Mystery Mosler/Diebold door?

wylk

Below is a vault door with a couple of mysteries. It is apparently in the Heritage Tower in Battle Creek, Michigan, which had several prior names, at 25 West Michigan Avenue. It was constructed in 1931.

The first mystery is who built this door? The timelock is clearly a recent Diebold but it seems to be a replacement, not the original.

The second mystery is the right-hand bolt at the top. There is a hole in it. Why? The round Mosler Donsteel door at the Kansas City Public Library has a similarly hollow bolt at the top-right. That one has a set-screw that must have held a cover in place, now gone. And the KCPL bolt’s hole is about 2 inches deep but I could not manage to inspect it closely. So, the above door may be a Mosler with a Diebold timelock. But, why is the end of the bolt hollow?

Other references:

http://search.reel-scout.com/location_detail.aspx?id=014-10028166

http://www.emporis.com/building/heritagetower-battlecreek-mi-usa

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=176911

Doug MacQueen

You may well be the most observant person I know. The door is definitely a Mosler and the original 4 movement timelock has been replaced by a much newer 3M Diebold. This was/is a fairly common practice by Diebold to make it easier for their service techs to deal with any timelock related problems. That bolt hole is something I had not seen before. My guess is for a possible electrical connection. Good eye. Doug

Paul Prescott

The hole would be for electrical contacts, I’ve seen such on a number of doors, usually in the top bolt.

wylk

Here’s a variation I’ve not seen before, in an image discovered today. Note the electrical contacts are part of the upper side bolt rather than on top:

Not much is known about the picture other than an alleged year of 1938. The push pins near the middle suggest a Remington-Sherman or York door. Note the armed guard is technically mis-handling the door (hand on metal, which will cause corrosion, as opposed to using the provided handle). I suspect the image was posed, wouldn’t the bank manager normally open/close the door?