Her Majesty's Mails

In 1830, on the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, the mails of the district were consigned to the new company for transmission. The railway system developed but slowly, exerting little influence on Post-Office arrangements for the first few years. After public attention had been attracted to railways, many proposals were thrown out for the more quick transmission of mails, to the supercession of the mail-coach. One writer suggested the employment of balloons. Professor Babbage threw out suggestions, in his Economy of Machinery and Manufactures, 1832, pp. 218-221, deserving more attention, because in them we see shadowed forth two at least of the greatest enterprises of our time. After proceeding to show, in a manner which must have been interesting to the post-reformers of 1839-40, that if the cost of letter-carrying could be reduced, the result might be (if the Post-Office people chose) a cheaper rate of postage and a corresponding increase in the number of letters, he proceeded to expound a scheme which, though vague, was described in words extremely interesting, seeing that he wrote long anterior to the time of the electric telegraph. Imagine, says he, a series of high pillars erected at frequent intervals, as nearly as possible in a straight line between two post-towns. An iron or steel wire of some thickness must be stretched over proper supports, fixed on these pillars, and terminating at the end, say of four or five miles, in a very strong support, by which the whole may be stretched.