Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1903-10-02
FAST MAIL SERVICE.
Mechanism Proposed by an Italian &c
Carry Parcels and Letters.

larry Ed1Ce46 anu 4SCISIS.
Signor Piscicelli, a scientist of
Rome, has invented mechanism for
carrying letters and parcels which Is
so novel and promises such good re-
suits that the Italian government is
thinking of using it throughout the
country in place of the present man
service One reason why it prefers
Signor Piscicelli's method is because.
according to the inventor, by II let
tiers and parcels can be trasmitted
from one place. to another at a speed.
if desired, of $50 miles an hour, and
another reason Is because the cost of
transmission would be much less than
it is at present. In Germany and
France little is yet known of the new
invention, but the few experts who
have examined it praise it highly and
say that it possesses many advantages
over the present method of carrying
letters
Signor Piscicelli's scheme is to have
wires strung to a height of is feet
above the ground, and to have as We
hicles boxes. which are to contain
mail and which are to be rolled along
the wires at any distance that may be
necessary. The boxes are to be on
rollers, which will fit closely to the
wires, and the posts supporting the
wires are to be 800 feet apart from
each other. Moreover, the boxes are
to be made of aluminium, and when
filled with letters and packages they
must not weigh more than 20 pounds
each. Furthermore, to each post Is
to be attached a double wire so that
the boxes may never be impeded, but
can run in both directions at the same
time As the wires are so high above
the ground, no thief will be able to
snatch one of them unless he climbs
one of the posts, and if he ventures
to do this Signor Pisciceli Will see
that he will receive an electric shock
which will surprise him. 1t is ex-
tremely doubtful, however, if this
will ever be necessary, and for the sim
pie reason that the boxes will general
ly be going very fast and it will not be
easy for thief to aislodge one unless
he has gun.
The exact manner in which these
boxes are to be propelled has not yet
been divulged, but it is supposed that
they will be provided with electric
motors. In any case, the inventor
claims that they can run at the rate
of $50 miles an hour, and that, if de-
sired, 1000 can be started on their
journey every 60minutes, a distanceot
100 yards being left between each As
the boxes themselves are extremely
light, and as each, when filled, weighs
| about 70 pounds, it will be seen that
at this rate large quantity of mail
matter can be dispatched every hour.
The total weight of the 4, 200 boxes
would be 100000 pounds too
heavy a load one would think for a
few suspended wires to bear. It must
be remembered, however, that there
is to be a distance Of 100 yards be-
tween the boxes, and as there is to be
a similar distance between the posts
supporting the wires it follows that
no two posts will ever be called upon
to support more than one box be-
| tween them at one time.
Signor Pisciceli says that his in
vention will do all this, but he points
out that it is not always necessary to
dispatch 1000 boxes filled with mail
matter every hour, and therefore he
thinks that, if a constant and steady
service is required, it would be best
to dispatch from so to 100 boxes an
hour, and to leave a distance of two
or three miles between each. A Ger
man postal official who has looked
closely into the matter is of the same
opinion. Indeed, he doubts if any
wire railroad that could be construct
ed would be able to bear the weight
of i, 200 of these boxes, assuming thai
the distance between each was moi
more than 100 yards.