NEW POSTAL DEVICES.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5281, 30 May 1928, Page 4

NEW POSTAL DEVICES.

DELIVERY BY UiNDEBGROUND. The General Post Office has made a wonderful addition to its distribution facilities ip London (writes; the correspondent of the Argus). A tube, six and a half miles long, extending from Paddington in the we.st to Whitechapel in the east, has been cut at a cost of £1,500,000, and it is now being used for the distribution, of letters and parcels, in place of horse ca.rts or motor vans. In the new postal tube run electric trains, giving a two-minutes’ service, the trains being controlled by automatic devices similar, to those in a signal station. When a lever is. lowered, the current is switched on to the line, and the postal train is set in mOition ; when the lever is raised the current is switched off and the postal train comes to rest. A train consists of three cars, each 13ft l,ong, and the system can carry 23,000 bags a day, the track being double and the trains having a speed of 35 miles :an hour. Each station is equipped with lifts, spiral chutes, and bag conveyors or elevators. It is uncanny to watch the operations being carried through without human intervention. A button pushed here, a lever pulled there, and the work is done. Another postal improvement recently introduced in Central London is the .automatic telephone. London was late in testing the automatic telephone, but the system has pome to stay, and it will be extended throughout the metropolis as. existing telephone exchanges require renewal. Within 10 or 15 years the renter of an automatic telephone in London will be in touch wit/h 2,000,000 points, scattered over the 700' square miles included ip the metropolis telephone system. About 100,000,000 calls pass •over the British telephone system in a year, a.nd telephoning has ousted telegraphy in public favour. The telegraphic service is supported by heavy subsidies, from paying (Departments of tihe general postal system. There are now 1,500,000 telephones in Britain. This is much below the proportion in the United States, where there are. I's telephones to every 100 people.