The post office and its story an interesting account of the activities of a great government department

The area of each floor is so great that it is essential that the various circulation tables at particular points thereon should be directly connected by tube, thus allowing of the rapid transit of the traffic and preventing the confusion which would attend carriage by hand from point to point. In all sixty-eight house pneumatic tubes are worked throughout the day. In addition, continuous aerial cord carriers worked by electric motors are used for the conveyance of telegrams. For the purposes of circulation, and for staffing and effective supervision, the three floors or galleries are divided into sections or divisions. For instance, the provincial galleries are composed of seven divisions, named respectively A to G, and the various circuits are grouped as geographically as possible in these divisions. The A Division embraces such south-easterly and south-westerly towns as Dover, Folkestone, Brighton, Bournemouth, Basingstoke, and Ventnor, and so on. In addition to these divisions there are the News Division, the Special Section, and the Intelligence Section. The former contains the news circuits over which press work is disseminated throughout the Kingdom. The apparatus in use for this class of traffic is the Wheatstone Automatic, which in the course of years has been so improved that whereas in 1870 it was only capable of transmitting some 80 or 100 words per minute, it is now possible, given good wire conditions, to attain a speed of 400 words per minute, although for working purposes it is not usual to exceed an average speed of from 200 to 250. This system is specially adapted for the transmission of general news, one batch of which, on specially prepared slips, is often forwarded to many different towns. A large proportion of this particular traffic is classified, being news of general interest, and is handed to the Department by the different news agencies, such as the Press Association, the Central News, the Exchange Telegraph Company, &c., for dissemination to the various subscribers in different towns.