Show 1 I V c 1 S 'S r t l r SAFE SAFEa Bankers Banker's 4 a r Nightmare imar e o of a Money o TT Vault i fi i tk ih l Fr Fri Shattered an and Denuded of Wealth by Bandits Growing Remoter as I Engineers Baffle With 44 tayer ayer on Layer of Alternate i Concrete an and d Steel j T C ty i r r e 1 a cam f a i y 1 J Sa t f n 1 f- f p f 9 t w iS 1 t 4 I IX i X c f fis Yr is r rL L r i u f o c t r 7 y l M r f i tr L 4 v. v i l f flir i t q lir wy i iY a Y e J J S Y or e I By Harry r Goldberg r TO 0 BANKER closing his vault on l of bullion and stacks of securities need toss in his b bed d at night for fear that when he comes down to the office in the morning he be will discover that nocturnal visitors have 1 torn open his safe and disappeared with his assets and deposIts c i The vault engineer is now a long jump ahead of the While hundreds of banks are arc still equipped with strongboxes which will open at the prod of the drill the flame of a torch or yield to the persuasion of a few ounces ounces of nitroglycerin researches into vault corn corn- construction have produced a combination com com- of materials which deter the hardiest of criminals from attempting to force an entrance Vault doors vary up to three feet in x thickness with walls and ceiling o of f four feet beet of concrete and steel steel-as in Federal J I. I Reserve banks SInce the new methods of construction have been in vogue no not t thief has succeeded in gaIning admittance t to a banks bank's wealth guarded by a door of k more than five inches in thickness I r The struggle between the banker and andt the burglar has not been one The victory has passed from one to the other t but in this last stride safety from serious attack is definitely upon the side of the k banker At times the ingenuity of the has made obsolete a powerful safe upon which the banker had congratulated himself as being absolutely ly burglar proof F THE HE steel manganese safe was perfected I by the discovery of an alloy by the late Sir Robert Hatfield The tried and true method of drill and explosive faIled r to burst the doors of this new type of and banks swiftly began to eq equip lp themselves with this type of construction tion i The oxyacetylene torch came into existence ex- ex ex- ex steno and found that it would burn bum its way through manganese steel I The equipment including the tube of oxygen and the tank of acetylene could r r be carried in a suitcase But the ability l' l of the torch to burn its way through the 3 steel was not enough The way in which the metal ran under the heat made it impossible to burn a straight hole into the strongbox and be certain that once in there would be no difficulty in dropping the lock To get into the top and cut a hole big enough for the hand to reach in this type Pe of circular safe resulted in so much heated metal dropping into the interior that the contents were burned and worthless to the burgl burglar r when lie he finally fished hed them out The bankers were happy Then one morning the head of a bank came downtown downtown down down- town to find an opening in the top of his steel manganese his securities all gone The burglar had drilled a small hole in the top filled the box with water and then completed his drilling with the torch as the water carried off the heat of the metal The stuff he took was wet but drying made it legal tender and the steel manganese safe became history The first safes used in America were strongboxes imported from abroad Locked Locke l by huge keys they were soon found to locksmith or orto orto skilled b be easy prey for a how to obtain a to a man who knew duplicate key or pick a a. lock combination combination Early in the last century the tion lock made its appearance and as bank bank- the use of this invention spread trade diminishing robbing became a a. Some genius of the underworld devised the technique of combining a a. drill and t tF F vr 1 p 9 ts F I v black powder and once more bank robberies robberies rob rob- began to wax A little work with witha a cutting tool a train of powder run into the hole and then the officialS official's would discover discover dis- dis cover the following morning that the door of the vault was blown open and the wealth of the ty gone These bold and daring began to operate in gangs an and l used thought in the selectIon and careful planning of the details detaIls de- de taIls of the robbery proof Drill steel wIth chrome and manganese came forward to turn the tools of the breaking bank professIon profession pro pro- and then dynamite introduced into the industrial world for quarrying road building and mIning was adopted by the A of dynamite broken into pIeces and dissolved in hot water precIpitated nitroglycerIn at the bottom and agaIn vault doors stood yawning in the morning morning morn morn- ing with money and securities gone But there was a mystery Where were the drill holes 4 J little nitro seeped into the crack of a door and set off wIth an ordinary ordinary nary detonating cap and a tiny fuse gave the burglars once more the edge on the bankers Now safes had to be proof agaInst drills and against explosives The thickness of 01 the steel was increased and the walls laminated with ith proof drill and explosive explosive- proof steel in alternating sheets Such construction slowed up the job if it did not make it vIrtually impo impossible i le until the trick of cutting steel with a A. A torch was developed and the took to this technique wIth the facility of 01 engineers INCE 1915 hundreds of jobs have been S SINCE lone done with the torch robbing Bank became scientific It Itis is that a a. division of labor has grown up as in the respectable industries A leader controls the activities of the gang He pIcks the vault to be attacked Members of his gang live in the town become acquainted with the even open deposits in inthe inthe the bank His men know when the policemen turn into the corner store for conversa- conversa tion They learn when the watchman turns out his dog for an airing and decide whether a gun could be stuck into hIs face as he opens the door They learn as much as possible of the speed or of the polIce and the nature of the alarms The expert who blows the safe is probably probably ably on a regular salary plus commIs- commIs sion He gets his more or less a week whether the gang works or lays off When he has finished his trick he beats it from the job and his associates clean out the vault and cache the stun stuff He takes no chances with the poli c. c His services are too valuable to risk capture and at the first suspicion of danger he runs The tools have probably been stolen from a store or a nearby garage so that they leave no trace and 1 If he escapes in safety there is always another chance to tomake tomake make a bIg haul While banks in large cities appear safe from attack because or of the size and apparent apparent ap- ap parent strength of the vaults experts occasionally find that there is a a. weak weak- j I i t 1 v ness in some pars pal of the construction which if known to would have ve made pos possible ible a successful srul attack upon the bank bank- bankIn In Chicago recently sou sought ht entrance to a bank vault from an adjacent garage The only thing that foiled their thell attempt was tlc the error of the cashier on Saturday who set the for twenty four hours instead of forty eight On Sunday r he remembered his blunder 1 S i 1 l r cx k Ai Aix x 1 f x w 3 a v it yr C P M Iy MJ y x s k o v Rw f f F iJ u 1 r ir 11 S M t W 9 Opp W k r Il 1 a Y rr tJ A A modern vault door with insert at ri right ht show showing ins details or of construction The layer of copper gives i cs oft olT dangerous acrid fumes when heated by a torch which mal make c it well nigh impossible for to gain entry and went to the vault to reset the clock On opening the vault le he found a hole Inthe ill In the floor The crooks had dug their way from the cellar of the garage to the floor or of the vault and if the official had not recalled his oversIght would have crawled into the vault ault some time Sunday and carried off everything in the place Experience shows that a bank robbery must be done within three hours in order to be successfully achieved If a job takes longer than that the chances are against the rooks crooks In designing vaults aults the idea Is to build a box which will have a 0 factor of safety against attack which is greater than that time The new metal structure which Isable is isable able to defy the present tools available to is a combination of copper and c l- l 4 j gray iron In some c cases e copper sheeting is used A torch playing upon copper creates dangerous and acrid fumes It would be impossible for any man to survIve the gases which would be released In in the confined space it is usually necessary for to work in while attempting to open a vault WARREN ARREN F. F of Philadelphia Philadelphia Philadel- Philadel phia who has spen spent a lifetime in the business of making boxes safe against recently had to supervise the opening opening open open- ing of a vault from the side because or of oran an error made in closing the doors It took twelve hours of work with pneumatic drills to dig through the concrete and drill through the steel in order to open this done ant an- an a manhole and when was l' l t I l T Tc Ott c M J K Q With the invention of the oxyacetylene lene iene torch safe looting became a growing profession until the use of copper made this instrument practically usel useless ss other two hours hours' delay was necessary before before be- be fore the gas in the vault arisIng from the burning steel had cleared away sufficiently sufficiently suf- suf to allow a man to enter Modern vault walls and roof consist of ofa R a mat of concrete and steel J If a thief hammered away the concrete lie he would have to drill through the steel and then repeat the process in order to obtain access to the interIor BesIdes this prot protection of steel copper concrete there is an alarm system c to the vaults If the door is penetrated to a certain depth the alarm goes off and an allowance of fifteen minutes minutes min min- utes is usually given for the arrival of the police Protection against nitroglycerin takes the form of steel teel which will e easily ily resist ounce four charges This limit lit has been set by the tho experts because the thief would endanger himself with Ilca heavier vier charges and the vault is expected to resist only two charges of this strength experience ex- ex having demonstrated that the could hardly use more soup than this and make a getaway The reason vaults in the Federal Reserve Reserve Re- Re serve banks are built to such tremendous strength and thickness is that the factor of safety includes provision against outburst outburst out out- burst of mob violence and nd revolution Before the Federal Reserve Bank of New York accepted a a. design for its vaults aults was spent in two years years' experimenting to find the best methods and materials Models were subjected to every kind of attack including high explosives the electrIc arc electric and pneumatic chisel the electric drill and the oxyacetylene oxyacetylene lene torch or what is commonly known as the cutter It was demonstrated that steel and concrete concrete-an armor mat was superior to any other form of imbedded f. f r j r c la o lJ J IY Yo of 4 Financial houses and banks in the Wall Street j i district are now amply protected I against the safe blower j entanglement As these national vaults vault hold not billions of millions dollars In negotiable securities and aud cash the vault nult was as constructed to withstand every cry possIble pos pos- sable sIble kind of attack The steel doors of the vault two on each level arc cylindrical in shape and ten feet thick Through t tie e center ot of the door is a a four foot passageway Wh When n the door is locked it revolves in Do a semicircle semicircle semi semi- circle and any anyone one attempting to gala gain entrance faces a three foot strip of metal k four foot passageway and another three foot strip of metal The cylindrical arrangement does away with removable platforms and lifts found in many vaults vaulta nations also guard their FOREIGN wealth with superlative protection In Paris the vaults of the Bank of France Franc are housed in a occupied bythe by bythe the Duke of Orleans Outwardly the structure looks as it always did but the vault itself is built like a a. castle of the Middle Ages It is constructed entirely within the exterior of an old building but it has a unIque form of protection The security vault which is two stories high is protected on top with a a. tremendous tremendous dous roof of enforced re-enforced concrete many feet thick which is supported by heavy columns inside the vault which are carried carried car car- ried right down to tIle the foundations of the buildIng It is contended that this thU slab on top of the vault Is sufficiently strong to resist tIle the attack of any bombing plane Surrounding this vault is another novel feature feature-a ditch or moat of water ten tenor tenor or twelve feet deep and four feet wIde which entirely the tho vault nult This mass of water is retained by two entirely separate concrete walls each about a foot and a half thick Like an ancient citadel it can be entered only by crossing a drawbridge which is 11 thrust forward or slid from the bank vestibule to the inner wall of the vault a athe at atthe the upper story level When the thc bank is chased for the the bridge is withdrawn the wrought iron doors on the bank edge of the bridge close clos and the doors on tIle the outer wall are lib hike liba a portcullis made of steel bars and glass Class very similar to those still existing in many chateaux of France The great inner steel doors across this water chasm which swing to by electricity move as it were by the invisible han hands of a magician m and automatically caw cause the two walls to be sealed entirely When these vaults aults are shut there are no handles or pulls or projections of any kind on the walls When the bank opens the portcullis or iron gates in the outer wall are opened the floor of the drawbridge slides across the moat and the great inner steel vault nuIt doors swing open The bank custodians bank and visitors enter the vault ault at a gallery level from which they descend by a staircase staircase stair stair- case to the floor of the vault itself Unless a way is found to burn bum through steel and concrete quickly bank robbery a will coin soon be a thing of the past and the eggs will iU have to ta turn to daylight holdups hold hold- ups to make a a. professional living Coz by lv Jl I. 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