One King West, Toronto

wylk · 2012-03-10T05:37:00+00:00

A Toronto hotel, One King West, includes a former bank (Dominion Bank, 1914). One floor below the main level there is a large vault with a 4-foot-thick door: It is peculiar because the bolts can be seen but the boltwork is hidden (additionally there are only 20 bolts instead of the more common 24). The only other one I’ve seen like this is in the Federal Reserve Bank in Cleveland (which has 16 bolts) and is made by York. So, tentatively, the Toronto vault is probably a York? I haven’t run across any patents for this style of boltwork. Can anyone help?

VaultDoors

Doug MacQueen wrote
No automatic bolt motors on these doors. Doug

Do you know what is contained within the ball housing behind the time lock?

[unknown]

VaultDoors

wylk wrote
I do have Lure of the Lock and will re-read Holmes’ article.

Attached is another image of One King West, which shows pins on the door (left side of image); are these the ones that operate the boltwork? I’m also intrigued by the long rod which seems to go to the time lock, and the small indicator reading “Open”.

[ATTACH]5450[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]5451[/ATTACH]

These pics show a device mounted on a black angle iron inside the vault (hinge side) that appears to be used to engage the time lock rod:

[unknown]

VaultDoors

Here is what I know about the One King West time lock so far:

Maker: Yale & Towne Mfg. Co.
Series: Quad N
Movements: Four (one missing)
Size: M
Style: Coffin shape
Retrofit: 72-hour movements replaced with 120-hour movements between 1920-1970
Automatic Bolt Motor: none

Doug MacQueen

I hope to get over to Cleve Fed soon and may be able to do a little investigating on that door. Regarding the One King West door time lock setup, I don’t get it. Timelocks either directly block the boltwork or are tied to the combs and block them from unlocking. I noticed that both the Fed and Toronto door both use the big N Quads, but I don’t think the Fed door has that long snubber bar setup. And the snubber is directed opposite to where the combinations are located. Seems like a lot of trouble to the go around the inside of the jamb to the locks, unless it was electrically connected inside. Possibly once I look at the Fed door, I may be clearer on the Toronto door. Doug

wylk

I’ve also wondered about that long bar (and the small box at the edge that says “OPEN”) which I don’t recall seeing in any other images. Is it truly a snubber, in the sense that it is part of the mechanism that inhibits or allows the bolts to operate? Or is it a safety mechanism that allows a trapped occupant to disable the time lock, allowing an outsider (who knows the combination(s)) to open the door ahead of schedule?

VaultDoors

wylk wrote
It’s my understanding that modern usage is more often “Safe Deposit” than “Safety Deposit.”

The “Safety Deposit Room” (as seen in the Realtor video) looks more like something the hotel installed for patrons rather than anything original. It might have originally been a “Coupon Room” or something else.

While the time lock currently has three movements, it probably originally had four (which was frequent on such large doors). I don’t have any old images to support this but here is a drawing that suggests four:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]10101[/ATTACH]

I found an image of the One King West vault door with the 4 movement time lock:

[unknown]

VaultDoors

wylk wrote
Several. I’ll start with some historical images, though they are not of the door itself. I believe you posted one of these but it’s not in your gallery.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]10345[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]10346[/ATTACH]

The above are clearly from the same photograph. Unfortunately the wide view is only 235×295 pixels while the closeup is 960×393. If only the wide view were available at the same resolution!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]10348[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]10349[/ATTACH]

The above are also about transporting the frame/hinge. Somewhere I read that while it was slowly traversing Adelaide Street, the streetcar shown in the second image was delayed and the streetcar operator was so mad he left the car and almost got in a fist-fight with the owner of the moving company. The move also supposedly damaged the pavement.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]10350[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]10351[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]10352[/ATTACH]

Similarly, the above are all the same picture. The first two again show the result of cropping. In the third, somebody took the second image, cropped it a bit, and photoshopped text and models over it; notice you can still see the deposit box lid poking out of the right-hand model.

I’ll post a few more later today.

I found another historical pic of the installation:

[unknown]

wylk

Cool images. If you have a moment to explain, how did you find these? I’m open to improving my internet searching skills!

Are there any antique-locks members in Toronto? The door at One King West is publicly viewable (unless they have a wedding reception in progress or some other function) and we keep coming up with questions!

VaultDoors

wylk wrote
Cool images. If you have a moment to explain, how did you find these? I’m open to improving my internet searching skills!

Are there any antique-locks members in Toronto? The door at One King West is publicly viewable (unless they have a wedding reception in progress or some other function) and we keep coming up with questions!

I primarily use Google Image search and Flickr with various spellings to find pics. For One King West I used “One King West Vault”, “1KW Vault”, “OKW Vault”. I search former building names rather than just the original and current building names, “Dominion Bank Vault”, “TD Bank Vault”. I search for the city where the vault is located, “Toronto Vault”.

Once I get a hit on Flickr I search the entire album not just the pic that matched my search criteria. Often times, only one pic will be labeled correctly and the others are not which excludes them from my search.

I also use Google Web search and Google Books for text searching. Once I get a hit on Google Books I download the .pdf (if available) then apply OCR (Optical Character Recognition via Adobe Acrobat) which makes searching much easier. This allows me to find pics from the article’s text rather than picture’s metadata.

I use Picasa and Bing for picture searching as well.

I capture images from YouTube or pics on my screen (via PrtScn key) as needed then paste the image into a picture app. I also right-click pictures and select “Save picture as…” to download them. If a picture doesn’t have the “Save picture as…” option then I use “File/Save as…” and select the “Webpage, complete” file type, this downloads the entire webpage (a folder and a .html file) and from there you can access images in the folder.

There’s a RealDownloader Plug-in on Firefox that allows you to download YouTube videos that can then be played and edited via RealPlayer.

I occasionally use the OCLC/WorldCat search engine (via the Phoenix Public Library) where you can search for and order books via their Inter Library Loan program if needed.

Hope this helps!

[unknown]

VaultDoors

wylk wrote
Cool images. If you have a moment to explain, how did you find these? I’m open to improving my internet searching skills!

Are there any antique-locks members in Toronto? The door at One King West is publicly viewable (unless they have a wedding reception in progress or some other function) and we keep coming up with questions!

The last time I checked there were a couple members in Toronto who I may ask to conduct a photo expedition for a few elements I still am unable to see from the pics. I may be in Toronto for business this year and if so I will take pics and dimensions.

I am planning to build a scale model of the One King West door from Styrofoam and wood, no larger than 8″ diameter. I believe I have all the materials required to really hurt myself :-)

Here is a 9′ round vault door model and here’s how it was built.

[unknown]

VaultDoors

wylk wrote
Jamb-mounted locking was also used by Remington & Sherman, so when York took them over they might have continued and improved on it. For example, here is a Remington & Sherman door with jamb-mounted controls (circa 1915):

[ATTACH]5457[/ATTACH]

The controls and the boltwork-operating pins resemble the round door at One King West.

I assume the other patent you refer to is 2,081,316 which is a revolving door as used at the NY federal reserve, and assigned to York. Similarly there is 1,478,085 assigned to Remington & Sherman though the locks are in the revolving door, and then there’s 1,574,295 by Laucks and Wilkinson (Wilkinson is the inventor in 2,081,316) but assignment is to Laucks.

I haven’t seen any patents for the jamb-mounted controls outside of revolving-door models.

Here’s a clip of the New York Federal Reserve vault door in action:

[video][/video]

[unknown]

VaultDoors

Here are some close-ups of the One King West electrical contacts inside the vault:

Doug MacQueen

Amazing! Are you building a movie prop? If that little box above the snubber bar says “open”, then it sounds like it is being used as a detent safety latch. If you go to Mark Franks (always improving) My Time Machines website and look at the big M Quad timelocks, you will find a model with a little round “open” window. The latch allows the timelock to be wound up but prevents it from locking if the door is shut. So on the One King West door, the actual timelock blocking snubber is probably a pin projecting inward from the same point where the long snubber bar is attached. Just guessing here but some close up angled pics should clear things up. Doug

wylk

VaultDoors wrote
Here are some close-ups of the One King West electrical contacts inside the vault:

In the first image it looks like there is also a mechanical interlock-type switch at the top. Which in turn makes me wonder about the nature of the other two “wired” bolts. Is it possible they they were not simple contacts, but that the bolts held something like a bismuth-metal alloy as a high-temperature detector? Three contacts and two methods seems extreme merely to detect whether the bolts are extended or retracted. Alternatively, the top switch may have been added later and the others were retired but left in place.

[unknown]

wylk

Here is a good image of the “OPEN” indicator:

Posted earlier, a good image of the timelock end of the bar:

VaultDoors

wylk wrote
In the first image it looks like there is also a mechanical interlock-type switch at the top. Which in turn makes me wonder about the nature of the other two “wired” bolts. Is it possible they they were not simple contacts, but that the bolts held something like a bismuth-metal alloy as a high-temperature detector? Three contacts and two methods seems extreme merely to detect whether the bolts are extended or retracted. Alternatively, the top switch may have been added later and the others were retired but left in place.

Here’s a couple close-ups of the time lock flag box showing a channel in the long bar. It looks as though the flag box can be manually operated as when it is ‘Closed’ the top button is extended, the side lever is up and the long bar extends past the end of the side lever. When it is ‘Open’ the top button is depressed, the side lever is down and the long bar is even with the side lever. I thought there would have been a ‘Closed’ flag but apparently closed is just a blank space. There also appears to be a slot in the end of the side lever, maybe for some adjustment.

Also, these pics show a device mounted on a black angle iron inside the vault (hinge side) that appears to engage the time lock rod somehow:

[unknown]

VaultDoors

VaultDoors wrote
The last time I checked there were a couple members in Toronto who I may ask to conduct a photo expedition for a few elements I still am unable to see from the pics. I may be in Toronto for business this year and if so I will take pics and dimensions.

I am planning to build a scale model of the One King West door from Styrofoam and wood, no larger than 8″ diameter. I believe I have all the materials required to really hurt myself :-)

[ATTACH=CONFIG]10436[/ATTACH]

Here is a 9′ round vault door model and here’s how it was built.

The 9′ round vault door model is $7k and the artist plans to show it in South Carolina in a few months.

[unknown]

wylk

Here’s a wacky idea on the two hollow-end bolts and corresponding contacts. Is it possible they filled the depression in the bolts with mercury and used the two prongs to electrically detect bolt extension? They might have used two for redundancy. And years later this could have been replaced with a more reliable mechanical switch at the top? Does anybody know if something like this was ever done?

Toxicity of mercury around 1914 might have been a minor concern.

VaultDoors

There are a couple pins between the remote combination dials. Does anyone know their function?

timelocks

I was wondering, assuming someone is accidentally locked in the vault. How does one open it from the inside? I can see how one can disable the time lock by pushing the actuator connected the lock, but then how are the bolts retracted? I see no mechanism to do this from the inside.

VaultDoors wrote
Here’s a couple close-ups of the time lock flag box showing a channel in the long bar. It looks as though the flag box can be manually operated as when it is ‘Closed’ the top button is extended, the side lever is up and the long bar extends past the end of the side lever. When it is ‘Open’ the top button is depressed, the side lever is down and the long bar is even with the side lever. I thought there would have been a ‘Closed’ flag but apparently closed is just a blank space. There also appears to be a slot in the end of the side lever, maybe for some adjustment.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]10446[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]10445[/ATTACH]

Also, these pics show a device mounted on a black angle iron inside the vault (hinge side) that appears to engage the time lock rod somehow:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]10447[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]10448[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]10449[/ATTACH]

[unknown]

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