Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-04-16
BIG VAULTS SAFE
WASTE OF TIME FOR ROBBERS TO
ATTACK DOORS.
Charge of Dynamite Needed to Effect
Entrance Would Wreck the
Building.
From the Philadelphia inquirer.

From the Philadelphia Inquirer
Merchants are robbed: the safes Of coun-
try banks that carry surplus of perhaps
10000 or $40 600 are often riddled by bur-
glars. How is it that the millions quietly
reposing within the doors of scores of banks
in the larger cities are never attempted?
For 1t is fact that during the last twenty
five years no attack, successful or other
wise, has been made on any bank vault in
the United States in cities of over $4,000
inhabitants. Most of the bank robberies
occurring today take place in towns of
$500 to 1900 inhabitants. In the larger
cities, where the treasure really is. no one
even attempts to rob bank. Why is this?
Money can protect money. That is the
whole secret. The country banks depend
on safes costing perhaps few hundred
dollars; a great city bank spends perhaps
S150,O0 for its burglar and fireproof vaults.
And these vaults are proof. They are
absolutely unassailable. The guarding of
banks money has been reduced to such
science that a banker, having once taken
the proper precautions, never gives the mat
ter further thought, though he has mil
lions of dollars within his doors.
The 1reproofing for a large vault can be
constructed for from $4,000 to $4,000. 1t
is the burglar-proof steel lining that brings
the cost of vault construction up to the
siX-fgure mark
heavy waterproof OooTS.
Think of a steel door weighing twelve
tons or a hinge alone weighing one ton.
When that door consists of ten inches of
drillproof steel. plate Tapped on plate. do
you wonder that even the most daring bur-
glar has ever attempted it? Such great
door usually has some four and twenty-five
or three inch steel bolts. which shoot 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 or
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 cannot be opened until
the hour for which it Is set arrives. The
door is furnished with perhaps three dupli-
cate timers, so that If two should fall to
work there would still be one to open the
door.
Inside the great door a massive grating,
called the day crate, gives access to the
vault. To this chamber. which, with Its
four-inch walls of drillproof 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, $1,000 in each, piled
up ike SO many pdSS VI DuttolS, edCu UdS
being securely tied and sealed. Here are
packages of bills stacked up like bricks.
The ones and twos in 81 600 packages and
the tens and twenties in $4,000 packages.
The bills in each of these packages have
been counted, tied up and sealed by two
persons in the presence Of each other, SO
that the bank can guarantee the amounts as
given on the labels without recounting.
Here, inside the tellers' safes, are compart-
ments where the collateral received for
loans to depositors is kept
But this is only the outer division of the
vault chamber; beyond it Is another massive
grating dividing the vault into two rooms.
No single official can penetrate to the inner
shrine, and one of the two officials neces-
sarily present must be director of the
bank. Here is the holy of HOLES, where re-
pose the reserve funds of the bank-millions
of gold and paper money. The reserve funds
are kept in safes on which the locks are
timed to open every morning, SO that Ii
necessary the bank tellers could have the
money at moments notice.