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Show Inside the Gold Vaial! By BILL SURFACE short, modest VICTOR n Y man oi oo wiium neigwiruio H. HARKIN is a :;:7::ry J "the world's richest man." "You're correct," Harkin always replies, "but when I get my next pay check, I'm going to have my shoes half -- soled!" Harkin is not exaggerating. He has 12,251 tons of gold in his care, but none of it is his. He is a of the salaried employee, the U. S. Bullion Depository or Gold Vault at Fort Knox, Ky. Although declining U.S. gold reserves have been making headlines lately, the Fort Knox Gold Depository still is a mysterious place to the average citizen and no wonder. Visitors are never permitted to enter, and Depository employees are not allowed to discuss their work. But the "Gold Curtain" lifted a little recently when Harkin with U.S. Government clearance gave family weekly an exclusive interview about his fabulous domain. "It would be foolish for anyone to try to steal the gold here," Harkin told me. "We are prepared for any conceivable emergency. Besides our. security force, we have immediate reinforcements available from Fort Knox, the nation's second largest military post. And, in addition to the human guards, there are mechanical watchmen. For example, even if all electrical power failed, our automatic emergency unit would start before a room went dark." Harkin went on to tell me that the inner vault is surrounded by an space for mirrors and sensitive microphones which provide continual surveillance. These protective devices are constantly modernized, he pointed out. If a blow torch touches the metal part of the vault, poisonous fumes automatically pour out. Masks are useless against the gas. The vault also could be instantly flooded with water charged with a deadly electrical current. Even nuclear attack presents no threat to the vault. "I couldn't think of a better place to be in the event of a nuclear bombing," Harkin told me. Another war threat by Nazi Germany created a need for the Gold Depository. U.S. gold, then stored in Eastern, mints, was vulnerable to an invasion. Fort Knox was selected as the site because it was behind a natural barrier, the Allegheny Mountains. Completed in 1936, the Depository is a marble building 121 feet long, 105 feet wide, and 42 feet officer-in-char- high. It is surrounded by a steel fence, and joining it are four machine-gu- el n offices line the outstations. side walls of the Depository and encircle the vault. This vault is partitioned by steel doors into 28 storage compartments. The vault's casing consists of steel plates, beams, and coils which are so tightly interlaced that, even if the concrete wall were not there, a hand could not reach inn vault door has a multiple lock side. The that requires several men to open it. Each dial combination is known only to one man. Gold shipments from the Federal Reserve Banks around the country are received at the Depository's rear "delivery" door, where Harkin, clip board in hand, counts and weighs the bars on scales delicate enough to detect a cigarette ash. "We always weigh every incoming bar," Harkin said, "and it's always correct down of an ounce." to one Depository employees (who are recruited from Civil Service rosters) stack the unwrapped gold bars on the vault's concrete floor. The bars, reinches sembling small building bricks, are 6 long, weigh 27 y2 pounds, and are valued at approximately $14,000 each. Air-condition- ed oot ge 21-to- one-thousan- gold is slippery and easily abraded, the Since are handled carefully. Wood chips are placed between the layers of bars to prevent fill each vault compartment tightly,"Har-ki- n says. "If the bars are uneven and don't reach the ceiling, we stick in wood chips." Fort Knox contains the world's largest single gold deposit. Foreign governments have no specific gold restrictions in proportion to paper currency printed, but U.S. law requires 25 cents in gold reserve for every dollar issued. At last count, U.S. gold stocks were valued at $15,581,-64- 3 slid-ing."- 18-in- ch 1 In an exclusive interview, 5, 221. 84. "We have $11,475,808,223.26 of Victor Harkin, the officer-in-charof the 957,199 bars here," Harkin said. (The remaining U.S. gold is in Federal Reserve Banks or being cast into monetary bars and coins at the U.S. Assay Office in New York.) Part of Harkin's job entails handling would-b- e visitors. Up to 50 cars a day stop at the black steel gate 120 yards from the Depository's cirblares out: cular driveway. A "State your business, please." "We tell these people that visitors aren't permitted," Harkin says. "They may take pictures, but they can't come any closer." Fort Knox Depository, gives Family Weekly readers a glimpse behind the "gold curtain" WQlcly ' Hy Peskin photographed these two friendly opponents fighting for the puck. On page 6, hockey star Gordie Howe tells why he's teaching the sport to his sons. January loud-speak- er 5, 196 A LEONARD $. DAVIDOW President and Publisher WALTER C. DREYFUS Associate Publisher PATRICK E. O'ROURKE Executive Vice President and Advertising Director Advertising Manager Director of Publisher Relations WILLIAM V. HUSSEY MORTON FRANK 111. 60601 Advertising office: 179 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, Editorial office: 60 E. 56th St., New York, N.Y. 10022 Business office: 1727 S. Indiana Ave., Chicago, III. 60616 1964, PROCESSING that gold ge COVER: ?d:Zti concrete-and-ste- ad- ERNEST V. HEYN BEN KARTMAN Editor-in-Chi- ef Executive Editor Managing Editor ROBERT FITZGIBBON PHILLIP DYKSTRA MELANIE Art Director Food Editor DE PROFT Rosalyn Abrevaya, Arden Eidell, Hal London, Jack Ryan; Peer J. 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