Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1895-10-02
PNEUMATIC TUBES.
Made to Send Letters From
Point to Point.
PHILADELPHIA USES THEM NOW
Plans of the Quakers for Pneumatics to
Carry kilograms, Dry Goods
and Merchandise.

and Merchandise.
Postal authorities, both in this coun-
try and in England, have their eye ON
the pneumatic tube as time-saver in
the delivery of mail in big cities.
Philadelphia has had the pneumatic.
tube system in operation for several
years, and London uses it extensively
and with great success.
1t is strange that in this progressive
age the tube system has not been
widely introduced for the use of the
postal service in New York. The de-
lays in delivering mail from uptown
to downtown points and vice versa are
most exasperating. Often they are a
positive hindrance to business men. A
letter from New York for Boston
reaches its destination 225 miles away
relatively more quickly than letter
from downtown New York for Har-
lem. In fact, letter mailed at the
New York Postoffice at 8 a. M, des-
tined for Harlem, would probably not
be delivered before the late afternoon
delivery. By $3.50 p. m. the same let
ter would have reached Boston and
would be delivered in the business
section of Boston before p. m. on the
same day.
Likewise letters mailed on the east
side and bound for west side points
reach their destinations at rate of
e,aod oil ont Of ,,roy,ort;o,, 70 ,,,odorY,
methods of doing things in hurry yet
we'll. The trouble lies in the use OF
slow going mail wagons between the
sub-stations and the main Office. In
many instances the wagons have to
travel five miles through crowded. and
in winter through snow-covered, streets.
and are always open to the possibility
of blockades.
By the pneumatic system bundles OF
letters could be "shot' through the
tubes at railroad speed. Harlem would
be but few minutes from the general
office. Madison square could be
reached probably in three minutes. By
the extension of the tube system it
I would be possible for man to mail a
letter at tube central station and
have it reach its destination inside of
quarter of an hour. This, of course,
would require an etensive network of
tubes, but the scheme is a perfectly
feasible one. Instead of going to a
sub-station or drop-letter box on the
corner. man would simply place his
letter in tube, put on the pressure and
rest assured that science would do the
rest. The system posi- bly, would be
expensive, but there is no doubt that
New York business men would pay for
this extra service and support it reg
ularly.
The pneumatic system is capable of
enormous expansion. Paris. London,
Berlin and other Continental cities
have, as in this country, used COM
pressed air as the mo tive power in fac
tories. for the ventilation of large
buildings, for operating elevators and
clocks in public and private structures,
for pumping water, for the generation
of electricity, for refrigeration and
cleaning AMI other purposes. In the
larger expansion of the idea tubes
could be built to connect New York
with Philadelphia or Boston. Mail
pouches could be carried in a car in
side of an underground tube, instead
of on an express train. A pouch hav-
ing arrived in Philadelphia it could be
relayed there for Baltimore or Wash
ington or Pittsburg, and at these points
relayed there for other points further
away.
When Mr.. Preece, the Superintend-
ent of the London Postoffice, visited
this country he was loud in mis- praise
of the system of pneumatic tubes in
use at the Philadelphia Postoffice. Mr..
Preece, who is probably the best posted
man in postal matters in the world,
declared that it is only a question of
time when the postoffice service would
force the various telegraph companies
to adopt pneumatic tubes for the trans
mission of kilograms in order to COM
pete with the ever increasing postal
facilities.
In cases where pneumatic tubes are
used in the large stores the diameter
of the tubes, which are of brass, is sell
dom more than two inches, the air be-
ing exhausted or forced by some form
of positive blower. The pressure for
vacuum required is seldom more than
a few ounces, for the tubes are short,
and the carriers containing the cash
are very light, and the mechanism
necessary to operate such system is
of the simplest kind.
This system has been extended and
perfected, and in short time Phila-
delphia will have network of pneu-
matte tubes which will threaten to
seriously affect the incomes of the
Western Union and Postal Telegraph
Companies and the American District
Messenger Service. In New York City
the Western Union Telegraph Com
pany transmits telegraph messages be.
/ tween the office at Madison Souare