The post office and its story

by Edward Bennett

On the transfer of the telegraph to the State a uniform rate of 1s. was introduced, and on the 1st October 1886 a further reduction to a minimum charge of 6d. for twelve words was made. The average cost to the public now is about 7¾d. per message. But the reduction to 6d., great as the gain to the public has been, is not profitable to the Department, and the revenue has suffered considerably. The transfer was also responsible for a considerable reduction in the rates for the Press, 1s. being charged for every 100 words transmitted between 6 P.M. and 9 A.M., and 1s. for every 75 words between 9 A.M. and 6 P.M., with 2d. for 100 or 75 words for each additional address.

In the days before the transfer, clerks in charge of telegraphic stations were forbidden to forward telegrams for the Press unless they were prepaid at the ordinary message rates, or unless they had received written instructions from the Secretary of the Company to allow certain messages to go at a different rate, or without prepayment. There was uncertainty and inequality of treatment everywhere, and the Press has perhaps gained more by the transfer than even the public. Foreign rates were also very high compared with those in existence to-day.

In the time of the companies a free delivery of a telegram extended only to a distance of half a mile. For distances beyond and within a mile a porterage fee of 6d. was charged, with 6d. for every additional mile, with increased rates for express delivery.

At the present time telegrams are delivered free within three miles of the office nearest the address, which is called the Terminal Office, and when that office is a Head Post Office, no charge is made for delivery within the town postal area, even if that extends for more than three miles. No charge is therefore made for delivery within the whole of the London postal area, which extends as far as Southgate, Woodford, Lee, South Norwood, Wimbledon, Hanwell, and Wheatstone.

Before the transfer, important towns such as Bournemouth, Dundee, Exeter, Inverness, Limerick, Scarborough, or Wolverhampton did not work directly to London, and as a consequence communication had to be gained by a number of re-transmissions and transferences over the various companies' lines. Serious delay often ensued. Now, however, the Central Telegraph Office in London, which is more particularly a transmitting centre, has direct communication with every town of importance in the United Kingdom, and with every telegraph office in the metropolis. The direct communication between provincial towns has also greatly increased. Even now, when there are breakdowns, the transmitting of messages sometimes exhibits curious results in re-transmission. Mr. Baines remembers messages being sent during a breakdown from London to Carlisle through Sligo thus: London to Dublin via Haverfordwest and Waterford, Dublin to Sligo, Sligo to Belfast, Belfast to Glasgow, and Glasgow to Carlisle. There is also a legend in the Central Telegraph Office that the wires to the North being stopped on one occasion, an urgent message from London to Newcastle was forwarded by way of Hamburg. Another story is of a special correspondent who, being unable to gain admittance into a newspaper office in Fleet Street, went to the Central Telegraph Office, and telegraphed to the Irish end of the special telegraph wire worked from the newspaper office to Ireland, requesting the Irish clerk to tell the Fleet Street clerk to come down and open the door.

Direct communication has also been considerably extended to continental towns. In 1889 the Post Office took over the working of the Submarine Company's cables, and direct communication is now established with a large number of foreign towns. At the present time there are some sixty wires with an aggregate of ninety-five available channels to the Continent. Five additional wires (six channels) are worked from Liverpool to towns in Belgium, France, and Germany, two wires are leased to the Anglo-American Telegraph Company for working to Belgium and Holland, and two to the Indo-European Telegraph Company for transmission of their traffic to South Russia, India, and countries beyond, via Germany. The remainder are worked from the cable room of the Central Telegraph Office in London to Austria, Hungary, Belgium, France, Germany, Holland, Italy and Switzerland.

The Hughes simplex and duplex apparatus is chiefly used for cable working. Some of the Hughes duplex circuits not infrequently deal with 150 telegrams hourly, and even this number has been exceeded. A Baudot circuit working four “arms” has at times of pressure disposed of from 250 to 300 telegrams in an hour. The annual daily traffic in telegrams to and from the Continent about the year 1870 was between 4000 and 5000: at the present time it is from 24,000 to 26,000 telegrams. In addition to this, some 3500 telegrams are daily handed over to the cable companies, with whose offices in London there are connecting pneumatic tubes.

Now to deal successfully with the vast amount of telegraph traffic which passes throughout the United Kingdom and to and from the Continent it is of course essential that there should be one large depôt to act as the chief transmitting centre. This is naturally London, the capital of the British Isles. The first Central Telegraph Station was established about the year 1850 by the Electric Telegraph Company in Founder's Court, Lothbury. In 1860 larger premises were built in Telegraph Street, just off Moorgate Street, E.C., and at the time of the transfer, and up to January 1874, this building remained the Central Office. The rapid extension of business soon made a move necessary, and the staff and wires were transferred in 1874 to the new building in St. Martin's le Grand. It was thought that the spacious third floor in that building would be more than sufficient for that purpose for many years, but at the present time almost every portion of the big building is devoted to telegraphs.

The large central hall facing the main entrance to the building is set apart for the circulation of telegrams received from the various branch offices connected with the Central Office by pneumatic tube, and in the reverse directions for delivery from these offices. A large staff of telegraphists is engaged upon this work. The pneumatic tubes used for forwarding and receiving telegrams to and from certain branch offices in the city, western central, and western district offices, and so obviating telegraphic transmissions, are led into this hall. These tubes are laid at the depth of about two feet underground. They extend as far distant as Billingsgate on the eastern side, House of Commons and West Strand on the south-western side, and the western district office on the western side, and allow of the rapid collection and distribution of telegrams over a very busy area. The tubes make the various offices arms practically of the Central Station so far as telegrams are concerned. The message forms are enclosed in gutta-percha carriers covered with felt, and having attached to their forward ends a number of felt discs which exactly fit the internal circumference of the tubes and prevent any escape of air around them. An elastic band at the mouth of the carrier prevents the messages from escaping. The outgoing carriers containing the messages are propelled through the tubes from the Central Office by forcing compressed air into the tubes behind them at a pressure of about 10 lbs. to the square inch, the incoming carriers being drawn through by vacuum, so that the normal atmosphere exerts behind them a pressure of about 7 lbs. to the square inch.

All the tubes are worked on the block system, and by an electrical contrivance the traffic is regulated. In long-distance tubes delay would arise if it were only possible for one carrier to be in the tube at one time, and to meet this intermediate automatic signallers are inserted at various distances in the tube, so that as soon as a carrier passes one section, it automatically notifies the sending section, enabling a second carrier to be inserted. Thus several carriers equidistant from each other may be passing through the one tube at the same time. The power by which these tubes are worked is derived from large compound pneumatic pumping engines fitted in the basement, but eventually the power station which has recently been established at Blackfriars will supply the power required. There are at present thirty-seven pneumatic tubes connecting the various branch offices with the Central Office, in addition to seven which connect the offices of the various cable companies with the cable room.