El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1913-10-12

I remember another scare in the
trea sury. 1t was a good many years
ago when Gilfillian had charge of the
Vau is. The trouble was as to the cash
room, where the vault in which the
ready money is kept refused to open.
The vault was set with a time lock
this occasion something seemed to be
wrong with the mechanism. The steel
doors remained closed. Nine o'clock
arrived and still the money was locked
up. Men came TO the tellers' windows
and there was no money to pay them.
Then experts were hurriedly sent for.
They got out their tools and prepared
to open the vault. but before they could
do so the door opened of its own ac-
cord BY accident the lock had been
set for $50 instead of $50 as usual
But / am getting away from Uncle
Sans catacOmbS- L want to tell you
about this 500 million dollars in bank
notes which Uncle Sam has ready in
case of a panic. 1t is now several
years since they were stored away and
when they were made a brand new
vault was made for them This is
nothing like the big silver vault which
/ have described. 1t is more like a
safety deposit establishment. 1t is a
two story structure furnished with
steel racks. The interior walls are of
Harveyized steel half an inch thick
and outside them are walls of masonry
and cement more than two feet in
thickness. Between the masonry and
the shell of steel is a mat of closely
woven steel wires, each of which is
charged with electricity, so that if
one of them should be touched with
an awl or a bit or a dynamite pump
an alarm would go off in a part of the
building nearby where the watchmen
are always on guard Connected with
this electrical apparatus is a buzzer
which goes off every quarter of an
hour inside the vault If the buzZer
does not work it is known outside and
the Waterman would be notified
Could Stop u Panic Quickly.
But how about the money in the
vault. It is all there I can tell you,
and the whole $500, 000, 600 can be issued
upon a moments notice. When the bill
making II was passed. think 1t was
in 190S-it was required that the notes
be ready for circulation within so days.
II was therefore a rush job. The print
ing had 10 be carefully done. but they
started by turning out something like
S2,OOO,0OO day A week later they
were turning out 100000 day and
the speed increased up to the time that
the job was completed The cost of
making the S500,00O,00O was S255,00
and it required 15,O00,000 sheets, four
notes to the sheet to print the whole
issue. Seven million sheets contained /
three notes of $40 and one note of
$40 each, and there were 100000 1
sheets devoted to So notes There were |
400, 600 sheets, which contained notes of |
$50 and 500, and altogether they have !
made up the $500,0O0,0OO.
I have shown you how our Sill ,OOO,- /
boo in silver in the big vault weighs |
less than 5000 tons. I am told that the Il
whole amount of this S500,0OO,00O in !
paper weighs just about 100 tons, !
sheets on which the four bills |
are printed weighing exactly u pounds. |
The value of the weight is. of course, |
matter of the denomination. A $4,000 |
pill weighs no more than a 81 bill, and
he receipt which treasurer Burke
gave for almost a billion and a half is
10 heavier.