The postal pneumatic tube system constructed by the American government was Very Rapid Mail Deliveries. a marvel of the twentieth century. There extended from Washington, (Mexico), a network of underground and overground pneumatic tubes reaching throughout the Americas, penetrating all the Northern, Central and Southern States, from the State of Alaska to the State of Argentina. Mail deliveries made through these pneumatic tubes were exceedingly rapid. No electrical transit or any method of ærial navigation could equal the rapid delivery of the pneumatic tubes. The mail pouches were forced through these large tubes and delivered at all the principal cities in a very short space of time. Mails from Manhattan to Washington, the seat of the national government in the State of Mexico, traversed the distance in less than two hours. From Mexico to the State of Argentina, as well as the Southwestern American States of Peru and Chile, the mail transit in 1999 required but a few hours in delivery,—in 1899 it was a question of weeks. Even ærial navigation in 1999 was found too slow to convey and deliver the mails. The pneumatic tube system was even swifter, and with such facilities at hand it is not surprising that people in San Francisco received four daily editions of the Manhattan journals, although the distance between Sandy Hook and the Golden Gate is a matter of 3,600 miles.
The subjoined clippings from the Electrical Times, of Thursday, August 20, 1999, The Editorial Blades of 1999. will give the reader a general idea of the newspapers style and matter of that period. It will be observed that the noble race of beings known as editors and newspaper reporters was by no means extinct in 1999. The subtle art of telling wonderful stories and the science of making American newspapers the foremost in the world, had been inherited by the children of 1999 from their lively ancestors of 1899.
In 1899 Yankee genius and enterprise was conspicuous in the newspaper line. It led the world. The latest and the best always found their way into American print.
FAILED TO BEAT THE RECORD.
How the Glimmerglass Failed to Cross the Atlantic in Two Days.
Liverpool, Eng., Aug. 20, 1999.—The new electrical ship Glimmerglass arrived here at 12:30, having made the ocean trip from Manhattan (formerly known as New York) in two days, eight hours and thirty-seven minutes, within twenty minutes of the swiftest time ever made by a wholly equipped electrical vessel. But for a storm of twenty hours out, the record would have undoubtedly been beaten. Owing to a break in the wind-counteracting engines, the storm in the locality of the ship could not be stilled and for over an hour the passage was very rough. The counteractors were finally put in motion and the Glimmerglass regained several lost hours, but the odds were too greatly against it. An attempt will be made to break the return record.
SUB-MARINE RAILWAY ACCIDENT!
Wreck of a Train in the English Channel Tube-way.
London, England, Aug. 20, 1999.—Passengers on the Dover & Calais Sub-Marine Electric railway train No. 44, arrived at Dover in a state of decided fright this morning. The sub-marine system runs directly under the English channel, the trains on the line of this company running through huge cylinders. At a point midway in the channel one of the inverted rails, owing probably to defective mechanism, had snapped in twain and the train, which was going at a high rate of speed, flew from the track.
Two carriages were overturned and the engineer was killed by being thrown violently from the cab. The passengers were forced to remain in the tube for an hour. Several in the overturned carriages were injured but none seriously.