ROUND THE POST OFFICE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXIII, Issue 529, 31 December 1889, Page 4

ROUND THE POST OFFICE.

'"MiiyY"'- 'Y- ' ■■Y'(dhffilJt%'W*rld') ■A^^t^ii^^r^vo^^ '°* me .to; V briefest deecripMon of a moßt deligb';. -v:rM-* T lfl*l^ia;rb , -iilie.WO.'- I daresay few people reause how '-important a seoiion is that - aeparj_iment / oi v -tt • wbiob ,' is; devoted to telcgitaphy. I- went ' over tbe wboe of theßo great galleries, filled from eud.to end with: mefl, -women, and boys, hard at work despatching the thousands of messages that are momentarily arriving from all parts of the universe. The firs*, instrument I noticed in Use* was tbe Whesißtone automatic, which ' 'txknfamitß Words at the ratc v of 400 a minute, »n*3byV, which the same message oan te despatched to nineteen plaoes at onoo. By Mr Del^ney's invention six , messages oan be BenfeT*a( v itb*ißame moment upon one wire. By tbeutlleonronofer-an ingenious inetru* mejravin aeorner. of, tbe first gallery— the '■<:■ Qlfjenwicb time is daily telegraphed -all over England, end another email maohine flreß a noob-day gun at North Shields, Newooatle, and Eiinburgh. A bind of cupbbard weroponed, and inside I saw 400 miles of who oarefully ooiled, and by meanß of which | tbe wireß throughout th» Whole of England oan be toated.. In the P_neum*t'Q-tubo room j I wbb Bbown the contrivance by which fifty messageß at onoe are put iuto a receiver, and . Bent to ibe GLF.O. from diflsront por sof iondon, thua saving a'jgreat deal of tlmp and money. Having ga*a.»d down a well 630 feet deep, wbiob supplies the engine depattmeai" •with -w«ter;i hntried ittof the Bittuy-^oom, where, in a stillness that iB in marked contrast to tte bustle above, the electrioUy jb Btored that is the life and soulof tbe whole world, and by wbioh millions of messages are daily and hourly sent away. The electricity here produced i'b stored aw&y in 25,000 jsra or cells, whioh ar» arranged upou three miles of shelves. Hurrying aoroas the roa*3, l oame to the Post Offioe proper, juat in tima to a;e tbe laDfi letters pos r ed in by the pablfo for the evenin? m*iJ. As the : great clock of S\ Paul's rang cud sir strokeß the boxes were closed with a snap, and the evenirg work, began in eirn?st. Let us follow the men as they take iu the h»ge baskets. The lottera aro first taken to tbe faoing tabic?, where a number of men atd boys are engaged Bolely in turning the letters all ona way. They are then stamped by 2,000 empioyi«i at tbe rate of 180 a mitu'e, although eome of the machines, worked by foot," turn them off at tbe rata of 350. Thtss maobines autornatiolly record the numbers Stamped. From the Btampiog-room they aro tak<n in vast shoals to tbe General or Primary Sortiog-rocm, where they are roughly 1 divided under the great railway headings. They are then ooovoyta to a further department ..oaUe.d Ste. Second Sorting room, .whore they are divided into what ate techaioally termed roadsj e.g., Carlisle road, whiob wonld meau Cai lifile and OarlMe ZistrictP la the third room they are very * particularly divided for towna acd big v'iliiages, tied up in bundles, . put into bags, which are sealed up, End taken away to the train. In this department I saw specimens of stamps, from the _i one we know so well to the £B stamp wbioh is need for vtry heavy foreign paokages. But the department wbioh most interested me wbb tbe Blind Division, where all unde* oipherable or otherwise unintelligible ad- . (Imbbsb ate taken. Here are two speoimens of wbat I picked for myself out of a great heap ofqonsense— Migs— — , High street, England, there or elsewhere. 1 Miss Ann Machin, ' Quaridring Railway Gates, . ■ :- \•■ • Old .England. . This' lady will be Interested to know that this jb the vague style in whioh some Amerioan frioud has addressed bis letter to ber. Two pears, drawn upon an envelope, And with tbe Word London beneath them, arrived safely at Messrs Pears and Son's, the great ; soap people, Tbc Pake of Cambridge, who franks his letters in the corner, is hereby respect" fully informed that bis oorrospondenoe is sometimes, but rarely, de' ay od by going to the. town of which he is thc titular head," There is, however, a notioe put up warning the cmoials to be care» ful where H.R.H.'s letters are concerned. The illustrated envelopes are most amusing, and very clever was one wbicb bore tbe po3t mark of Hawarden, and on Avhioh was drawn an admirable likeness of tbe.G-.OiM. from life, witb his axe in his hand, and in his shirt-sleeves and the now historical collar. • ObanvidOck,' was intended, ancl rightly interpreted, to mean • Holborn Viaduct.' But I must hurry on, after telling your readers that there .are no less tban fifty Redhills in England alone. . 'At4he Sealing Table, packages that have been broken are re sealed and fastened securely. The Registered and Foreign Letter Department does not require any special description. ' ■ Mr Howson, wbo, by Sir Arthur Black- , wood's direotion, took me over, and most kindly explained everything to me, gave me a few interesting and amußing statistics. For instance,, he told me. that once 20,000 post cards were delivered in one morning at <: the office of Tit Bits, which had instituted ,'a post card., competition. . 260 loaves of 1 bread iwere- banded in- at the offices of 1 Cassell, Petter, and Galpin, in response to .Jiheir request for the best home-made loaf. On Primrose D»y 93,000 bouquets of that flower passed through the GP.O. Over two million letters a day are reoeived by the omcials. One firm posted 180,000 letters in three days, lid. eaob, making in all £1,100. .. Tbere ate 8,000 plaoes in London alone where ■ ' . letters oan be pes ed, and there 'are' 16,000 men in employment. I was amused at the very minute aooount kept of every, detail in oonneotion with tho G.P.O. For instance, 82 postmen were bitten by dogs laßt year, but not one of them was seriously hurt. Now I think I have given your readers a fair idea of ihe vast amount of work that goes On within thesa wonderful wa'ls. It has . been, but a meagre desoription— not half oi wbat I could tell— but imagination must fill in the rest. Few, however, realise wbat tbe work is, and how vast its magnitude, when they write or post a simple letter. '• -' " : , . . - ..--. =B.