London Pneumatic Despatch Company
Encyclopedia
The London Pneumatic Despatch Company (also known as the London Pneumatic Dispatch Company) was formed on 30 June 1859, to design, build and operate an underground railway system for the carrying of mail, parcels and light freight between locations in London. The system was used between 1863 and 1874.
of the General Post Office
commissioned two engineers to investigate the feasibility of a pneumatic tube-based system between the General Post Office and the West District Central Post Office. In 1855 and 1856 they reported favourably but there would be significant cost. The scheme was not progressed.
In 1859 Thomas Webster Rammell
and Josiah Latimer Clark
proposed an underground tube network in central London "for the more speedy and convenient circulation of despatches and parcels".
The company was founded in 1859 with offices at 6 Victoria Street, Westminster. Capital of £150,000 was sought through 15,000 shares at £10 each.
The directors were:
With initial funding of £25,000 (£ as of ), the company tested the technology and constructed a pilot route at the Soho Foundry
of Boulton and Watt
in Birmingham. The first full-scale trial was at Battersea
during the summer of 1861. A single tube was installed, 452 yards long, with curves of up to 300 feet (91.4 m) radius and gradients of up to 1 in 22. 24-inch gauge track was cast inside the tube. Wheeled capsules were fitted with vulcanised rubber flaps to make an air seal. Power was provided by a 30 horse-power steam engine
with a 21 feet (6.4 m) diameter fan. Single capsules weighed up to 3 tonnes, and achieved speeds up to 40 mph (60 km/h).
and the North West District Post Office in Eversholt Street, a distance of approximately a third of a mile. The line was tested from 15 January 1863, and operation started on 20 February 1863. A capsule conveying up to 35 bags of mail could make the short journey between terminals in one minute. Thirteen journeys were operated each day, with a daily operating cost of £1 4s 5d. The Post Office was charged a nominal fee for use of the service, presumably to encourage them to accept the technology.
A journalist made a report on the first scheme at Euston:
The company sought to develop further lines within London, and attempted to raise an additional £125,000 (£ as of ), of capital. The prospectus proposed a network of lines between "points so important that it is unnecessary to dwell upon the magnitude of the traffic that must naturally arise between them". The first line was to have been a route linking the Camden Town and Euston (Square) stations of the London and North Western Railway.
Work started on a 3ft 8½inch gauge line from Euston to Holborn in September 1863. The tubes were constructed by the Staveley Coal and Iron Company
. The first 'trains' ran on 10 October 1865 after a demonstration in which the chairman, Richard Temple-Grenville, 3rd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos
, travelled from Holborn to Euston in one of the capsules.
Another line from Holborn to Gresham Street via the General Post Office on St Martin's le Grand
was under construction in 1865. By the time of the 1866 financial crisis caused by the Overend, Gurney and Company
collapse, a ⅜mile tube from Holborn to Hatton Garden had been constructed. Total expenditure so far was £150,000 (£ as of ).
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Construction re-started in 1868, and it was completed to St. Martin's le Grand (for the General Post Office) in 1869. Capsules from the General Post Office reached Newgate Street within 17 minutes, at speeds of up to 60 mph.
The Post Office made several trials of the system, but there were not substantial time savings to be made, and by 1874, the Post Office abandoned its use, and the company went into liquidation in 1875.
and the other in the National Railway Museum
at York.
Background
Sir Rowland HillRowland Hill (postal reformer)
Sir Rowland Hill KCB, FRS was an English teacher, inventor and social reformer. He campaigned for a comprehensive reform of the postal system, based on the concept of penny postage and his solution of prepayment, facilitating the safe, speedy and cheap transfer of letters...
of the General Post Office
General Post Office
General Post Office is the name of the British postal system from 1660 until 1969.General Post Office may also refer to:* General Post Office, Perth* General Post Office, Sydney* General Post Office, Melbourne* General Post Office, Brisbane...
commissioned two engineers to investigate the feasibility of a pneumatic tube-based system between the General Post Office and the West District Central Post Office. In 1855 and 1856 they reported favourably but there would be significant cost. The scheme was not progressed.
In 1859 Thomas Webster Rammell
Thomas Webster Rammell
Thomas Webster Rammell was born in Dent de Lyon on the Isle of Thanet, Kent, United Kingdom. He became an engineer, working for the Metropolitan Board of Health...
and Josiah Latimer Clark
Josiah Latimer Clark
Josiah Latimer Clark , was an English electrical engineer, born in Great Marlow, Buckinghamshire.-Biography:...
proposed an underground tube network in central London "for the more speedy and convenient circulation of despatches and parcels".
The company was founded in 1859 with offices at 6 Victoria Street, Westminster. Capital of £150,000 was sought through 15,000 shares at £10 each.
The directors were:
- Richard Temple-Grenville, 3rd Duke of Buckingham and ChandosRichard Temple-Grenville, 3rd Duke of Buckingham and ChandosRichard Plantagenet Campbell Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, 3rd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos GCSI, PC , styled Earl Temple until 1839 and Marquess of Chandos from 1839 to 1861, was a British soldier, politician and administrator of the 19th century...
- Chairman - Mark HuishMark HuishCaptain Mark Huish was an English railway manager. He is best known for his term as General Manager of the London & North Western Railway, which he held for 12 years, beginning from the Company's formation in 1846....
- Deputy Chairman - Thomas BrasseyThomas BrasseyThomas Brassey was an English civil engineering contractor and manufacturer of building materials who was responsible for building much of the world's railways in the 19th century. By 1847, he had built about one-third of the railways in Britain, and by time of his death in 1870 he had built one...
- Edwin Clark
- The Honourable William Napier
- John Horatio Lloyd
- William Henry Smith
- Sir Charles Henry John Rich
With initial funding of £25,000 (£ as of ), the company tested the technology and constructed a pilot route at the Soho Foundry
Soho Foundry
Soho Foundry was a factory created in 1795 by Matthew Boulton and James Watt at Smethwick, West Midlands, England , for the manufacture of steam engines.-History:...
of Boulton and Watt
Boulton and Watt
The firm of Boulton & Watt was initially a partnership between Matthew Boulton and James Watt.-The engine partnership:The partnership was formed in 1775 to exploit Watt's patent for a steam engine with a separate condenser. This made much more efficient use of its fuel than the older Newcomen engine...
in Birmingham. The first full-scale trial was at Battersea
Battersea
Battersea is an area of the London Borough of Wandsworth, England. It is an inner-city district of South London, situated on the south side of the River Thames, 2.9 miles south-west of Charing Cross. Battersea spans from Fairfield in the west to Queenstown in the east...
during the summer of 1861. A single tube was installed, 452 yards long, with curves of up to 300 feet (91.4 m) radius and gradients of up to 1 in 22. 24-inch gauge track was cast inside the tube. Wheeled capsules were fitted with vulcanised rubber flaps to make an air seal. Power was provided by a 30 horse-power steam engine
Steam engine
A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separate from the combustion products. Non-combustion heat sources such as solar power, nuclear power or geothermal energy may be...
with a 21 feet (6.4 m) diameter fan. Single capsules weighed up to 3 tonnes, and achieved speeds up to 40 mph (60 km/h).
Operation
A permanent line of 2-foot gauge was constructed between Euston railway stationEuston railway station
Euston railway station, also known as London Euston, is a central London railway terminus in the London Borough of Camden. It is the sixth busiest rail terminal in London . It is one of 18 railway stations managed by Network Rail, and is the southern terminus of the West Coast Main Line...
and the North West District Post Office in Eversholt Street, a distance of approximately a third of a mile. The line was tested from 15 January 1863, and operation started on 20 February 1863. A capsule conveying up to 35 bags of mail could make the short journey between terminals in one minute. Thirteen journeys were operated each day, with a daily operating cost of £1 4s 5d. The Post Office was charged a nominal fee for use of the service, presumably to encourage them to accept the technology.
A journalist made a report on the first scheme at Euston:
near the bottom of Euston Square, there is the mouth of the tube, and there are the travelling trucks, ready to be thrust into it; and as we look, a bell rings at some distance up the rail – this is a signal that a mail-train has arrived... At this signal we hear a shovel of coke thrown into a furnace, a small steam-engine begins to beat swiftly... the pneumatic wheel ... is twenty-one feet in diameter, and is composed of two discs of iron... These discs are braced together by spoke-like partitions, and these partitions communicate with an opening for the entrance of air about the axis. As this wheel rapidly revolves, the air is sucked in at its centre, and thrown off ... at its open rim or edge. This gale is not allowed to disperse itself, however, but when any work has to be done, is confined within a paddle-box, and allowed to pass out ... through a pipe in connection with the great pneumatic despatch tube... Here, then, we have the means of pulling or pushing the travelling carriages along their subterranean road, and as we speak we see it in operation: for a mail-guard opens a door, throws in two or three mail-bags just snatched out of the guard's van as it rolls into the [mainline] station, the iron carriages are shoved into the tube, the air-tight door at its mouth is closed... and we hear them rumbling off on their subterranean journey at a rate, we are informed, of twenty miles an hour... a bell connected with an electric telegraph warns him that the attendant at the other end of the tube is about to thrust the carriage into the tube on its return journey. It has been pushed along... by the pressure of air thrown out by the wheel, but it has to be pulled back by suction; the valve of the suction-pipe, in the connection with the centre of the disc, is accordingly opened, and speedily we hear a hollow rumbling, and out shoots the carriage, ready once more for fresh bags
The company sought to develop further lines within London, and attempted to raise an additional £125,000 (£ as of ), of capital. The prospectus proposed a network of lines between "points so important that it is unnecessary to dwell upon the magnitude of the traffic that must naturally arise between them". The first line was to have been a route linking the Camden Town and Euston (Square) stations of the London and North Western Railway.
Work started on a 3ft 8½inch gauge line from Euston to Holborn in September 1863. The tubes were constructed by the Staveley Coal and Iron Company
Staveley Coal and Iron Company
The Staveley Coal and Iron Company Limited was an industrial company based in Staveley, near Chesterfield, North Derbyshire. It exploited local ironstone quarried from land owned by the Duke of Devonshire on the outskirts of the village...
. The first 'trains' ran on 10 October 1865 after a demonstration in which the chairman, Richard Temple-Grenville, 3rd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos
Richard Temple-Grenville, 3rd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos
Richard Plantagenet Campbell Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, 3rd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos GCSI, PC , styled Earl Temple until 1839 and Marquess of Chandos from 1839 to 1861, was a British soldier, politician and administrator of the 19th century...
, travelled from Holborn to Euston in one of the capsules.
Another line from Holborn to Gresham Street via the General Post Office on St Martin's le Grand
General Post Office, London
The General Post Office, St. Martin’s Le Grand, was the main post office for the City of London between 1829 and 1912.-History:...
was under construction in 1865. By the time of the 1866 financial crisis caused by the Overend, Gurney and Company
Overend, Gurney and Company
Overend, Gurney & Company was a London wholesale discount bank, known as "the bankers' bank", which collapsed in 1866 owing about 11 million pounds, equivalent to £981 million at 2008 prices.-Early years:...
collapse, a ⅜mile tube from Holborn to Hatton Garden had been constructed. Total expenditure so far was £150,000 (£ as of ).
The Post Office made several trials of the system, but there were not substantial time savings to be made, and by 1874, the Post Office abandoned its use, and the company went into liquidation in 1875.
Artifacts
Two of the original vehicles survive, having been recovered in 1930, one in the Museum of LondonMuseum of London
The Museum of London documents the history of London from the Prehistoric to the present day. The museum is located close to the Barbican Centre, as part of the striking Barbican complex of buildings created in the 1960s and 70s as an innovative approach to re-development within a bomb damaged...
and the other in the National Railway Museum
National Railway Museum
The National Railway Museum is a museum in York forming part of the British National Museum of Science and Industry and telling the story of rail transport in Britain and its impact on society. It has won many awards, including the European Museum of the Year Award in 2001...
at York.