American Bank protection vault burglar alarm time clock

This is the front view of an American Bank Protection vault alarm time clock which was located within the vault. This panel was enclosed within either a wood or a metal case such as this one is.. It was used to set the alarm system to guard the vault after banking hours. The door is shown here closed. Notice the hand-wound time clock on the top right which was set to time out or turn the system off just before opening time in the morning. This control panel contained the equipment to operate generally three alarm bells. Two of them were just above and on either side of the vault door enclosed within oval shaped tamper proof housings. Both were on the exterior front of the vault yet within the building. The third bell was located upon the exterior wall of the bank building to attract the attention of anyone within a half mile distance of it. The exterior bell had a 20 inch bronze gong and was also located in a tamper proof housing that was also weather proof. If the vault was opened after banking hours or if any of the three housings were tampered with all three bells would sound which was enough to scare away any would-be burglar. One must remember that there were no silent alarms in those early days. Batteries were also required as up until the 1940s the REA had not yet installed electricity especially to rural towns. O.B. McClintock of Minneapolis was the parent company of the ABP Co.

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