LIPS- a few Light to Heavy Round Doors

[wylk]

The first image looks like early 1960s, I'd guess (clothing style and architecture). But notice on the right there seems to be an electrical cord snaking through the doorway. This was common in the early days of electricity, being an add-on. My impression is that this practice continued for some time due to concerns over having a hole in a vault wall to pass wiring; the vault should be hermetic. A conduit could allow flood waters to enter, for example. Or it could allow other havoc by evil forces (e.g. somebody might try to push explosives through the conduit to blow the vault apart).

But well before the 1960s I thought the common practice was to somehow get power (and alarm circuits and possibly ventilation) into the vault using a secure method of some sort. So this picture seems unusual.

[Huw Eastwood]