The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1909-07-02

UNITED STATES
Big TREASURY
Vault Holds $5O0,0OO,OOO
Of Emergency Currency.
Built Of Steel With Electric Alarm
System Wonderful Sight
to Behold.

Tourists rarely will see one of the
most imposing of the new sights in
Washington-the great steel vault
in the Treasury building, where $780,
100000 of emergency currency will
be stored. The vault which was be-
gun under the administration of AS
sistant Secretary Louis A. Coolidge,
is an accomplishment OF which he
properly is very proud, is completed
and in working order, except that the
telephone connection was inavertently
omitted.
1t is in the northwest corner of
the division of issue, and its roof is
twenty-five feet below the surface of
the street and five feet below the sub
basement of the Treasury building. In
fact 1t is almost under the foundation
stones of the building, itself, for they
protrude into the vault on the south
side and form a convenient shelf,
which the clerks find useful as tenn
porary receptacle for packages which
they are assembling to take upstairs.
The vault is reached only by an
electric elevator which opens only int
the office of the chief of the divi-
sion of issue. 1t is wholly of steel an
about fifty-five feet long by twenty
feet wide and eighteen feet high, and
is divided into two stories. The second
story has a grated floor, like that
of a marine engine room, and both
like those in use in public libraries.
Bank notes are printed in four forms
of uniform size, viz, four fifties and
two one hundreds, three tens and one
twenty and four tens. The fifties and
one hundreds are cut up into sheets
and all are made up into packages of
1000 sheets each, in which form they
fit accurately into the pigeon holes,
of which there are about $1,000.
The Aldrich-Vreeland emergency cur
rency act requires the printing of $780,
100000, of the new money, and al
ready about $S2O,OOO,OOO has come
from the hired vault owned by the
trust company, here, where it has
been stored. and placed in the new
vault.
The new banknotes differ from the
old only in bearing the words, "Se-
cured by United States bonds or other
securities and in time they will
supplant the notes now in circula-
ton. The government plan is that
the emergency currency shall be prac-
tically the same as that secured by
United States bonds, the only differ
ence being that when the notes are
issued on securities other than gov
eminent bonds, the book-keepers of
the department keep a record of the
issue and the notes are taxed in
accordance with the provisions of the
room.
The new vault is used for reserve
stores only; the money is actually
issued from the old vault, opening out
from the office of the division of is
sue, four flights up.
Seventeen miles of fine wire are
wound around this steel cavern, and
the slightest disturbance of any one
of these tiny wires, the like of which
you see in the glass door would sound
a bell in the main office of the West
ern Union Telegraph company. in f.
street, and in jiffy the department
would be notified. During the hours
when the vault is officially open, this
signal would be disconnected or dis
regarded but the moment the vault is
closed, the Western Union by contract
with the government, fixes sleepless
eyes upon the signal boxes.
The amount of bank circulation
outstanding, of the old form, is about
s590,0OO,O0O. The new act provides for
the issue of $4S0,000,O00 and during
the last year about 1920, 900 of the
new currency has been taken out.
Every day the teams of the bureau
of engraving and printing bwring to
the office of the division of issue
about 100000, which is recorded and
taken down the electric elevator to
the waiting vault below. Every pack
age is numbered with the number of
bank for which 1t has been printed,
and the packages are arranged in
numerical order, beginning with the
Oldest chartered bank. The notes in
the name of the National City bank
of New York City, occupy 1893 pigeon
holes and as the smallest packages
contains $4,000 the total sums is
larger than the greatest kings ran
som.
At The First Census.