I have been prompted to prepare this book by the frequent inquiries made regarding the details of our system of pneumatic tubes. These inquiries have come from people interested in our company, from others interested in companies that have purchased the right to use our apparatus, from people desirous of becoming interested in a pneumatic-tube business, from would-be purchasers of pneumatic tubes, and from people interested in pneumatic tubes from a scientific, engineering, or mechanical point of view. This book is not intended to be a treatise on pneumatic tubes. In the first chapter I have given a brief sketch of what has been done in the application of pneumatic tubes from the earliest records to the present time. The second chapter contains a description of the postal tubes in Philadelphia, and the third chapter describes our system in detail. Following this is a short chapter explaining the theory of pneumatic tubes, or the theory of the flow of air in long pipes, stating the more interesting facts and relations in as plain and simple a manner as possible. Mathematical formulÆ have been purposely avoided.

Several plates showing the Philadelphia postal line have been kindly loaned to me by the Engineers’ Club of Philadelphia. They formerly appeared in a paper read by Mr. A. Falkenau before that club. I have also to thank the and Drill Co., the B. F. Sturtevant Co., the Wilbraham-Baker Blower Co., and J. B. Stewart for the use of electrotypes of their machines.

B. C. B.

October 6, 1896.