PNEUMATIC TUBE SYSTEM.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 298, 12 September 1888, Page 7

PNEUMATIC TUBE SYSTEM.

t 49. — - The use of pneumatic tubes For the transmission of messages is not a novel idea, having been in use since 1854. The system in England has not been mateiially improved upon since its adoption, and even to the present day its usefulness is limited to sending messages and parcels in straight lines between given points. It has remained for Americans to thoroughly remodel the idea, and by combining electricity with the air pressure powe*' employed abroad, bring to a state of perfection a system of switching off messages at will from the main tube at any point desired as complete as it is wonderful. i The service in London is confined to the transmission of telegraph messages. These aye placed in the tubes in 'carriers,' being propelled in one direction by compressed air and drawn in the other direction by rarefaction of air in the tube. It is estimated that in London and the provinces there are 129 tubes, of a total length of 45 miles 769 yards, which require 14 engines, having a total of 184 horse-power nominal to work them. There are 51,478 messages •a day passed through these tubes. With the air pressure and vacuum employed — 101 band Sib respectively — a speed (approximately) of one mile in seventy seconds is attained in tubes not exceeding a mile in length. In the American system of tranmitting messages through pneumatic tubes, instead of a single tube stretching from a given point to a certain destination, as in the English and continental systems, the underground plant consists of main tubes laid along certain streets. These are placed in the same manner as water and gas pipes, and from the main tubes lateral or connecting tubes branch off in 'every direction to the streets wherever business places of subscribers are located. At each junction of these lateral lines with the main tube switches operated by electricity are placed. These are incased in the tube, and are operated from the main office so as to block a message in it* course along tiie main tube, and direct it into the desired branch tube, in which by a similar process it is intercepted or made to diverge towards the house to which it is directed. There | are two tubes in the system, one a vacmm and the other a pressure tube, each carrying messages or parcels in opposite directions. In Philadelphia, New York, and elsewhere, offices are established three or four blocks apart along the various streets where the tubes pass. From each of these main-line stations a 'household ' service is estab-J.-aVd entirely distinct from the tubes that run through the streets. The • v-ii i vms ' 'le-Mni'd for a certain district an- \ <>nu r the street tubes to the r.e.i! ■ st tli^t' !<•• office. Tiie operator there • >!>. us the one coutaininir fie message or package, loo';* at the a. I Ir^s 5 . touches an el. ctric button %vliicli closes all th^switches except those lending to a eeitain stove or hiHis-, nndii an in-tan t sen^s the package to it-i ilf stuii.tion In s ■n-iim* a message or picKage fi>>'u a hon^e or office it is simply dropped into tin* vacuum tnt c, md is taken to the m-arost district station, •vvhete th" operator switches it into one of ihe main-line iub^s, calling the attention Jit the sune time of afellow-opeiator in a district perhaps several miles away, that a ' carrier' is rushing to his district 10 be guided to its destination. So perfect is the plan of details that a 1 carrier' passing into or out of the main tabes enn in no way collide with another passing through, or cause a block in any way. The spec! averages a mile in thirty seconds (in England it is a mile in seventy seconds), and the, electric wires which operate switches and signals are placed in the yoke 'which connects the Vacuum and pressure tubes. To show how successful and extensive the system is in Kew York, we may mention that in connection with the Stock Exchange alone there are 14 inches of tubing, every leading broker's office being included. The Banks also ate all in it, and the extraordinary facilities of the system can be imagined when it is considered that a broker can send his cheques to his bank in a flash within a few seconds of closing time.