Show arine vault sunk GIANT deep into the earth far below the water level U the newest engineering wonder of the financial world devised as a protection against bank robbers fire and other liabilities Such a vault weighing thousands r of tons Is being set into the rocky floor of Manhattan directly below the massive fifty-stor- y skyscraper of the new Irving Trust Company one of New York’s biggest buildings The structure below this building will be a veritable “underworld sky- scraper” in itself stretching six stones or seventy feet down into the interior of the earth Its walls will be surrounded entirely by water An intricate maze of carefully guarded entrances and exits will help to safe- guard the vast stores of currency jewels bonds and other valuables secreted in its huge safes In time it is expected that banks throughout t the United States will adopt the submarine vault Financiers of the Financial World— The Newest Engineering Wonder -- Safety -- Fhst” Submarine Vjault oil : rasmrjrmms -- 4 fDD J'rr IIlKflll rfititiitftrifiiciiiiitfini :s: i ta DO S (fei ’ 0° 0 0000 s n VO 33 trCT ‘i — i-- 3 X -- Cfc ztz&c zt V riHKH Hie Cntmnce to One of the fluge Vault In the Raven wood National Rank Chicago the Tj pe to Be Used in the New trains Trust Company's Bank believe it will end the long struggle against the possibility of loss by fire or from the raids of that most cunning of all criminals the bank cracksman Until now no safety device has proved absolutely invulnerable against the He has succeeded in bank bandit doors 'and crashing through windows tunneling through thick stone walls elaborate electric-alarm and blasting his way systems safes Into Although the new ’vault will be equipped with every safeguard and protective device known to the modern banking world the “water walls" surrounding the vault are counted the only absolutely unpenetrable facto of defense This struggle between the banks and bandits has tasted since 1860 In the crime wave that swept the United States after the Civil War vault robberies amounting to hundreds of thousands sometimes millions threw the financial world into a panic of fear In 1869 the Ocean National Bank was tripped of $750000 in cash and securities by cracksmen who tunnelled their way into the president’s private A few rears later the same office gang despoiled a bank of $1500000 But this nigh water mark for big-tig was almost doubled in 1878 when $2700000 was carted from the wrecked vaults of the Manhattan Institution of Savings in New York Investigation disclosed that for this tremendous coup preparations had extended over a period of three Every detail had been worked year out perfectly beforehand by a master crook with the brain of a criminal Napoleon Banks frantically installed every But protective device then known stopped for a time after the general introduction of steel Then the cracksmen circumvented this shortly by adding engineers and exemployes of safe manufacturers to their gangs Later when electric alarm systems were introduced the cunning members of the underworld countered by emthe ploying electricians to short-circu-it wires Laminated construction of safes for alternated layers of steel and iron) increased the weight and thickness ol safe doors But this was followed by the use by cracksmen of the then new oxyacetylene torch Of late years bank rob- iron-barr- short-circuitin- -- VIMS f— - nt ltf t nr M v il ai VI "anas ed f i--v 7 - v : ill- r '1 t r j f v n t- - t r ? - iw Ill Ixl-rr--v r g mss® steel-armor- ed ei 1 W " ”“ “ “-- '-j-r eft WF Wl h1 ' lDJ rrr Hi v me tjU 1 i beries have been greatly reuuced in number by the introduction of per-fected burglar-alarsystems Chemists also have developed a plate 'built into the safe which releases volumes of gaa and smoke when subjected to intense IT ill ?fy 3E bank-breaki- ng ' Jr j iUllJ bank-breakin- big-sca-le -- 1- 3 tv ! m heat i - All of these modern safety-device- : A p s of course are being installed in the new Irving Trust Company’s submarine vault in addition to the Impregnable defense of the water-wal‘The vault also will be protected by special watchmen and police electric controls and mechanical alarms which can instantly summon a squadrod of armed guards from outside at any time of day night The depression under water level of TrAIU f I f 4 ustratin r lloj the Enormcm Submarine Bank Vault ‘1 Lin l’don Hl“ S Sail Down sITonho FCrKlolri0 £ ’ ls ‘ 111 Diagram-Drawin- g u7d 1’ ““a ‘wSl Ueposit lheir Valuables V CuirdOn ftalSrki51SS' T'S ‘T'&rid d '!fnUIKri? Being Built by I the Irvin fjren- - Interior of 10 These Safe Doors ft Wl”re Bx- Weigh 55 Cages? Vault W'here Millions o Solid Rock Base r Wl - V surround Vault from Tills Line to Rock on Bawt Une Represents 70 Feet from Street Level to Rock Bale 12-W- ®t -- ! P0f 7 US’" this great stone and steel chamber is regarded as one of the marvels of modern engineering! Digging the great excavation for the vault i without endangering the skyscraper being erected above it b proving a difficult problem in engineering work were required before the cement floor of the subterranean cave could be laid on top of the bedrock which forms its base Men lowered inside -tight caissons under water level worked for weeks with pick and shovels clearing the way for the waterproof walls surrounding the vault : This had to be ac complished under high (Coprrf rbt roiHttn Uurp ) rhis Photograph Show flow Manhattan' Rocky Floor Was Blasted to Make Way for the Submarine Treasure Vaults of the Irving Trust Company ICopmrht trvtas Trait gompai) The New Irving Trust Company Rank Building Rising Fifty Stories in New York's Toweri ns Financial District Mmripapat r—w HTlKm Wlfc to air quicksand' "gravef nd water filling the caia- - Few explosives could be used fox fear of removing the ground supports °f surrounding buildings The vault itself will contain three floors guarded by impregnable walls and by doors thirty inches thick and tons each Special weighing fifty-fivelevators policed by armed guards will frojn the banking i floors to the vault The water and fireproof doors and walls will be constructed of laminated steel including layers of the 1 heat generaUng and heat defying alloys and th recently de- signed chemical gas plates Armed guards on each floor will operate the vault controls and examine visitors In the elevator pit under the vault accessible only by a secret entrance will he millions of dollars to the bank All these safetybelonging devices! together with the invincible surrounding water walls are to insure the vault againstexpected any attack bv bandits iThe ventilating system also will be an important feature of the submarine vault and will assure plenty of fresh air even on the lowest level A visitor exploring the vault of the new bank will find in the “basement’ f the building just one floor below 1 e ! - street level entrances to the vault elevators that can carry him seventy fcqt down into- - the earth’ Armed 8 examine him v?n next level below the visitoi will be below the wateractually line though standing he probably will not be aware of it This floor will be ®ven °veT to the bank storage rooms as well as the room from which elec switches are operated ine real fonriidability of the sub-- ' marine vault will begin to reveal the lyisitor reaches the fourth floor down There he will xmd corridors where armed guards operate the vault’controls the interior 01 the vaults dewnere posit their valuables the huge safe doors operated by guards barred cages for employes handling great sums of money and waiting and consulting rooms for the convenience of lawyers and clients The fifth level will be similar in arrangement to the fourth with the that it will contain’ the great e - j ‘ water- si son S box-owne- rs s ad-ditio- n ton safe On the sixth and bottom level the visitor will be far below the level of the water Below nim will be the rocky interior Man- Hfty-fiv- hattan Island |