The Pneumatic Despatch Tube System of the Batcheller Pneumatic Tube Co. / Also, Facts and General Information Relating to Pneumatic Despatch Tubes

by Birney C. Batcheller

Aim and Object of the Company.

—When the Pneumatic Transit Company was formed, it was the aim and object of its promoters to construct an extensive system of underground tubes in the City of Philadelphia which would serve, first, for the rapid transmission of mail, second, for the quick delivery of merchandise from the large retail stores, third, for the transmission of telegrams or messages within the city limits, and, fourth, to conduct a general local express business with greater speed than can be done in any other manner. To accomplish this result sub-stations were to be located six or eight blocks apart throughout a large portion of the city, and a central station was to be established in the centre of the business section. Stations were also to be established in the more important retail stores and large office buildings, and all of the stations were to be connected by tubes forming one large system.

For the transmission of mail it was planned to connect the main post-office with the sub-post-offices by tubes of a size large enough to carry all of the first-class and most of the other classes of mail matter. The sub-post-offices would be divided into groups, all of the offices in one group being connected to the same line, which would terminate at the main post-office. Most of the business would be between the main and individual sub-offices; in addition to this there would be some local mail sent between the sub-offices which, for offices in the same group, could be despatched directly without passing through the main office. The advantages to be gained by the use of these tubes over the present wagon service are very apparent. It places all the sub-post-offices in almost instant communication with the main office and with each other.

It was a part of the general plan to lay tubes from the main post-office to the railway stations, thereby hastening the despatch and receipt of mails to and from the trains.

It was expected that the bulk of the business would consist in the delivery of parcels from the retail stores to the private houses in the residence sections of the city. Of course it would not be practicable to lay a tube to each house, but with a station not more than four or five blocks away, the parcels would be sent through the tube to the nearest station, and then delivered by messengers to the houses with a minimum loss of time. Ladies could do their shopping and find their purchases at home when they returned.

The same tubes used for parcel delivery would also be used for a district messenger service. With numerous public stations in convenient locations, all the advantages of the European system would be realized in the quick despatch of letters and telegrams. Every one knows how much time is consumed by district messenger-boys in the delivery of messages, especially when they have to go long distances, and no argument is required to show that this time would be very much reduced by the use of pneumatic tubes, besides prompt delivery would be made much more certain.

The tubes of this system were to be six or eight inches in diameter, with a few small tubes in localities where the message service is very heavy.

Without going more into detail, such were in brief the plans of the promoters of this new company; but before launching such an enterprise, involving a large amount of capital, there were many engineering and mechanical problems to be solved. It was not simply a question of obtaining tubes and laying them in the streets, but ways and means for operating them must be devised. Up to this time only small tubes had been used for the transmission of telegrams, messages, cash, and other light objects. Now it was proposed to transmit heavy and bulky material. There was no experience for a guide.

The Clay-Lieb Patents.

—The Pneumatic Transit Company at this time turned to the Electro-Pneumatic Transit Company, of New Jersey, a national company that had been in existence since 1886, and which claimed to own valuable patents, for the ways and means to carry out its new enterprise. The patents were those of Henry Clay and Charles A. Lieb, and the rights to use them in the State of Pennsylvania were procured by the Pneumatic Transit Company, under a contract entered into between the two companies. The patents claimed to cover a practical working system by which a large number of stations could be connected to a system of main and branch tubes, with electrically-operated switches at the junctions of the branches with the main lines. Any person who gives the subject a little thought will at once see the advantages of such a system if it could be made to operate. Up to the present time only single- or double-line tubes have been used, without branches. In the European systems, frequently several stations are located along a line, but the carriers must stop at each station, be examined, and if they are destined for another station, they must be redespatched. The cash systems used in many of our large stores have independent tubes running from the central cashier’s desk to each station about the store. It is plain to be seen that, if several of these stations could be connected by branches to a main tube, a large amount of tubing would be saved—a most desirable result. The advantages of such a system would be still greater for long lines of tube laid under the pavements, extending to stations located in different parts of a large city. It was such a result that the patents of Clay and Lieb aimed to accomplish.