Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-10-01
BLOWING A TELEGRAM
The Postoffice at London Is Now
Using the Pneumatic System.
ROW THE PUBLIC Is FOOLED.
Better Time Made by the Tubes and Errors
Can't Possibly Occur.

Better Time Made by the Tubes and Errors
Can't Possibly Occur.
no CHANCE TO VIOLATE SECRECY
LONDON, Sept. 2S:-Americans familiar
with Paris have probably often received or
sent carte telegraphique, or, it they have
been lordly in their expenditure, they may
have invested an extra twopence on q
closed telegraphic letter. In either case
they have been able to send a message un.
limited in the number of words, at q speed
that completes with the electric telegraph.
The secret is simple. Traversing Paris is
system Of pneumatic tubes connected with
the different telegraph offices and the mes
sage, instead of being "wired," is blown to
its destination. Of course the actual Jour
ney takes longer, but no time is lost in op-
Grating and transcribing the message. The
identical piece of card or paper on which
the sender wrote is handed to his corre-
spondent at the other side of Paris Conse-
quently, although the air current is to the
electric in speed as the tortoise to the hare,
yet, like the tortoise, the air message wins
the race.
An almost identical system prevails in
London, for the benefit, not of the public,
but of the postofice. The actual form on
which the message was written is put into
little cloth box, called q carrier, and blown
through tube to the central telegraph Of
tice at st. Martin 's-le- Grand; it is there
placed in another tube and blown onward to
its destination-say, Leadenhall street. So
far no operator or transcriber has touched
it, and no electric needle has oscillated to
convey its meaning. The actual piece of
paper that was handed in at West Strand is
now, after the lapse of four or five minutes,
at Leadenhall street.
Deliberately Deoeiving the Public.
But it would never do to let this same
piece of paper fall into the hands of the
person to whom it is addressed. The secret
of its transmission would then be out, and
the public would clamor against being
charged telegraphic rates for message that
is not telegraphic So the IL words are
carefully copied on pink telegram. form,
and thus, blushing at the official deception,
are delivered to the addressee.
The method of working the tube system
is easily described. In the basement of the
Central telegraph Office at St. Martin 's-le-
Grand are four powerful engines, which
work the same number of air pumps The
pumps are so arranged that they exhaust
the air from a large cylinder, called the
vacuum cylinder, and press the same air
cylinder To these two cylinders all the
tubes that radiate underground from the
G. ?. o. are connected The tubes are in
most cases three inches in diameter, and
the ''carrier" is little cylinder of stiff
cloth. about six inches long, that fits easily
inside the tube. Into this carrier are
placed the messages, in bundles of perhaps
80 or 100 at time If the messages have
to travel inward to the G. 2. O.-say from
the West Strand-the little carrier would
be put into the up tube, which is connected
with the vacuum cylinder in the basement
of the central building. Directly it is
slipped into the tube at West Strand, and
the valve opened to let it pass, the little
carrier finds in front of it almost complete
vacuum, and behind it the pressure Of the
atmosphere. By this pressure it is driven
along at the rate of about
half mile minute, and delivered
into the central hall at the general post
Office (West). A boy takes the carrier out
of the tube. and the bundle of messages out
OF the carrier. These are rapidly sorted by
girls seated in the same room, and made up
into other bundles to 60 out to different
Offices. As soon as a bundle of 80 or more
is ready tor, say, West Strand again, an
outgoing carrier is filled, and placed In the
down-tube connected with the pressure
cylinder, and pushed outwards by the COM
pressed air at about the same speed that the
other carrier had been sucked inwards.
The Whole City Is Tubed.
Some idea of the extent to which the post
Office carries this system of blowing
messages which the public believes to be
wired can be gained from the fact that prac-
tically the whole of the city ir covered by
the pneumatic system, which tubes extend
as far as Southampton-row to the west, and
as far rs the House of Commons tC the
southwest In other words, throughout the
city and the West Central district-that is,
throughout the heart of London-telegraphy
is now at an end, and the electric wire has
given place to the pneumatic tube.
The speed, however, is not uniform; the
greater the distance from the pumping
center the slower the rate at which the car
rier travels. That is consequence of
mechanical laws, and its effects can only be
obviated by having intermediate pumping
stations The carrier would then be sucked
part of its journey and pushed the rest, and
in this way longer distances than anv vet
attempted could be covered, and the whole
of London could be brought under the pneu-
matte system.
This change has been made for the benefit
of the postofice revenue, not for the benefit
of the public, says Pau Mdli Budget Our
proposal is that the tube system should be
extended over the whole of London, and
that the public should be admitted to
share in its advantages. Among these ad-
vantages, the first undoubtedly is that
long message can be sent by tube for the
same cost and at the same speed as the
twelve words of sixpenny telegram. In
Paris the charge for a closed telegraphic
letter is fvepence and there is room for
more than 100 words on the sheet of paper
supplied; for telegram IN Paris the charge
is fvepence for ten words.
No Mistakes and Perfectly Confidential.
And in Paris, though the tube system
there is far from perfect, the pneumatic
message-the pneumagram, let us call it
often outstrips the telegram. In London
the large telegram form on which messages
are now written by the public would, if it
were clean sheet Of paper. have room for
at least 200 words; and clearly it could not
cost more to the postoffice to blow piece
of paper covered with 200 words in manu-
script and the rest in Official print. In
deed, the pneumatic system, if its advan-
tages we're thrown open to the public, would
cost the postofice less than at present. For
now-in order to keep the public in the
dark-eanh message is copied out before de-
livery. This is purely waste of labor.