The daily Alaskan., 1913-01-23
A BIG BANK VAULT
How It's Doors Were Opened by
 a Message From the Sea.
THE MAGIC OF AN AEROGRAM.

THE MAGIC OF AN AER0GRAM. A Dilemma From Which a Great Fi-
 nansial Institution Extrieatsd Itself
 In Double Quick Time by a Rapid
 Esehanqe oF Wireless Dispatches,
 To the ordinary laymRn, too busy or too indifferent to bother bis head with scientific matters, wireless telegraphy is somewhat of mystery. In gen eral way he knows that by it messages are flashed through the air over oceans and mountains, but he does not realize to what an extent and in what varied roles the aerial magic plays lts parts fin daily life. In The Wireless Man the author. Francis A. Collins, mar rates an instance In which aerograms averted a possible financial mishap' He writes:
 "A secret even a very big one, may be intrusted to the wireless man ana flung halfway across the Atlantic with complete safety. There was the case. for instance, of the president or A great New York bank who sailed TOT Europe without leaving the comblna- lion of the locks of the vaults. As a rule. the combination Is a single word' and the secret Is known only to two or three. In this case, by an oversight there was no one left ashore who knew the key. The money and securities Of the bank were very safely locked away and hours of work would be required to force the locks of the safe deposit vaults
 "The bank presidents steamer had sailed at 6 o'clock of a summers morn ing Co catch favorable tide, and when the banks officials tried to open the vaults at about Q o'clock the steamer carrying the secret was up- ward Of two hours at sea. A hRsty examination showed that there was but one way to open the vaults, short of breaking Into them, and that was by getting the code from the presi- dent. serenely unconscious Of the trou, bIes ashore. To delay opening the vaults would, of course, be a very sert- ous matter. IT the piles of money were not ready behind the barred windows promptly at 10, the fact would be known within few minutes through out the financial section. A serious run on a bank has been started for less cause
 "In the old days, before the cable the secret could not have been gained In less than two or three weeks at best or until a message had reached the president by mall and returned across the Atlantic. The cable alone would have cut the delay in two by catching the traveller 3n his arrival on the other side. Meanwhile the bank officials, hastily summoned to a conference, had acted quickly. The wireless stations had been notified. and a message eX- plaining the situation was flashed from the top of a high building in New York and from the Sea Gate and Nantucket stations All this was the work of less than ten minutes.
 "Now the combination word used Go lock up these millions in gold, currency and securities Is, of course. not a piece of information to be flashed broadcast along the Atlantic coast It would be known to scores of people, even If the stations receiving guarded the secret with the utmost care, The officials therefore impressed upon the president tbe importance of sending his message in the private code used by the bank in its important cables. As the hour for opening the bank approached the oth- cials waited with an impauence which may be imagined
 ''The wireless message was handed to the bank president as he sat at breakfast well out Co sea. lt was now exactly 9I6. There was a sudden va cancy at that particular table. After one glance at the aerogram the prest- dent. realizing the situation to the last detail. rushed madly for bis staterOom to search for his code book. A few mo- ments later a dignited elderly gentle man rushed into the wireless booth. de manding at any cost that his message be given the right of way. He got it.
 "An aerogram expressed in an unin- teIligible cipher was soon being flashed with the full power of the apparatus The wireless stations along the coast had been ordered to expedite the mes sage in every way and were waiting anxIously for it It was read by two stations on the Long Island coast and repeated hurriedly to New York. A few minutes later the clerk at the telephone in the bank was carefully writing out the strange tumble of letters and trans lsting them into intelligible English. The clock pointed to twenty minutes to TO- the banks opening hour, when the great steel door swung noiselessly