| dbo:abstract |
Frederick S. Holmes was an American safe and vault engineer who designed the largest vaults in the world. During his career, Holmes designed hundreds of vaults throughout the United States, Canada and Japan from 1883 to 1949. The majority of Holmes designed vaults are located in New York's Financial District; many are publicly accessible and in buildings on the National Register of Historic Places. His name is engraved on the Builder's Plaques, typically located on the encased jamb controls of these vaults. Holmes specialized in jamb-controlled vaults where the combination locks and bolt-throwing mechanism are located inside the vault creating a solid vault door with no spindle holes. Entry requires two points of attack (door and jamb), which doubles the time required for burglars to breach the vault. In recognition of their significant contributions to the field of bank vault engineering, the Franklin Institute wrote, “Coincident with the modern development of the safe and bank vault industry was that of the profession of the Bank Vault Engineer. The industry owes much of its progress to the work done by the pioneers of this profession: William H. Hollar, John M. Mossman, George L. Damon, E. A. Strauss, Frederick S. Holmes, Benjamin F. Tripp, and George L. Remington.” Holmes collaborated with prominent architects such as Cass Gilbert and Alfred Bossom as well as leading vault builders of the time including Bethlehem Steel, Carnegie Steel, Damon Safe & Iron Works, Diebold, Herring-Hall-Marvin, J&J Taylor, LH Miller Safe & Iron Works, Mosler Safe, Remington & Sherman, and York Safe & Lock. (en) |
