World's Largest Round Vault Door

Doug MacQueen · 2013-08-10T14:59:35+00:00

Did a job there a couple of days ago and found a couple pictures I hadn’t seen before. Doug

jeffmoss26

Thought you guys would like these:
http://www.clevescene.com/cleveland/9-vintage-photos-of-the-federal-reserve-bank-of-cleveland-and-vaults/Slideshow?oid=4408278

wylk

Back to Cleveland, I spotted a photo on eBay (hence the watermarks) showing the door closed, circa 1924.

VaultDoors

What is the device under the door jamb? It looks like a lever that contacts the crane hinge when closed.

VaultDoors

Doug MacQueen wrote
And the second/

Thanks Doug. The text was a little fuzzy so I typed it out for easier reading: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/74738260/CFR_Brochure_1923.pdf

[unknown]

wylk

VaultDoors wrote
What is the device under the door jamb? It looks like a lever that contacts the crane hinge when closed.

Guessing, it looks like either a sort of doorstop to prevent an unintended door closing (though that seems unlikely), or possibly a shock absorber to prevent an overly-aggressive closing. If you look at the bottom of the crane hinge I believe you can see a round dark imprint from this mystery device. I’ve never noticed this before, on this door or any other.

[unknown]

VaultDoors

Here are a couple other pics of the device; one showing it when the door is closed. Apparently, it has to be out of the way in order for the door to close so it could be a moveable door stop to prevent the unintentional closings like you said. If so, a vaultman would need to move it out of the way as part of the vault door close procedure.

wylk

Some other thoughts on the “doorstop”.

We rarely see pictures of big doors with the floor dropped (or in this case, missing entirely). So there’s not much to compare.

Looking at images of other Remington-Sherman and York doors, and spot-checking others, the Cleveland Fed door seems quite unique in that the crane extends well above and below the door itself. Thus, this device could not be fitted in this manner to any other door.

I wonder if it was fitted during construction for safety, then removed or disabled after installation. Doug, can you comment on this?

I can’t remember if this has been pointed out, but at the top of the door and frame you can see the typical “periscope” electrical connections for alarm and status.

VaultDoors

The One King West crane hinge knuckles are below the door knuckles, so the door appears to ‘drop’ into place with each hinge knuckle bearing equal weight. The Cleveland Federal Reserve crane hinge knuckles are above and below the door knuckles so the bottom hinge knuckle appears to bear the entire weight of the vault door. The CFR emergency door has the same knuckle configuration.

Doug MacQueen

Yes I have never been over there with the floor dropped but there is a corresponding shock that is visible down below to stop the door when fully opened.

VaultDoors

Crane Hinge Configurations

wylk

On the surface it would appear that the non-load-bearing hinges are as represented in the diagram. However, let’s look at the Remington-Sherman US patent 793,703 (filed 1904):

As can be seen, the upper-right hinge in fact does support part of the load. The crane bears down on the journal 10, which in turn bears down on the housing attached to the vestibule (frame). This matches the configuration of One King West. I would have no doubt that the same configuration is used on the “other” hinge point at the Cleveland Fed. Proper installation would involve fiddling with the two adjustments to get the door height correct, and to distribute the load equally across both thrust bearings.

Doug MacQueen

While I am not clear on the patent explanation regarding the down force, all the hinge blocks(knuckles) are load bearing. There considerable side loads to be taken into account.

VaultDoors

Here is the door shock around 2010

VaultDoors

The CRF emergency door has an access panel at the bottom crane hinge block, assumed to be used for servicing the the hinge components and apply lubrication. Not sure how the main door hinge blocks are serviced.

VaultDoors

Speaking of door stops, the MN Federal Reserve door appears to have a door stop attached to the bottom crane hinge knuckle. It may be a jamb control vault due to the absence of combination dials on the door.

VaultDoors

Also, part of the entrance platform appears to be attached to the door.

VaultDoors

The crane hinge on the Cleveland Trust vault is connected via ‘hinge pin’ extending from top to bottom. This design appears to be common on doors with ‘X’ pattern pressure systems

Cleveland Trust

Others

VaultDoors

I do not see a bolt-throwing hand-wheel on these doors only a pressure system hand-wheel, nor are there any combination dials or jamb controls… The only jamb control I see is on the Cleveland Trust door in the form of a hand-wheel that I believe operates the entrance platform. There is an interesting electrical panel above it.

VaultDoors

Also, there is some sort of ‘escape hatch/chamber’ at the rear of the Cleveland Trust vault that leads to the emergency door. This does not appear to be a common vault feature.

wylk

VaultDoors wrote
The crane hinge on the Cleveland Trust vault is connected via ‘hinge pin’ extending from top to bottom. This design appears to be common on doors with ‘X’ pattern pressure systems

Quickly glancing over my photo collection, it seems that the “X” pattern was used by Damon and Hollar, and they both used the solid “hinge pin” but not exclusively.

[unknown]

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