Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-03-03

| make an appropriation for this purpose.
The Secretary of the Treasury does not
| want the reconstruction done all at once.
| He wants one vault at a time attended to.
so while the ultimate expense will be very
| great the immediate appropriation will be
| comparatively small. The government
| commission which examined the treasury
vaults two years ago reported that vault
| No. 1.-The principal silver Vaults of ''ab-
| soiutely no value as a protective construc-
| ton. The same commission condemned
IN almost as strong terms six of the other
| seven vaults land said that vault No. 2
should simply be kept long enough to get
| the other vaults replaced or reconstructed.
| The safes in the redemption bureau which
| are used for the storage of small uuanti-
| ties of money at night are of the pattern
| of the last generation and they also should
| be replaced.
1t Is probable that the members of the
appropriation committee have learned more
about burglar methods through the study
or this problem of vault construction than
they ever knew before. The Secretary of
| the Treasury has laid all the facts before
them in detail. Usually the authorities
shroud the methods of criminals with as
much mystery as possible in the belief that
may help to educate other criminals. The
commission which was appointed to inves-
tigate the vaults of the treasury told the
Secretary that burglary methods were SO
well known that no publicity given to
them could be made to serve any bad pur-
pose. So the commissions report which the
House committee has been considering is
a perfect text book in vault burglary
The Four Methods.
There are four methods of attack used by
the modern vault burglar The simplest
or these is tosdrill the walls or door of
vault and obtain access to the locks or
bolts so that the door can be unlocked from
the inside. The second is to strip off layer
by layer the steel and iron sheets Of which
modern vaults are made. The third is to
| employ an explosive in some part easy of
attack and to destroy the locks, break open
| door or break or weaken the walls of
| vault. The fourth is to compel the Off
Ger in charge of the combination of a vault
| to open the door.
There Is no such thing as a burglar
| proof vault or safe. Experiments as well
| as practical experience have shown that
| there is no form of construction yet de-
| vised which is capable of resisting burglars
tools. The principal safeguard against
burglary Is that on which the Treasury
Department has relied for many years
the multiplicity of the guards about the
vaults. Next to that the greatest security
Is In the construction of a vault whose
walls Will be so difficult of penetration that
before the burglar can get clear through
he will be discovered. But when a set of
burglars equipped with finely tempered
drills has an entire night undisturbed in
which to get inside vault there is no
vault yet constructed which is proof against
them.
The Construction of the Modern Vault
The invariable construction Of the modern
vault is in layers of soft and tough steel
| or iron. The softer material is intended
| to give strength and permanence of form
| to the mass; the tough metal, to resist the
drill. The soft metal by itself would yield
| rather quickly TO the drill; the tough metal
being brittle, would be shattered easily by
| an explosive The softer metal is usually
| the best of what are known as the mild
steels made by the Bessemer process. Iron
| is subject to flaws by Elimination or cinder-
streakS and therefore Is not so desirable as
steel. The harder metal is either high"
| carbon steel or an iron alloy Usually
| II Is an alloy of iron and chromium, known
| as chrome steel. The common method Of
manufacture Is to alternate three layers Of
| iron or soft steel with two intermediate
| layers of steel capable of taking on extreme
| hardness and to roll them down together
| hot, to form sheet of the thickness Of
half an inch. SO that the imbedded steel
plates will offer the greatest resistance
! to well-tempered drilling cutting tool
| These composite sheets are then built into
| the walls Of the vault alternating with
| heavy half-inch iron or soft steel plates
until a thickness Of several. inches Is OBJ
| tanned. Absolute impenetrabillty IL not to
| be had and Is not expected, but II the walls
can be made to resist an attack over night
1 or even over two nights and two days-two
| holidays or a holiday and a Sunday fire.
| Ouently Intervene do
| the result is considered entirely satisfac-
| tory. Vaults have been made recently Of
| solid masses Of the chilled iron used in car
wheels.
In ordinary vault construction a set of
tap bolts is used, each passing through
one sheet and screwing into the sheet be-
yond. The second sheet being bolted to the
| first, another set of bolts fastens the third
sheet to the second; the two sets Of bolts
breaking joints so that no bolt hole pene-
| trates more than two sheets. The walls
| of the vault are always built from the in
side outward. Where the method of at
| tack Is to strip the sheets from their places
ordinary bolts are frequently drawn by
clamps or nippers.
| Door and Time-Lock.
The weakest part of q vault or safe is
| the door. IT is constructed, like the walls
| of alternate layers of soft and hard steel
In the combination or ordinary time-lock
system there is a steel spindle, also made
Oh nara ana SOIt material, WHICH runs
| through the door, and with which the bolts
| are moved when the door is to be opened.
| For long time this spindle was the weak
| est part of the vault construction. In the
costliest modern vaults it has been re-
moved altogether. These later vaults have
| an automatic mechanism which works in
connection with a time-lock and throws
| the bolts at the hour fixed for opening the
| safe door.
The time lock has solved many of the Diff
| flculties of vault construction. 1t has heat
en- the burglar completely at his fourth
point of attack. He can compel the CASH
| Ter of bank at the point Of a pistol to
open the banks offices and tc lead the way
| to the vault, but the cashier is Just pow
crless in the presence of the time-lock as
| the burglar. Time-locks are used in the
| Treasury Department, and one of them. is
a constant object of interest to visitors at
| the bureau of engraving and printing.
| There is a time-lock in the cashiers office
| in the Treasury Department and one morn
| ing some years ago the government sus-
pended payment for an hour because the
cashier had made a mistake in setting the
| clock in the vault. At the end of that hour
the doors of the vault swung open auto
| matically and Uncle Sam resumed bust
ness at the old stand.
Four Clocks to a Vault.
The average visitor at the bureau Of en-
craving and printing, knowing the uncer-
tainty of clock work from a personal eX-