SAFE SAVINGS BANK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19676, 30 June 1927, Page 12

SAFE SAVINGS BANK.

NOVEL FEATURES IN SYDNEY. MACHINE-GUN EMPLACEMENT. A machine-gun emplacement has been built in the ceiling of the main entrance of the new Government Savings Bank building, at the top of Martin Place, Sydney, to be used in case of riot. This was but one of the n»,*elations of Mr. Herbert E. Ross, of Me.-vs. Ross and Rowe, architects for the building, when lie conducted a party of members of the Workers' Educational' Association over the building recently. Mr. Ross conducted the party into the safe deposit vault, and pointed out that the surrounding walls were 26 inches thick. Each wall contained 1000 tons of steel, set at angles, to defeat the efforts of the cracksman's drill. An elaborate scheme of burglar alarms was revealed. Should a drill pierce the concrete, and come info contact with a piece of steel, a microphone in the guard room at the top of the building would magnify the sound, thereby giving warning to the watchman. The main door to the vault, Mr. Ross explained, weighed 30 tons, and was constructed of a special metal, which would resist the onslaught of a blowlamp, or oxy-acetylene drill, and could not be blown up by a charge. It was fitted with six time-locks, which would allow it. to be opened for only half an hour each day. <jThe.ro was also an emergency door of the same metal. The main stiongroom of the building, Mr. Ross added, was similar, but about ten times as largeMr. Ross explained that there would be 13 lifts, six of which would travel at the rate of GOO feet per minute. On the first floor the party was shown the banking chamber, which, Mr. Ross said, was, as far as he knew, the largest in the world. It contained 43 columns of polished scagliola, coloured sepentino green.

The dominant idea, said Mr. Ross, was permanence. All the materials were carefully chosen for their durability. Of course, at various periods in the future, alterations would bo found necessary. Special provision was being made for that The building was practically fireproof, but an elaborate system of lire alarms was to bo installed. If only a piece of the paper were sot alight a warning bell would ring.