The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-01-01
LEAVE BIG
 VAULTS ALONE
BANK ROBBERS FIND TT YMPOssF-
 BLE TO BREAK INTO THEM.

City Safety Deposits Arc srce Strongly
 Built for the Wafauders--Suf-
 Acient Charge of Dynamite
 Would Wreck an Entire
 Building.
 Philadelphia Inquirer
 Merchant are robbed; the safes of country banks that carry a surplus of perhaps s10.000 or s2o.0oo are often rfddied by burglars. How is it that the millions quietly repostng within the doors of scores of banks in the larger cities are never attempted7 For 1t is a fact that during the last twenty-nve years no attack. successful or other wise. has been made on any bank vault in the United States in cities of over 5o,000 inhabitants. Most of the bank robberies occurring today take place in towns of 2.600 to 7,s00 inhabitants. In the large cities, where the treasure really iss no one even attempts to rob bank. Why Is this?
 Money can protect money. That fs the whole secret. The country banks depend on safes costing perhaps a few { hundred dollars; a great city bank spends perhaps $150.00o for its burglar and fre-proof vaults And these vaults are proof. They arc absolutely unas- sailable. The guarding of a banks nsoney has been reduced to such science that banker. having once taken the proper precautions never gives the matter a further thought. though he has millions of dollars within his doors.
 The fireproofng for a large vault can be constructed for from s10.0oO to sIs,- GOO. It Is the burglar-proof steel lining that brings the cost of vault construction up to the six-figure mark.
 Ponderous waterpsoos Doors.
 Think of a steel door weighing twelve tons or of a hinge alone weigh- ing one ton. When that door consists of ten inches of drillproof steel, plate lapped on plate, do you wonder that even the most daring burglar has never attempted 1t? Such great door usually has some four and twenty two or three inch steel bolts which shoos out automatically in four directions as soon as the door is closed. The entire closing of the door is absolutely water tight The closing has actually been tested one whole night under water This closing Is one of the tongue and groove" variety and the groove Is packed with packing.
 This formidable door is furnished with time lock that can be set for any number of hours and that can not be opened until the hour for which 1t is set arrives. The door is furnished with perhaps three duplicate timers, so that if two should fail to work there would still be one to open the door,
 Inside the great door a massive grat- ing called the day grate gives access to the vault To this chamber, which. with its four-inch walls of freproof steel. is worthy of Vulcan himself, only the active officials of the bank have entrance. Here are the tellers safes, where they keep the money for the days business.
 Piles of Gold and Notes.
 Here are bags of gold. $5.OO0 in each, piled up like so many bags of buttons, each bag being securely tied and seal ed. Here are packages of bills stacked up like bricks The ones and twos in $l,000 packages and the tens and twen- ties in $10,0O0 packages. The bills in each of these packages have been counted, tied up and sealed by two per- sons in the presence of each other, so that the banks can guarantee the amounts as given on the labels with out recounting. Here, inside the tell- CTS safes are compartments where the collateral received for loans to depos- itors Is kept.
 But this is only the outer division of the vault chamber; beyond is another massive grating dividing the vault In two rooms. No single official can pen- citrate to the inner shrine, and one of the two officials necessarily present must be director of the bank. Here Is the holy of holies where repose the reserve funds of the bank--milliona of geld and paper money. The reserve funds are kept in safes on which the locks are timed to open every morning. so that if necessary the bank tellers could have the money at a moments notice.
 Big Safes ImpregnabIe.
 The two divisons of the vault form really one chamber with walls of drill proof steel. The walls are drill proof. yet as a matter of fact the up-to-data burglar does not work with drills. A few sticks of dynamite, some nitro glycerine in a bottle, with alcohol putty, candles. wires wire nippers and an exhaust pump are the principal itt ms In his outfit With these tools he often makes an impression" on a small safe. But a single charge of dy- namite heavy enough to open the joints of big vault would wreck the whole building.
 Unlimited time. therefore. in which to work would be necessary to the suc- cessful wrecking of a drill proof vault by explosives. For it would be neces- sary to use long succession of small charges; to work patiently at plate af- LeF pldLeI anu the COnulliOuS mdkS Nnt3 absolutely impossible. The reason such pains are taken to make all joints wa | ter tight Is to guard against the intro- duction of nitroglycerine, which has about the consistency of honey or conn mon glycerine. Nitroglycerine Is not effective unless 1t is inside the safe or vault
 The entire great steel room Is made fireproof by being inclosed in brick or tile or cement walls. between which end the steel walls is an air space four or five inches thick Air as non-eon- duetor of heat and being interposed between the brick and the steel walls prevents the latter from becoming overheated. So perfect is the proteo- ton that even when building has been destroyed the contents of the vaults within have remained unchanged. Half the neighbors critioise man