MARVELS OF MODERN SAFE BUILDING.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 210, 9 October 1909, Page 4

MARVELS OF MODERN SAFE BUILDING.

WHERE £100,000,000 IS STOKED. There is a crib waiting to lie cracked at Washington which will place liill Sikes on his mettle. He.will, in fact, | need the skill and ingenuity of half adozen Rallies to break through th,- barriers between him ami .tl(IO,()l)0,tHM) which lies in the vault of the Tre-.iMivy Building in Washington. This money is "kept in stock" in accordance with the Emergency Currency Act, which .vim passed by tile United States Congress last year, and the man who is responsible for its safe keeping is .Mr. Watson W. Kldridge, whose official position is that of Chief of the Currency liureau. While his responsibility is great, however, it is mitigated to a certain extent by the fact that thin emergency ey has been stored ill a safe ur vault which is not only burglar-proof, but capable of resisting fire, flood, or earthquake. When the Bureau of Printing and Engraving began to deliver the emergency money—not ill thousands and hundreds of thousands, but ill millions—the Treasury officials ordered a 6 afe capable if holding this, the vastest sum of monjy ever stored in one place. COST AMIOOO. The vault was completed a short time ago, and to-dav contains hundreds of millions of banknotes stored in its steel pigeon-holes. The safe itself cost ,t!)onn. and is a two-storv structure. Tile interior walls are of'lhirveyised steel, half an inch thick, the whole being m masonry and cornent* more than 2ft thick. Beneath the masonry and the shell of steel lies the chief protection of t'le vault against burglars—a mat of closelywoven steel wires. Each of these wires s charged with electricity, so that when one of them is touched with an awl, or n bit, or a dynamite pump, an alarm is instantly set off in an adjoining building where watchmen are constantly on guard; and to make sure that this electrical apparatus is working properly, ' there is a "buzzer" which goes off every fifteen minutes inside the vault. If the warning apparatus is not -work- ' jng properly, this "buzzer" will he ; thrown out of commission and tho . ivfttchman will be immediately notified. ■ I his enormous vault, \vho6e roof is on a ' evel with the pavement, has a perfect i.vstem of ventilation by great driving ■ ind suction fang, which are turned on ' .vheri the vault is opened, so that the ' iir is fresh and cool at all times. ] AN AMAZING DOOR. One of the marvels of the vault is the ' ioor, a complicated mass of grey steel ' .velghing seven tons, hut so wonderfully >alanccd 011 ball-bearing hinges that it flu he opened without effort. It has our combinations, and 110 one man in ,he employ of the Government knows tlieni. Two men know two of then, and two others the remaining two, so that n order to unloek the money chamber two persons must be present. The door s, of course, equipped with the timeock device, which is now in use on all [irst-class safes. H'EXED ACCORDING TO SCHEDULE. But even entrance through tn:> vault [lour set* oil an alarm in the watchmen's room. It V necessary, therefore, to .supply the. watchmen's department witli a schedule showing at what hour the vault will be opened. The vault, according to ;hc schedule, must not he opened hel-jre . 5.45 in tho morning, and it must b? dosed before 5 o'clock every night. I The only way to reach the vault is by a tiny hydraulic elevator, which is protected by an iron door, opening almost at the elbow of tho Chief of the Bureau, who keeps the key in his desk,— I Fit-Bits.