Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 90.djvu/339

 Popular Science Monthly

��Vol. 90 No. 3

��239 Fourth Avenue, New York City

March, 1917

��$1.50 Annually

��Floating Safes for ^^

��When the ship sinks, the safes, containing

EVERY ship that goes down is to some ex- tent a treasure ship. Her purser is in charge of much money, and her passengers carry valu- ables. Fortunes have been lost in trying to raise sunken treasure, but not until Menotte Nanni appeared on the scene did any one think of preventing the treasure from sinking, whatever hap- pened to the ship. Why bother about ways to recover sunken treasure when a non- sinkable purser's safe would prevent the sinking? When a steamer passenger sees his jewelry stored away in the ship's safe he doesn't know whether it is going to a salt water grave or not. Inspired by the know- ledge of the lack of pre- ventative measures of this kind, M e n o t t i Nanni has devised a non-sinkable vault which is not only large enough to hold the purser's safe, but which also provides

���Ocean Liners

mail and valuables, rise to the surface

��The inventor in his floating safe, on his way to the bottom of Lake Michigan in a test

���Testing the fire resisting qualities of the safes. The boat was set on fire, after which it sank. The vaults floated to safety

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��ample storage space for registered mail, gold bul- lion, and valuables owned by the passengers.

Nanni plans to install several of his floating safes in a large, vertical cylindrical steel casing placed in a well amid- ships, the top of the well being flush with the upper deck and covered with a loose-fitting, easily-re- moved cap. The safes are placed one on top of another, the first, second and third class passengers each having a safe for their valuables. The two lower safes serve as a repository for registered mail and for the most precious part of the ship's cargo.

Ready ac- cess is gained to the safes through doors pro- vided in both the outer and inner casings at the various decks. Thus the first class passengers, for instance, could place their valua- bles in the safe at night and remove them in the morning. Of course there

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