c^TlTDIKS ON Ml'SECMS AND KINDRED INSTITUTIONH. 385 



FIKKrROOK HriM)IN(;S. 



In New York very man}^ fireproof and l)urol?„r-proof buildinjr^ niay 

 be found. I inspected amono- others the niagniticcnt building" erected 

 by Gibson in 1896 for the New York Clearing House Association 

 (Cedar street), whose balances amount annuall}- to $35,000,000,000'* 

 and where millions in gold are constantly stored. Everything is done 

 here to guard against robbery, fire, and insurrection. The diff^erent 

 rooms are separated from one another by grates and doors; the iron 

 cases for valualiles are so constructed that they may be instantly closed 

 by a grasp of the hand; the (;ash vaults may be submerged, and the 

 whole may be turned into a kind of fortress with cannon and muskets. 

 Electric l)ells to summon aid from without are to be found every- 

 where. The vaults could be reached by dynamite only in case one 

 were willing to l)ury himself under the ruins, since undermining it 

 from without is practically impossible on account of the deep founda- 

 tion. Elsewhere iron armor plates have been employed as a protection 

 against cannon balls. It does not appear from without that the 

 clearing house is so formidably protected. Such contrivances would, 

 indeed, not be applicable to museums, but some of them might be 

 introduced to protect certain objects of value or sections of the 

 museums.'' 



I take at random among others, as an ol)ject well worth seeing, the 

 recently completed fireproof building of the University Club (Fifth 

 avenue and Fifty-fourth street), five stories in front and eight stories 

 in the rear, constructed by McKim, Mead & White. It is a Floren- 

 tine fortress-palace, 125 feet in height, ornamented among- other 

 things with the arms of eighteen American universities in stone. 

 The club has 3,000 members, all of whom must possess a learned 

 degree in order to be admitted, and contains a librar}- of 20,000 vol- 

 umes. A higher standard of solidity, fitness, and carefully planned, 

 practical utilization and distribution of space, with taste and elegance 

 in execution, could scarcely be imagined. The flat roof, which ati'ords 

 a fine view, serves in summer evenings as a pleasant resort. In the 

 cellar there is a gymnasium. All mechanical contrivances are of a 

 high degree of pei-fection, embodying all possible modern inventions, 

 and many of them would be applicable to buildings for collections. 

 The whole is a model and unicjue structure of its kind and compar- 

 able only to a prince's palace. The cost of the ground, building, and 

 furnishings amounted to over $2,125,000. 



«The average daily balances in 1901 were $254,193,638; on May 10, $598,537,409, 

 The average daily balance in gold and bank notes was $1 1,600,784. 



6 In the basement of the Swiss Landes Museum at Zurich there is a fireproof an(l 

 burglar-proof room, lighted f)nly by electricity and handsomely installed, for all the 

 precious things of the collection and where they are exhibited t" the public in iron 

 desks. 



N.\T Mrs 1903 25 



