The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1903-11-13
New Vault Doors Set y

49,
The new doors:s'f9r sthe big vault in
the bank IF M. .E~stswart 4 Co. were
set, this weeks 1 Wotk on the vault
proykf is pow being pushed. The doors
and ysstibult wsre constructed by the
Mqser Safe& Lock Co., and their ex-
ferssMr. Oscar Geiger, was present to
sypSfintend the placing in position Of
athe big doors. Since the precautions
taken by bank OF similar institution
t6 make their vaults as nearly burglar
proof as possible are always of nearly
as much interest to people in general as
are stories of robbers themselves, THE
TINES gives the following short descrip-
tion of the vaultand in particular of the
doors and their yestfbule.
To begin with, the doors and vesti-
bule are the heaviest by far which have
ever been brought to the city. The
outer door itself weighs over four tons
and is seven feet in height. With the
vestibule in which it hangs the COM
bined weight is nearly six and half
tons. The door is built up of four diff
ferent plates Of steel Of varying degrees
of hardness, the outer plate being of
very hard steel. The sheet Immediately
behind the front sheet is chrome steel
which is even more difficult to drill than
the outer sheet The use of the two
kinds of steel offers a more effective re-
sistance than either would offer alone
although OF the same thickness This
arises from the fact that drills in pass
ing from one grade of the steel to the
other have an invariable tendency to
drift, which quickly snaps the brittle
drill in two and ends the work in that
spot. The different plates are so bolted
together that they form one solid piece
of metal and there is no exposed bolt,
and no crack or hole where a single par
ticle Of nitro-glycerine can be put in, or
where drill could find an opening in
which to begin. The construction of
the door in addition offers the highest
known resistance to the most dangerous
electric drilling processes yet known.
The locks of the door are governed by
series Of three clocks. Any one of these
will unlock the time mechanism at the
hour determined upon even if both the
9th ers should be stopped. The clocks
may be set for any number of hours and
minutes up to seventy-two hours, three
entire days. Once set, not one OF all of
the bank officers themselves could enter
the bank until the time isr.us5. '~TGe
clocks rest on springsr9S that no jaI
from explosion aHT otherwise could stol
any of thepa:.
The mechanism of the hinges is O
sYGh nice adjustment that the ease will
(Which the big door can be moved il
quite surprising. Once opened the ar
ray of inner barriers is still formidable
Immediately inside the front door is
day gate of steel bars. Beyond thi
there is a solid steel door with splendit
combination locks. This inner door i.
Of solid steel two inches thick.
The vault itself rests on a solid found
alton Of stone and concrete built up from
the basement. The skeleton for the
vault proper rests on this and is compos
ed of 314 one and a quarter inch upright
steel rods set closely together. At the
| upper and lower ends of the rods they
are fastened by heavy nuts to long plates
of solid steel an inch thick. Between
the tops and bottoms each rod passes
through five other steel plates of hall
inch thickness, making the whole very
stiff. About this steel framework two
foot wall Of solid concrete, made of the
finest imported German Dykenhoff Gem
ent mixed with sharp gravel and crushed
glass, is built to the top, and over and
about the rods on the top, forming the
roof. The construction is therefore seen
to be of the strongest throughout and
the firm of M. L. Stewart & Co. is to be
congratulated on having acquired so fine
an addition to its equipment. 1t is not
expected that the part of the building in
which the new vault stands will be
ready for use by the bank before the
first of the year.