Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 January 1896 — A Fireproof Saie. [ARTICLE]

A Fireproof Saie.

An Important result attended a test made by order of the Reichsbank—the German Government’s banking establishment—with a safe constructed of cement with steel wire placed in between. The question to be decided was whether It is practical to build vaults of this material for safety against Are. A safe was placed upon a pyre of logs drenched with kerosene, which, after being set on Are, kept the safe for half an hour exposed to a heat of about 1,800 degrees of Fah., that is, a heat in which Iron will melt. Two hours after the safe was opened and the contents—bilk, paper, draft blanks and a maximum thermometer—were found to be absolutely uninjured, and the maximum thermometer showed that within the safe the temperature at no time during the test rose above 85 degrees.