Long before the days of the facsimile machine, one man had a vision of transmitting letters miles away by means of an ‘artificial hurricane’ – perhaps this was the original ‘air mail’!
Something similar could be seen in shops not that long ago, whereby cash could be removed quickly from the shop floor and sent directly to the accounts department, thus minimising the amount of cash held in the tills. Indeed some readers may remember this system in place in the Co-op in Stamford High Street, in the building that more recently housed Wilkos.
“-The Mechanics’ Magazine has an account of a new plan for the rapid transmission of letters and light dispatches through tubular passages, at certain intervals in which he purposes to place air-exhausting machines, which will establish a perpetual current of artificial hurricane, by means of which spherically-shaped elastic vehicles, or bags, will be blown from station to station. The first cost is estimated by Mr. James at 2000l. per mile, and the working expenses at 300l. to 500l. per annum for every 50 miles. This system would enable us to transmit documentary intelligence at the rate of 7200 miles a day! Instead of one exchange of letters per day between Liverpool and London, there might be twelve exchanges.”
The Stamford Mercury, 2nd May, 1845.