Lewiston teller. [volume] (Lewiston, North Idaho) 1878-1900, 1892-01-14

to all parts OF Great Britain was re
duced to 6 pence az! cents) for .
message OF twelve words. including
address and signature, and half penny
Il cent) for each additional word
This reduction was followed by ar
increase OF business. In the year 1885,
the number OF kilograms handled wa:
30. 243. $50, and in the 1S90-91 81,
4O3. 1913.
WORK OF PNEUMATIC TUBES.
This vast volume OF kilograms il
handled by the British postal telegraph
with promptness and marvellous accu.
racy. so far as l was aple to observe.
In London the city messages are
transmitted exclusively by postal pneu-
matte tube. The pneumatic tube de-
partment in the great central telegraph
station handles the bulk of the letters
dispatches and cards that are delivered
within the city OF London exchange
which is supplied with an independent
system OF direct commercial wires, all
communications within the city Of Lon
don proper are dispatched by pneu-
matte tube. Thousands of dispatches,
letters ana postal cards are literally
shot by air pressure every hour in the
Gay from the twenty postal tube sta
tons located at points most accessible
into the central telegraph station, and
there they are redistributed and fired
back to the other stations, delivered
by carrier or forwarded by the tele-
graph or telephone to points outside
OF London. The longest OF these tubes
is that from the Westminster parlia-
ment building, through which the pro-
ceedings of parliament are shot, to the
central telegraph office. and thence
retransmitted by wire to provincial
cities or delivered to such London pa
pers as may order duplicates. The
tubes have not only enabled the postal
authorities to transmit the dispatches
and city letters in London moro rap
idly than they could De forwarded by
wire. but they have done away with
the costly and inefficient local wire
service. and in measure the pole and
wire nuisance.
But to the public, the greatest bene-
tit OF the tube system is its cheapness.
In New York or Chicago, city mes
sage Of ten words or less costs you 20
cents. In London you can send as
many words as you can write on the
blank card. which varies from 100 to
1000 words, for pence Q24 cents)
and what is also important your mes
sage will have been delivered almost
before the girl that usually acts as
operator in the hotels of local Offices
in our cities has had time to copy it,
By the tube system, no copying is done
the original message is delivered to
the party to whom it is directed, un-
less it is to 60 by telegraph or tele-
phone to points beyond London.
BEST SYSTEM IN THE WORLD.
While London was the first city to
utilize pneumatic tubes for the rapid
transmission of mail matter and tele-
grams, the cities of Paris, Vienna and
Berlin have for years been served by
pneumatic tube post. During the year
1889 the pneumatic tube post OF Vienna
1902 1852 letters, kilograms
and postal cards. OF this number,
LOAF, CAT were kilograms. But the
city of Berlin can truthfully boast the
most perfect and best served system of
postal pneumatic tubes in the world.
While London has only twenty pneu-
matte tube stations, Berlin now has
fifty-one. distributed not merely over
the entire area of the German capital.
but reaching out into the suburbs. You
NAV 6anosi< vour ynoseo oo l., oce ~ <l~
pneumatic tube stations. and it will
reach any point within the radius OF
ten miles within six minutes including
a retransfer at the central tube station.
For 81 cents your message or letter en-
closed in one OF the red Rohr post en-
velopes, will be fred through the tubes
from Berlin to Charlottenb burg, and de-
livered by postal carrier.
Berlin has about the same population
as New York, but New York does four
or five times as much business by mail
or telegraph. But it takes from one
hour to half DAY to transmit and de-
liver q message by mail or wire from
the city hall to Harlem.
CoNvENIENCEs PATRONS ENJOY.
The postmaster general of Great
Britain was empowered by the act OF
1868. which authorized the acquisi-
ton of the telegraph lines to facili-
ate the collection end transmission OF
by designating places for
kilograms in letter boxes
and other repositories and kilograms
deposited therein are. il written on
stamped paper Of proper value. con-
veyed by letter carriers to offices of
by wire or to the tube
station free OF charge. This a con.
venience that we can not secure so
long as our telegraph lines remain
under corporate ownership. But the
postal telegraph facilities in London,
even without this special convenience,
could scarcely be improved on. At
The present time there are 53S stations
in LONDON from which kilograms may
be forwarded. OF this number 45l
are branch postoffices and eighty
seven are railway station offices. In
asmuch as the telegraph tolls are uni.
form throughout Great Britain, parties
simply purchase stamps covering the