The Saline County journal. [volume] (Salina, Kan.) 1871-1893, 1879-08-28
OUR TREASURY KEYS.


How Tie Gevssnmsat Money b Kept IN
der Lock and Key.
From the 81 Louis Globe.s
The Treasurer of the United States, Mr..
Gil6llan, has completed collection Of
keys to the treasury vaults and money
boxes in use before the introduction OF
combination locks. The collection num-
ben fifteen keys, which have been ar
ranged in neat walnut case, and now
decorate the walls of the Treasurer Office.
The first in chronological order is VERT
able patriarch of the key family. It is
about seven inches long, weighs over a
pound, and makes great display OF
notches which fitted into the complicated
wards of the lock. Judging from the fin
gArded in its day as q masterpiece of in
modern experts would smile at such bar
treasure. The known history of this key
goes back at least half century. and its
custodian tor years was Virginian named
er's Office. The colonel was, according to
0ICOuuJo, q JkuC LypC VI tuC Olu- IlUuC II
ginlan-tall, erect and measuring over six
feet, wearing a certain air of the cavalier
which would have justified some notions
of the boasted chiyalry of the Old Domin-
ion. He lived on the soil Of his native
State, and every morning rode into Wash
lngton over the Long bridge; in summer
time, tying his rawboned Virginia PAGER
in a grove near the department, where
kla al
strobe along the corridors Of the Treasury.
with his spurs clanking on the paved way
and cracking his ridingwhip, staggered
into his Office. His first act was to haul
the immense safe-key out Of a wallet he
carried about hi, person, and to an ad-
miring audience Of accountants, tellers,
clerks, messengers and boys, would pre-
face the formality of opening the antique
strap-iron box by descanting on the COM
plicated interior arrangements Of the lock,
and the number Of tumblers the awe-in-
spring instrument he held in his hand
knocked down at single turn in the in
tricate wards. The money boxes, too,
were never ending and fruitful
theme of the venerable Nuts admira-
ton. He spoke of the welded straps OF
iron and the innumerable bolts which
marked the intersection Of the web. The
colonel continued in Office until Virginia
joined her fortunes to the conspiracy
against the Union, and then one after
noon, after he had drawn his pay, was
last seen canterlng toward the Potomac
and across into his native State. Another
key, as large as Colonel Nuts and much
more worn, has its notches shaped like a
letter T. 1t is said that from this the key
represented in the seal of the Treasury
Department was designed. As the i'm
provement in locks began, a noticeable
change in the formation of the keys il
indicated. Next comes a pair that re-
semble the handle of tourniquet, and
following the intermediate stages are two
heavy brace keys, containing in them.
selves a combination formed by strips Of
metal of different lengths and numbered
The combinations were varid in changing
the arrangement of these strips in the
key. As lockpicking grew to an art, and
the ingenuity Of the inventor was brought
into competition with the ingenuity Of
the burglar, the use of keys was abandon
ed, and from year to year, as millions Of
treasure and securities and notes filled
the vaults. all the latest and most secure
appliances were introduced. After care.
full and thorough examination, the Sergeant
time and chronometer combination lock
was adopted in each vault. Every night,
under the superintendent of the Treasur-
er. and by trusted and tried custodians.
each chronometer in the lock is wound
and set for $50 a. m. When once in
motion there is no possible way to open
it, even by the officers authorized TO know
the continuation. No key is used, the
whole delicate mechanism responding d
limit of time and the application Of Z
word or figure to the parts forming the
combination.