there were also pneumatic tube networks in Vienna, Prague, Munich, Rio de Janeiro, Dublin, Rome, Naples, Milan,
and Marseilles. One of the most ambitious systems was installed in New York, linking many of the post offices in Manhattan
and Rrooklyn. This system was large enough to handle small parcels, and on one occasion a cat was even sent from one post
office to another along the tubes.
Ry 1870, three-inch-diameter tubes were the norm, with carriers capable of transporting as many as sixty messages, though
they were usually sent holding far fewer. According to statistics compiled in London, one three-inch tube was equivalent to
seven telegraph wires and fourteen operators working flat out. Tubes were also good for coping with sudden surges in demand,
such as when war fever struck London in July 1870 and the amount of traffic instantly doubled.
However, blockages were a constant problem for all pneumatic tube networks. They were usually cleared by blasting air down
the tubes—though really serious blockages meant having to dig up the street. In Paris, the distance to the blockage was sometimes
calculated by firing a pistol down the tube and noting the time delay before the sound of the bullet's impact with the carrier.
Leaks, on the other hand, were harder to find; the preferred method was to send a carrier on the end of a long string, and
note the point at which the rate of take-up of the string slackened.
A LTHOUGH THEY WERE ORIGINALLY intended to move messages from one telegraph office to another, pneumatic tube systems were
soon being used to move messages around within major telegraph offices. Each of these offices was a vast information processing
center—a hive of activity surrounded by a cat's cradle of telegraph wires, filled with pneumatic tubes, and staffed by hundreds
of people whose sole purpose was to receive messages, figure out where to send them, and dispatch them accordingly.
The layout of a major telegraph office was carefully organized to make the flow of information as efficient as possible. Typically,
pneumatic tube and telegraph links to offices within the same city would be grouped on one floor of the building, and telegraph
wires carrying messages to and from distant towns and cities would be located on another floor. Grouping lines in this way
meant that additional instruments and operators could easily be assigned to particularly busy routes when necessary. International
connections, if any, were also grouped.
Incoming messages arriving by wire or by tube were taken to sorting tables on each floor and forwarded as appropriate over
the building's internal pneumatic tube system for retransmission. In 1875, the Central Telegraph Office in London, for example,
housed 450 telegraph instruments on three floors, linked by sixty-eight internal pneumatic tubes. The main office in New York,
at 195 Broadway, had pneumatic tubes linking its floors but also employed "check-girls" to deliver messages within its vast
operating rooms. Major telegraph offices also had a pressroom, a doctor's office, a maintenance workshop, separate male and
female dining rooms, a vast collection of batteries in the basement to provide electrical power for the telegraphic instruments,
and steam engines to power the pneumatic tubes. Operators working in shifts ensured that the whole system operated around
the clock.
Consider, for example, the path of a message from Clerkenwell in London to Birmingham. After being handed in at the Clerkenwell
Office, the telegraph form would be forwarded to the Central Telegraph Office by pneumatic tube, where it would arrive on
the "Metropolitan" floor handling messages to and from addresses within London. On the sorting table it would be identified
as a message requiring retransmission to another city and would be passed by internal pneumatic tube to the "Provincial"
floor for transmission to Birmingham by intercity telegraph. Once
and Marseilles. One of the most ambitious systems was installed in New York, linking many of the post offices in Manhattan
and Rrooklyn. This system was large enough to handle small parcels, and on one occasion a cat was even sent from one post
office to another along the tubes.
Ry 1870, three-inch-diameter tubes were the norm, with carriers capable of transporting as many as sixty messages, though
they were usually sent holding far fewer. According to statistics compiled in London, one three-inch tube was equivalent to
seven telegraph wires and fourteen operators working flat out. Tubes were also good for coping with sudden surges in demand,
such as when war fever struck London in July 1870 and the amount of traffic instantly doubled.
However, blockages were a constant problem for all pneumatic tube networks. They were usually cleared by blasting air down
the tubes—though really serious blockages meant having to dig up the street. In Paris, the distance to the blockage was sometimes
calculated by firing a pistol down the tube and noting the time delay before the sound of the bullet's impact with the carrier.
Leaks, on the other hand, were harder to find; the preferred method was to send a carrier on the end of a long string, and
note the point at which the rate of take-up of the string slackened.
A LTHOUGH THEY WERE ORIGINALLY intended to move messages from one telegraph office to another, pneumatic tube systems were
soon being used to move messages around within major telegraph offices. Each of these offices was a vast information processing
center—a hive of activity surrounded by a cat's cradle of telegraph wires, filled with pneumatic tubes, and staffed by hundreds
of people whose sole purpose was to receive messages, figure out where to send them, and dispatch them accordingly.
The layout of a major telegraph office was carefully organized to make the flow of information as efficient as possible. Typically,
pneumatic tube and telegraph links to offices within the same city would be grouped on one floor of the building, and telegraph
wires carrying messages to and from distant towns and cities would be located on another floor. Grouping lines in this way
meant that additional instruments and operators could easily be assigned to particularly busy routes when necessary. International
connections, if any, were also grouped.
Incoming messages arriving by wire or by tube were taken to sorting tables on each floor and forwarded as appropriate over
the building's internal pneumatic tube system for retransmission. In 1875, the Central Telegraph Office in London, for example,
housed 450 telegraph instruments on three floors, linked by sixty-eight internal pneumatic tubes. The main office in New York,
at 195 Broadway, had pneumatic tubes linking its floors but also employed "check-girls" to deliver messages within its vast
operating rooms. Major telegraph offices also had a pressroom, a doctor's office, a maintenance workshop, separate male and
female dining rooms, a vast collection of batteries in the basement to provide electrical power for the telegraphic instruments,
and steam engines to power the pneumatic tubes. Operators working in shifts ensured that the whole system operated around
the clock.
Consider, for example, the path of a message from Clerkenwell in London to Birmingham. After being handed in at the Clerkenwell
Office, the telegraph form would be forwarded to the Central Telegraph Office by pneumatic tube, where it would arrive on
the "Metropolitan" floor handling messages to and from addresses within London. On the sorting table it would be identified
as a message requiring retransmission to another city and would be passed by internal pneumatic tube to the "Provincial"
floor for transmission to Birmingham by intercity telegraph. Once
Similar Books
