New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-08-15
BELT TO WHIRL
MAIL TO TRAINS
100000 Pounds Now Can
Be Loaded at Grand Gen.
trail with a Push Button.
PLAN WILL INCREASE
SPEED IS PER CENT
Pouches May Be Shot from New
P0stOffice Into Thirty-three
Trains at One Time.

Speedier methods Of handling mail
at the Grand Central Terminal Will get
their first test tomorrow morning
when the bags are thrown on a swiftly
revolving belt carrying them to the
trains instead of being laboriousiy
tran sferred by squad Of truckmen.
The postofice has been swamped by
the growth in mails, chiefly due to the
parcel post, and the New York Central
engineers have hit on this scheme to
relieve congestion.
II successful the system will release
fifty or seventy-five porters for other
Jobs in connection with the 100000
pounds OF mail that pass through the
terminal daily. II will increase the
speed Of handling rs per cent. officials
say.
The new Postoffice Building. which
occupies the block bounded by Forty
fifth and Forty-sixth Streets. Lexing-
ton Avenue and Depew Place, is nearly
completed. II stands directly over the
New York Central tracks. 1t is 200 BY
275 feet. two stories high and built OF
cream colored brick and white stone.
to match the rest of the terminal
group.
In the basement is a platform 1900
feet long. with a track on either side.
at which mail trains load and unload.
The first story is occupied by the rail-
way mail service and the second by
the New York postoffice. New floors
will be added as the volume of mai!
demands.
Hands off" has been the motto OF
the engineers in designing the mall
carrying machinery. The secret or
quick service. according TO w. j..
Thornton, designing engineer OF the
New York Central. is TO allow no one
to touch the mail unless absolutely
Necessary. This has been kept in mind
throughout the construction of the
office.
When the first mail wagon backs up
at the Depew Place entrance to-mor-
row its bags and pouches will be
dumped directly into chutes. At the
DOkNOH VI tue NhuAto biltf wiz ihAa CIA
moving rubber belt, covered with
canvas and propelled by electricity.
This belt will carry them at the rate
Of $50 feet minute into the building.
Bags whose contents require sorting
before they are put on the trains will
be shurted off the belt to the floor Of
the building. There the clerks will
lick them up. sort the letters into new
bags and put these new bags or a sim
liar belt, which will carry them by way
of another chute into the mail cars on
the tracks below. Thus hands touch
the mail but once at most from the
time il leaves the wagon TO the time
it lands in the mail car.
Thirty-three mail cars can be lined
up at one time at the platform in the
basement. Two hundred and twenty
seven trains carry mail to and from
the station daily. and eleven of these
each from nine TO fourteen cars, carry
no passengers at all.
Some pouches, booked for trains in
the Grand Central itself. are shot from
the moving belt into a small carrier
which runs under the tracks. When
this carrier reaches the track desired
it is shot UP to the level and the
pounches transferred to the train BY
hand
There are supplemental belts. spiral
chutes, four elevators, three bucket
lifts and three bag conveyers for
emergency use When the system is
running smoothly it can be controlled
by two or three men at the switches
on the platforms. These men. simply
by pressing a button, can shunt the
mail off the main belt with an electric
"trip" at any point on the journey from
wagon 10 train.
A feature of the upstairs Office is the
Spy gallery" a passageway which
completely encircles the room and
which contains peepholes from which
detectives can watch the sorting clerks
to see that no thefts occur. The spy
gallery extends even to the toilet and
locker rooms.
The system was adapted from that in
use at the Pennsylvania Terminal b.
George A. Harwood, chief engineer of
the New York Central; E. d. Sabine
terminal engineer. and W. ]. Thornton.
designing engineer. II is said to be
the most elaborate in the world