The Sun.
London, England, 1865-11-08 00:00:00

The Pneumatic Despatch.

Yesterday a ceremony of much scientific and
public interest took place at the offices of the Pneu-
matic Despatch Company, 245, Holborn. This
consisted in the opening publicly of the first portion
of the tube which is soon to connect the General
Post-office with the terminus of the London and
North-Western Railway, and, which, if the promo-
ters succeed to the full extent of their expectations,
is eventually to open up a new system of communi-
cation throughout the metropolis. The public have
heard a good deal of the pneumatic despatch system,
and to a limited extent have seen it in operation
already. A short line was laid down experimentally
at Battersea two or three years ago, and afterwards
transferred to Seymour-street, where it has been
and is now doing duty in the conveyance of mails
between Euston-square station and the north-
western district post-office in Eversholt-street. A
short passenger line on the same principle was also
constructed at the Crystal Palace. The present,
however, is the first practical application of the pro-
cess on anything like a large scale, and the results
are certainly encouraging. The distance from
Euston-square to Holborn is exactly one mile and
three-quarters ; the second portion of the line, run-
ning off at right angles to the General Post-office,
will be an additional mile in length, and of this
further portion one-half has been laid ; so that the
completion of the first important section of the
company's undertaking may be looked for at no dis-
tant day. The opportunity yesterday afforded of
seeing the line in actual working order naturally
drew together a number of gentlemen whose names
are familiar in the scientific and commercial world.
There were present, among others, the Duke of
Buckingham, chairman of the company ; Messrs.
W. H. Smith and J. H. Lloyd, directors ; Sir C.
Bright, M.P., Sir C. Roney, Mr. Sheriff Gibbons,
Mr. Horne (of the firm of Chaplin and Horne), Sir
C. Fox, Mr. Scott Russell, Major-General Margary,
R.E., Colonel Creed, Mr. Baker, engineer to the
London and North-Western Railway ; Mr. Fowler,
engineer to the Metropolitan Railway ; Mr. Sa-
muda, Mr. W. T. Rammell, and Mr. Latimer Clark,
joint engineers of the company ; Major Morgany,
Mr. Margary, &c. Looked at from the street one
would never imagine that the interior of the pre-
mises contains so much that is well worth seeing.
Entering . from the level of Holborn, the visitor
passes along a corridor through a doorway, and
emerges upon a gallery of considerable size, from
which he looks down on a brick floor, supporting
lines of rails, much as he might do from a railway
platform down on the line, but from a greater
elevation. Underneath the corridor by which he
has just entered he sees some mechanical appliances
suggestive partly of an engine-room, and partly of
a pointsman's gallery outside a railway station ;
and below the level, again, on which the white-
jacketed engineer in charge is standing, and sup-
porting the platform on which both he and these
mechanical appliances rest, are a couple of open-
ings, looking like black polished modern chimney-
pieces with the grates withdrawn. These are the
mouths of the pneumatic tubes, of which one com-
municates with the North-Western Railway ; the
other, idle at present, will soon be drawing in and
delivering supplies from and to the postal head-
quarters in London. The hour appointed yesterday
for the experiment to begin was half-past one, and
shortly after that hour a sudden snap, and a sighing,
rushing sound, like that which often heralds the be-
ginning of a storm, announced that the machinery
was set in motion. The snapping noise proved on
examination to have proceeded from the closing of
iron doors a little way within the shadow of what has
been compared to a fire-place, and these doors met,
not evenly, but at an angle like that of a broad arrow,
the point projecting outward, so as to resist the atmo-
spheric pressure. Some minutes passed before any-
thing further was visible or audible ; for, though
with a moderate amount of pressure the pneumatic
train is propelled at a speed of 25 miles an hour,
from seven to eight minutes are required for the
transit from Euston-square to Holborn. At last
the close attention bestowed by the engineer upon
his various signals and gauges was rewarded by a
telegraphic tinkling indicative of the fact that the
greater portion of the journey had been accom-
plished. A second and third signal followed at no
great intervals, and almost immediately upon the
last of these the doors flew open, as doors used to
do in the days anterior to the French Revolution,
when monarchs or great personages were about to
appear, and in rolled solemnly four dwarfish iron
waggons, weighing with their contents some 10 tons
in the aggregate. The manner in which these doors
open, as if by magic, to admit the string of car-
riages coming apparently from the bowels of the
earth, is one of the most interesting features in the
entire process, To render it intelligible, it must be
premised that,the air in the tube is alternately ex-
hausted and condensed, according to the direction
in which the train is going, and that the shaft com-
municating with the stationary engine which gene-
rates the blast, or causes the suction, enters the tube
about 100 ft. from its mouth. There is, therefore, a
body—technically speaking, a "cnshion"—of air,
100 ft. in length, behind the draught pipe, which
renders material service in arresting the progress of
the advancing train, and which would, in fact,
:bring it to a dead stop within the tube if the doors
were suffered to remain closed. A spring lever, how-
ever, underlies the rails at a short distance up the
tube, and this, when pressed by the weight of the
train, withdraws the bolt that keeps the doors in
their places, and suffers them to be blown open.
Although, however, they fly apart with a violence
really alarming, they create no sound and sustain
no injury themselves, owing to the fact that when
fully open they are received into air-chambers. Air,
therefore, in one and the same moment, is made to
exhibit the force of a giant and the softness of a
glove. As regards the carriages, it cannot truthfully
be said that they are ornamental in their character.
In shape they are like a capital D turned over on its
straight side and mounted upon wheels ; either end
of the carriage has a raised hood or flange, shaped
so as to correspond with the interior of the tube, the
dimensions of which are 4ft. in height by 4ft. flin. in
width. Yesterday they were laden or ballasted with
shingle filled into sacks, but their ordinary freight
is expected to be in the first instance letter bags,
then probably railway parcels, certain descriptions
of mai ket produce, and ultimately, it may be, gene-
ral merchandise. After the train had made some suc-
cessful passages to and_ fro several of the party ex-
pressed a strong desire to pass through the tube
themselves. Theywcre warned that the line was "not
constructed with a view to passenger traffic," and
that they might find the way "a little rough." The
spirit of adventure, however, is high in the heart even
of the middle-aged Englishman, and each of the
waggons had soon as many occupants as it could
comfortably accommodate in the recumbent posture
enforced by circumstances. Tarpaulin coverings were
obtained for one or two of the carriages, • but the
greater number of the excursionists had to fit them-
selves in as best they could among the bags of shingle,
taking care to keep their heads well below the edge
of the carriages, lest, as anAmerican gentleman pre-
sent was credited with saying, " they might get their
hair brushed by machinery." The sensation at start-
ing, and still more so upon arriving, was not agree-
able. For about a quarter of a minute in each case
there was a
pressureen ,
upon the ears suggestive of
diving-bell experience, suction like that with
which one isdrawn under a wave, and a cold draught
of wind upon the eyes, having almost the effect
of falling water; but only fairly within the tube
these sensations were got rid of, or left behind, and
i h emotion had little more positive discomfort about
it than would be attendant on riding on a tc lorry"
over the worst ballasted line in England. It was a
:=-ns.ation to be flying niong through
the
f,,rernost, in utter darkness, for the best
which, in such a place, seemed
part of :sr] minutes,
half an hour, knowing that to right and left of you
water-pipes, drains, cellars,
there were gas-pipes,
roofs of trees, and all the intricate fibres of the Lon_
don subsoil-way ; that nearer again to you was an
arch which you might touch at your peril, and that
of all these you could see absolutely nothing. The
conventional horrors of rats and catacombs troubled
one little, seeming out of place beside this latest
effort of human invention or audacity. But one
reminiscence connected with an earlier stage in the

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