Today was filled with work and a race. The race was terribly dull with the only action being a battle for 8th and Alonso suffering a 25G impact by going over a kerb at speed… Vettel’s dominance is good to watch, and it’s good to see a car romp home 30 seconds ahead of second place every now and then. Seven races in a row is boring. I love motor racing and I’ll always watch F1 for the intrigue and politics (it is a business as well as a sport) and I love all the behind the scene stuff. I do wish sometimes that the racing was better. Only two more races this year then changes to the formula (literally) might spice things up a bit.
Grange Moor’s rehearsal was all about Christmas with their first performance a mere two weeks away – just like Morley And District Concert Band’s is. It’s quite frustrating being a percussionist at Christmas – it’s basically bashing sleigh bells for 8 weeks…
Back to work tomorrow, with a routine going back to normal for seven weeks. Lots to organise in that time though, with Christmas to think about there as well.
One final thing. I learned about a fabulous thing earlier today: the New York underground pneumatic postal tube system.
The first pneumatic tube mail system was installed in Philadelphia (sorry New York) in 1893. New York City’s came in 1897, first only between the General Post Office at Herald Square) and the Produce Exchange on Bowling Green (now demolished). Each tube could carry between 400 and 600 letters and traveled at 30-35 miles per hour. In its full glory, the pneumatic tubes covered a 27-mile route, connecting 23 post offices. This network stretched up Manhattan’s east and west sides, from Bowling Green and Wall Street, all the way north toManhattanville and East Harlem. Anecdotal stories indicate that the system may have extended into the Bronx, with sandwich subs reportedly being delivered via pneumatic tubes from a renown subway shop in the Bronx to downtown postal stations. The system even crossed boroughs into Brooklyn (using the Brooklyn Bridge), taking four minutes to take letters from Church Street near City Hall to the General Post Office in Brooklyn (now Cadman Plaza).
The system, which was located 4 to 6 feet below the city streets, was created and owned by private companies, to which the city paid rent and labor. According to Kate Ascher, author of The Works, “The high operating costs of the pneumatic system ultimately proved its downfall. By 1918, the federal government considered the annual rental payments ($17,000 per mile per annum) made by the post office to be ‘exorbitant’ and endorsed a new alternative with greater capacity–the automobile–as the delivery method of choice.” In New York City, a successful lobby by contractors led to the reinstatement of pneumatic mail service in 1922. A complete stop didn’t happen until 1953. Paris’ system, which covered 269 miles, continued for an additional 34 years (but was more limited in what it could carry–the pipes were only 2 inches diameter).
(Click to enlarge)
And what’s left of the pneumatic tubes? Not much, if at all. The location of the tubes within a city’s underbelly basically guaranteed its destruction once no longer in use. According to The Smithsonian National Postal Museum, “Installation of the tubes was problematic, with previously laid pipes for sewage and gas limiting the size and thus the amount and kind of mail a pneumatic tube could carry. Water table levels also presented difficulties.” Kate Ascher also notes that there was a time when remnants of the pneumatic tubes were still being found, but not often any longer.
Some additional fun facts about the pneumatic tube mail system:
According to this incredible article by Robert A. Cohen, the first cylinder tube to travel through the NYC system contained “a Bible, a flag and a copy of the Constitution. The second contained an imitation peach in honor of Senator Chauncy Depew (He was fondly known as “The Peach”). A third carrier had a black cat in it, for reasons unknown.”
It had set hours of operation: 5am to 10pm on weekdays, and 5am to 10am on Saturdays
The size of the carriers in New York City was 24 inches long, 8 inches across
95,000 letters were moved daily, about 1/3 of all first class letters
It took 4 minutes to get from the General Post Office to Grand Central using a tranverse tube that cut across Manhattan
It took between 15 and 20 minutes for mail to get from Herald Square to Manhattanville and East Harlem
It took 11 minutes to get from the General Post Office to the Planetarium Post Office, near the Museum of Natural History
