
that ne had an endless job before him, and
the attempt to get into the vault would
have to be abandoned.
The sides and top of the room are COM
posed of eight feet granite and two of iron,
arranged in the same manner as for the
floor. This safe, as it is called, was in.
vented by Mr.. Isaiah Rogers. Mr..
Rogers once remarked that if the people at
the Treasury building should happen to
get locked out Of the safe it would take
him month to break into it. A night
watch is kept to look after these strong
boxes, but they are considered safe with
out him.
There are four doors to be opened, one
after the other, before We can enter the
safe. Each one of these doors weighs
two tons, and contains locks Of different
patterns. A lever is SO arranged that af-
ter the doors are closed, four large iron
bolts are thrown across the doorway, rest
ing in sockets which have been made
in pillar of wrought iron. IF thief
should succeed in cutting the hinges of
one of these doors, usually considered to
be the most vulnerable point, the door
would not drop down from its place, and
nothing would be gained. Like the dea.
cons celebrated one-horse shay, these
doors are made as strong in one place as
in another, and the hinges show no signs
of weakness. 1t will take fearful earth.
quake to shake them down.