Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1910-05-24

the silver already referred to. one for
all kinds of coinage. but mostly for
gold. and the remaining four for the
gold, silver and nickel bullion. The
bronze bullion lies In another room by
itself. but as a few dollars worth or
this substance makes an uncomforta-
bly, heavy load it is not thought nee
essary to surround it with the. minute
safeguards used In the case OF the
precious metals.
The vaults themselves have double
combination. That to the outer door
is known by the cashier only and that
TO the inner door by the custodian OF
the vaults only To enter vault both
men have to be together. and it lis
rule OF the department that both shall
stay together till the inspection OF
other object for which the huge SAFE
is opened is accomplished.
Entering one OF these great cages
after FIVE minutes working at the
combination, one finds himself in a
huge room partitioned OF in fifteen
compartments by steel gratings OF the
strongest kind. A straight passage
six feet wide and the height Of the
chamber goes down the length OF the
room from the door. At the entrance
are stored the bronze coins, the cents,
about $4,000 worth Of them. but the
amount varies from day to day. Next
come the more precious nickel coins.
OF which the value usually totals
about $500, 900.
Beyond these storage places a steel
go In Qora ffSQlH
to be opened and then still another
to get completely to the end OF the
room. All along the length OF this
passageway. from the entrance to the
vault to the end. are the compart-
ments for the coins, separated from
the passageway by exactly the same
kind OF gratings as those which divide
the way itself into sections.
The bottom, the sides and the top OF
this vault are lined with steel plates,
and about the entire vault is the three
foot protection of concrete. Within the
vault itself are the separate compart-
ments, each locked. These compart-
ments are examined shortly after the
end Of the fiscal year and are then
sealed by the examiners, so that any
entrance to them would be impossible
without the breakage of the seals. In
each compartment devoted to the stor-
age of gold the coin is stored first in
bags which contain 5000 each in half
eagles, eagles or double eagles. and
then these bags are arranged twenty
on a shelf. Each shelf has thus $780,
600 on 1t. The shelves are arranged in
a n IAN fnv frs
tom of the compartment each row
having thus S1,0O0,000 in gold in it.
Electricity lights the entire section
Of each vault. and the electric current
is So arranged that If it were possible
for the vaults to be tempered with the
electricity would Immediately give no
tice outside that something was wrong.
A detachment of guards every night
is stationed at the entrance to the
stairways leading to the corridor.
which gives access to the vaults them
selves. Their orders are to shoot down
any one attempting an entry.
For the protection of the mint from
fire q well drilled fire brigade has
charge of the extinguishing apparatus.
There are thirty-one fire alarm sta
tons located in the corridors and
rooms throughout the building.
At night every fifteen minutes thirty
one watchmen ring signal notifying
the watch IN the telephone room that
all is well. All these men carry re-
volvers during the night watch. If the
signal from any Waterman was not
heard at the right time an instant
alarm would be sounded.-Philadelph
Record.