MANAWATU EVENING STANDARD AND POHANGINA GAZETTE GUARANTEED LARGEST CIRCULATION IN THE DISTRICT. MONDAY, JUNE 4, 1900. A FORGOTTEN FORTUNE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 6713, 4 June 1900, Page 2

MANAWATU EVENING STANDARD AND POHANGINA GAZETTE GUARANTEED LARGEST CIRCULATION IN THE DISTRICT. MONDAY, JUNE 4, 1900. A FORGOTTEN FORTUNE.

About the last place one would think o: searching for a goldmine would be tmdci the palatial buildings of the city of tlu world, London, yet an engineer, MGeorge Threlfall, has found whal promises to be just as good in the shape of a tunnel of cast iron, 2;] miles ir length, which has been lying disused unknown, lost to the memory of all bul a few scientists, for over thirty years This tunnel was eonitructed from the London General Post office to Euston railway station by a company, at enormous expense, far the purpose of carrying mails and postal parcels between th two terminal points and wayside offices ,by means of pneumatic pressure. It is ' four feet high by feur feet and a half wide, and carriages witk tho ends fitting the cavity tightly, were pushed and drawn along the tunnel by means of air pressure and suction. It was first used in 1863, but never preyed a success, chiefly owing to the leakage of air. In 1895 Mr Threlfall first entered the disused tunnel, after struggling through a mass of debris in a basement of Eustonroad station, and decided that a fair expenditure would put it in werking order for the propelling of cars by electricity. But having discovered tho tunnel and realised its effectiveness, tke task of finding the owners proved by no means easy. After eighteen months' hard search in Government eftices, and the five parishes through which the tube runs, Mr Threlfall realised that neither the engineer nor the original contractors had a single plan of the route. It was not until after a wearying system of inquiries half over Kngland and on the Continent that Mrs Frances Rammell, the widow of a fanaous engineer, was discovered, and, through her remarkable energy, the original plans were eventually ' brought to light. To realise tho commercial value of the tunnel's discovery 1 and rehabilitation, it is necessary to have some idea of the extent of mails and parcels passing not only between Euston and the General Post Office, but , the local post offices en route. Practi- . caliy all the heavy post of the north of Great Britain passes through Euston station, and the heaviest hour of the day »ees a total of eleven, tons of postal matter transmitted, while tho present method of carriage of the mails by Tan is subiect to many drawbacks, so that the tunnel can be made of enormous convenience to the postal officials. • When the tunnel is ready, a cepper strip will be laid in a trough between the i rails, from which an electro-motor, drawing a maximum load of seven cars, 1 will pick up the electric current by a roller contact. About forty miles an , hour, er two minutes foi* the journey, as agaiust twenty-four minutes at present," . "77' -, ,j- rXX>. ■Jk'%^l^kM7sgMkm&

will berths highe'sCsf>"e6d attained, and as tach car will carry a ton of mails seven tons will fly.Jrom post office to station in a twelfth of the time taken by so many horses and vans. A company is being farmed to carry out the details, and evaryone must wish the plucky engineer the profits of his perseverance.