ge
of mail matter sent.

[Illustration: Self-Registering Mail Box]

This tube extends from the Produce Exchange to the Post-Office Building,
and the trip can be made from one office to the other in one minute and
a quarter.

Mr. Chauncey Depew was present at the opening ceremonies, and having
made an appropriate speech, sent off the first carrier of mail matter
that passed through the tube.

In less time than it takes to tell the story the carrier returned,
bringing a receipt for the mail that had been sent, and a pretty little
kitten which arrived breathless from its spin through the tube.

The carriers are two feet long and seven inches round, and are made to
fit the tube closely.

Other tubes are to be laid throughout the city, and before very long
every post-office in the city will be connected with the general
post-office by pneumatic tube, and letters will be posted in Harlem and
sent flying down the seven miles to the City Hall in a few minutes.

Another ingenious postal device which has just been put on trial is the
scheme for registering letters yourself.

The first thing to do is to put a ten-cent piece in the slot. The coin
opens a small registering window, and reveals a pad on which you write
the address of the registered letter, and also an aperture through which
the letter is to be dropped. The letter must first have been stamped
with a two-cent stamp.

After the letter is mailed the sender pulls a handle until a gong rings,
and a receipt is then pushed out toward the sender. This receipt is in
fact the second half of the order which he himself has written. As soon
as the receipt is given the machine locks itself, and nothing will
unlock it but a fresh dime in the slot.

Worn coins, or those that are not full size and weight, are instantly
rejected by the machine.

The coin, after entering the machine, passes over a very delicate
balance, and if it is found to be light or bad when it is weighed, the
machine throws it out on the floor in front of the would-be registerer.

Three of these machines have been placed on trial: one in the
Post-Office Building, one in the Equitable Building, and one in the
branch office at Forty-second Street.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Great Round World and What Is
Going On In It, Vol. 1, No. 51, October 28, 1897, by Various

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GREAT ROUND WORLD ***

***** This file should be named 16032.txt or 1