A Hundred Years Ago
THE "SPECTATOR," JULY 21sT, 1832.
MAIL CoNvEvArierNo.—The following paragraph is going the rounds of the newspapers : "Mr. Babbage, in his admirable work on the Economy of Manufactures, has a new plan of conveying the mails. The immense revenue of the Post-office would afford means of speedier conveyance ; the letter-bags do not ordinarily weigh one hundred pounds, and are yet conveyed in bulky machines of some thousand times the weight, drawn by four horses, and delayed by passengers. The rail-road and the steam carriage will probably soon relieve the speculator. Mr. Babbage proposes the erection of pillars along each line of road ; these pillars to be connected by inclined wires or iron rods, along which the letters enclosed in cylinders, attached to the rod by rings, are to slide ; persons stationed on these columns are to forward the cylinders from each point, after having extracted the contents belonging to their own station. In this manner it is calculated that a letter might be sent (from pillar to post) to the farthest limits of the land in the course of a very small portion of time—from London to York probably in an hour: or two. In the absence of these pillars, and in the interior districts, it is suggested that church-steeples, properly selected, might answer the purpose ; and in London the churches might be used for the circulation of the twopenny post."
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