The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1902-12-29
MAILS By WIRE.
HOW THE LETTERS WILL
TRAVEL
BY the Italian InventOr's Electric
Post.

a SSNellle ny WHICH letters posted III
London may reach Brighton in a quar-
ter of an hour, Southampton in half an
hour, or Manchester in little over
three-quarters of an hour, and Carlisle
in less than an hour and a quarter.
sounds too good to be possible
Yet Count Piscicclli Taeggi, All Ital-
| ian engineer, has come forward with a
scheme for accomplishing this, armed
with wealth of convincing detail that
has even caused our general postoffice
authorities to inquire into its practical
qualities
| After all, why should not Italy, which
has given us wireless telegraphy at the
| hands of Signor Marconi, give us the
| electric post travelling at $50 miles an
| hour through the medium of Count
| Taeggi?
This gentleman, who is now in Eng
| land in connection with his invention,
gave the writer the following details of
| his system of electricity transmitted
| correspondence:
| A light railway, supported by tall
poles is to run from London, connect
ing all the principal provincial towns.
A torpedo-shaped vehicle, weighing
about one and a half hundred weight,
runs along the wires which form the
rails, which are gripped by central
wheel in this traveller" Two side
wheels, engaging two smaller wires at
the side of the car, preserve its bal
ance when it is running slowly, Once
| +l,o
up it's speed 1t no more requires these
side wires than bicycle or, rather,
child's hoop needs support when in mo-
ton.
| The power is transmitted to the mo-
| tor in the carrier by the main support
/ ing wire and two smaller ones. This
! wire has a breaking strain of five tons,
! so is likely to prove equal to the strain
placed upon it.
| The most ingenious part Of the inven-
! ton is the method by which one of
! these vehicles can be switched off the
main express line to the branch lire
/ leading to the particular town which
! happens to be its destination.
| There is a small wheel in the rear of
+ the carrier at the end of an adjustable
| ann. This arm is set to any, height,
which keeps the little wheel clear of all
! the raised switch wires until it comes
to the one for which it has been set.
Once the wheel touches the Man
chester switch wire, for example 1t
would automatically send in advance of
| the carrier a current of electricity,
which actuates a kind of turntable
| leading from the main to the branch
! line. The carrier intended for Man.
j chester would thus ignore the switches
operated by the carrier which had been
set" for Coventry, as 1t rear wheel Is
raised too much to touch the wire
! working the switch for the latter place.
Thus the postal authorities could be
certain that if a car be placed on the
express line with its wheel at the an
gle necessary to take it to Manchester
it could not lose it's way and arrive at
! Carlisle or Birmingham.
| On approaching a switch, the car
| rier is made to automatically slacken
speed in order to prevent 1t jumping
the metals.
Again, a carrier may. through wear
and tear, travel somewhat more slowly
than the one Immediately behind it,
This, too, has been provided for and if
the overtaking carrier comes within
three miles Of its precursor it auto
matically slackehs speed! The up
and down" lines are kept distinct, so
there Is no danger of collision. These
long distance torped0-like carriers
would leave London at Ave or ten min
ute intervals. Clearing the post boxes
| in large centers will also be automatic.
The new posting boxes would be
placed inside light columns called
post collecting poles" and about As
feet high. Every 10 or Is of them
would be connected from above with
single aerial line connected with the
general postoffice. Over this line col
lecting boxes run by electricity to COL
lect the letters posted by the public in
the pOst-collecting poles,
Every five minutes an empty box
would start from the general postoffice,
and on reaching the top part Of the
first collecting pole would stop there
and open, causing at the same moment
the post box to rise inside the column
and to shoot it's letters into the collect
ing box and lastly to go down and re-
sumo its former position.
Meanwhile the collecting box closes
and resumes it's Journey to the next
collecting pole, and so on. Having ac-
complished it's round, it returns to the
general postotfice, carrying there all the
letters found in the posting boxes
Each post-collecting pole is fitted
with special stamping apparatus in
tended for canceling the postage
stamps and for printing the date and
exact time of posting.-From the Lon
don Mail.
A PEERLESS FLORIDA BOOKLET,