The Express.
London, England, 1861-07-25 00:00:00

THE PNEUMATIC DISPATCH TUBE.

The passengers by Citizen steamboat to Chelsea
may observe, on the open quay which adjoins the premises
of the lionthwart and yen:hall Waterworks, near Batter-
sea-pier, a long range orblich iron tubing, ball sunk in the
earth, Lad extending a distance of about 430 yards along
the brink of the rinr, except where it takes a winding turn
and dives under ground before entering a shed.
This tube is the object of certain experiments which
began on Tuesday and will be continued for a few
days. The transmission of packages by pneumatic premium
is not a new idea, nor in practice is it without au example,
for the Electric Telegraph Company have for a period of
six years, employed the same means in collecting their
messages from districts immediately surrounding their chief
station. But the plan on which the Pneumatic Despatch
Company intend, with the nid of their engineers, Mears.
T. W. lienimall and Latimer Clark, to apply the principle
MOM widely, embraces two or three novel points
of mechanism. The tube which we have mentioned is
shout thirty inches in diameter. It has rails, which are
solidly cast within it. The are which are to bear the
despatches and mail bags are also of cast iron, with wheels
which run clothe rails; but the oars thanselvemthough corre-
' speeding in shape with their receptacle, do not fit closely to
its top and sides. Nothing like a vacuum or complete
exheustion of atmosphere is, in fact, required. The
failure of the old atmospheric railway was attributable partly
to the enormous pressure and partly to the necessity of
opening and claims oontinuousvalve as often u • train was
started. Neither difficulty occurs with regard to the pneu-
matic despatch tube. The pressure in this case is about '
six inches of water, which does not equal half the variation
of the barometer. A maximum speed of twenty-five miles
an hour may, we believe, be attained ; but this, as well se
the weight of the carriages and their contents, must be •
question of mechanical power. As to distance, there is a
more decided limitation ; and we doubt whether the plan
would work beyond a length of five miles. It will be for
use in crowded towns that the pneumatic despatch tube'
will prove a boon ; end its first operations in London will
probably be in connexion with the General Post-office. The
machinery by which a partial exhaustion of air within the
tube is effected may be bnefiy described. In the shed te
which we have alluded is an engine which works direct
tasamercrank on the axis of a couple of discs, the
of which is 21 feet. There is • space between
these discs, not wider than three or four inches at
the edge, but greatly increasing towards the centre, where
• large body of air is held. By the rapid and simultaneous
revolution of these dies, the air is expelled at the open
sides, just as water is trundled bye mop. As the centre
communicates with the tube, a certain quantity of air is
abstracted, and • corresponding pressure of course takes place,
by which the motion of the cars is governed. On their ap-
proach to the end of their journey a check is gives to their
speed by a very ingenious arrangement. The exhausting
machinery, instead of acting on the whole length se the tube,
communicates with it by a branch pipe. at some little dis-
Lace from the end. As soon as the carriages hue paned
this pipe, they ere no lamer subject to the Name motive in-
finenoe and the air is advance of them act, as a kind of
natural buffer, the opposing force of which Can again be
regulated at will by the attendants who hear the approach-
ing ears.
There is really no saying that this machinery. may not
serve the purpose of railways as well as the requirements of
the Post-oleos, and that we may not be blown through a
subterranean pea-shooter from one end of London to the
other. Let us, while waiting for this more remote benefit,
congratulate ounelves on the near prospect of in zreased postal
facilities, and diminished traffic through our already too-
, crowded streets.

PABIJAMENTARY COMMITTEES.

POOR RELIEF (ENGLAND).

This committee re-assembled on Tuesday ; Mr.
Villiers in the chair. The other members present were :
Sir W. Jolliffe, Mr. Moffatt, Mr. Kekewich, and Lord
Stanley.
Mr. l'erry, chairman of the Bristol Board of Guardians,
attended for the purpose of contradicting some of the state-
ments made by Miss Carpenter ou the 25th of June. She
then stated that the workhouse authorities do not concern
themselves about neglected chiklren, and that it is their
poetic* to discourage the application of such children foe
relief. She further stated that she knew of cases of hove
absolutely destitute applying for relief and being refused,
and that it was only after the interference of the magis-
trates that they were admitted into the workhouse. Now I
des) that such is the practice, and wish to state that the
authorities do not object to take in destitute children, or to
retain them. _ . .

The Chairman—Miss Carpenter is there referring to the
practice which existed ten rears ago.
Witmer—l cannot go tack so far as that.
The Chairman—Then that is no answer to Miss Carpenter's
statement. She mentions another ease which came under
her own notice:—The sou of a woman who was
receiving relief, and whose father was in prison. She says
that the workhouse authorities refused to take the boy in—
that she found hint in the streets and tent him to the
relieving officer, wno would not do anything for him, and
he was left in the streets. She received him into her
industrial school, and than sent him to the magistrates,
who toompelled the workhouse authorities to take him in.
She gays if also had Dot so received the boy he would have
been left in the streets. _

Witneas—l take that to he the ease of a boy who wu
formerly in Mies Carpenter's school, and whose father paid
for him up to the time of his committal to prison. The
payment MU then stopped, and Nisi Carpenter turned the
boy out of the echoul. The mother made an application
for relief, and I have here the statement of the relieving
*Meer.

.
The Chain:um—Ate you certain that this is the same
duo ? - - - •

Witness— lt is the nearest case we can find approaching
Miss I..%rpenter's statement, for she does not give us any
names or dates. My knowledge of the case is derived from
the mitering °Seer. He states that on the 13thJune,1860,•
boy aged 13, wss sent by his father to MissCarpenteis indus-
trial school, he agreeing to pay 3s. 6d, per week for the boy.
The boy continued in the school until March, 1861, when
his mother applied for relief in consequence of her husband
Uhl in prison. On the 22nd of March she applied for the
admission of the boy into the workhouse, but the appliea•
Mow was refused unless she went in with her other
child. She was, however, offered additional outAlixv
relief. The boy was afterwards brought before the guar-
dians and admitted, and remained in the workhouse three
weeks until the father got out of prison.
The Chairman—Miss Carpenter was risked if she had her-
self verified the fact. which she mentioned, and she paid
that she had done so, and that it was a system on the part
of the guardians at Bristol not to relieve children from the
fear of increasing the rates—that the cams to which she
referred had come to her own knowledge, and that it is the
custom of the magistrates to interfere and get the children
taken into the workhouse.
. . .

Witness—They do not interfere.
The Chairman—Then )ou contrad:ct that statement in
tato!

Witnaee—Ys.
The Chairman--Yon always receive children when they
snob to he admitted into the workhouse'.
Witnees—Yes, it they have no parents.
The Chairman—Yon never leave them destitute in the
Ares* no that they are driven to commit crime?

Witmer—Never.
The Chairman—ls there anything further in Yin Car-
paten evidence, which you wish to notice ! She states, in
eel part of her evidence, that the children in the workhouse
school are " down•looking" boys, and that as a punishment
their moat is sometime cut into small pieties, and they are
obliged to eat it out of a trough. What do you say to
that!
Witness—There is not a more cheerful or a more happy
set of boys. I have examined the m .sters and nine of the
hop, and have swantained that they are never treated in
that manner.
The Chairmen then referred to several other parts of
Carpenter's evidence, to which the witness gave equally
positive contradiction.