WHILE
GRIMSBY SLEEPS.
THE
POST OFFICE WORKS.
GRIMSBY’S
10,000 POOL LETTERS
Speed allied to
efficiency is the key note of the nocturnal activities of the Post Office,
one of the most important cogs of our commercial machine.
I have often wondered what happened to my letters
between the time I dropped them in to the capacious mouth of the letter
box to the time they were delivered to their destination. No doubt others
have similarly thought on the matter, and like me have had little idea
of the remarkable organisation which ensured the collection of a letter,
its transport over a considerable distance, and its delivery within about
twelve hours, and all for the humble sum of three ha-pence – or even the
more humble ha’penny if one did not seal the message up. In the course
of my investigations in to Grimsby’s nocturnal activities, I found just
what happened to Grimsby’s correspondence. I also found out something of
its extent.
OVER 50,000 LETTERS
As soon as the bags arrive they are rushed to a long
table where stand about a dozen uniformed postmen. The contents are shot
out on to the table and with remarkable skill and rapidity, born, I was
told of long practice, the letters are “faced up”. This “facing up” consists
of placing the letters so that all the addresses and the stamps are the
same way up. Large letters and packets are thrown out, to be seized by
a couple of men who stamp the letters by hand. The majority of the letters
are “face up” and taken in big batches to a wonderful machine. This machine
looks like a collection of small wheels whirring round at terrific speed.
The operator takes a hand full of letters presses them against a feeding
plate, and the letters fly through the machine at a rate of between 500
and 600 a minute, the stamps being canceled on route. Between six at seven
o’ clock on the night I visited the Post Office some thing like 11,000
letters went through that machine.
The next stage
was the sorting. The letters were taken to eight tables where stood sorters,
some male, some female. Facing them was a small sort of bay full of pigeon
holes, and in to these they rapidly sorted the letters. The system is simple.
The towns to which Grimsby send any considerable amountof
correspondence have pigeon holes to them selves, and in to them go the
appropriate letters. On the night I was there – I leave the reader to guess
which night it was- the most popular form of correspondence seemed to be
football pool coupons. In fact in each bay three pools had a pigeon hole,
and one pool partition was crammed full in every bay. Some of the holes
bore tablets “North Road,” “South Road” and “York and Shrewsbury T.P.O”
THE T.P.O.
My guide explained that where there were few letters
for any given place letters were put in groups according to the direction
that these towns lay. These were sent to a convenient centre to be distributed
from there, while others find there way to a T.P.O. This is a traveling
post office, which works up and down a section of railway picking up letters.
They are sorted on the train and distributed at the proper points.
While the letters
sorting is going on as described, the larger packets are also being sorted.
In a section of the post office is a metal frame from which hangs a large
number of grey bags similarly labeled to the pigeon holes. In to these
two men distribute the larger packets with great dexterity. Finally, the
letters from the pigeon holes, and the packets from the bags are collected,
tied in to compact parcels, and put into the bags for actual transit.
REGISTERED POST
Before the bag is finally fastened and sealed there
is a rather important matter for attention. The registered post, carefully
checked is put in together with a green slip giving particulars of the
registered items. It is the first duty of who ever opens thebag
to find that slip, check up the items, and if all is not accounted for,
to set inquiries on foot to trace them.
Finally, the bags are sealed and carried to waiting
vans for dispatch to the trains. The first of the night mail is dispatchis
at 7-50 when about 20 bags go away on the Sheffield train. Four heavy looking
bags caught my eye. These, each weighing almost 50lbs, contained letters
for one football pool alone.
This night mail dispatch is hardly on its way before
more letters arrive from sub offices, and the vans go round again for more
letters. The latest times for posting letters for transit the same night
are 8-30 for ordinary mail, and 8-35 for Air Mail. These mails are never
so heavy as the 6-30 arrivals, and are soon dealt with. The collecting
staff make a still further collection at about 11 o’clock, but these are
not delivered the following morning, though a lot reach their destination
by mid-day the following day.
ROAD TRANSPORT
It is road transport, and the traveling post offices,
that make this late night mailing possible. Every night a big vehicle leaves
Grimsby about 8-50 and carries mail to Doncaster, then on to Sheffield
where connections are made to rail services. The vehicle then brings mails
back from Sheffield and Doncaster to Scunthorpe and Grimsby, arriving in
Grimsby about 5a.m. I saw one of the returns for this vehicle, and the
regularity of its arrival is remarkable to say the least of it.
THE DETECTIVE
I noticed that while all the sorting processes were
going on, one of the staff appeared to be examining the various piles of
letters some what casually, but it proved not to be so casual as it seemed.
Now and then he took a letter or a newspaper from the rest, transferred
it to another desk and there examined it. He was looking for inadequately
stamped packets or other breaches of the regulations, and was pretty successful
at finding them, for according to his carefully kept record, he found about
forty printed papers and about thirty letters on which postage was due,
during the evening. Writing messages in on the margin of newspapers, he
told me, was a breach of the regulations, and of course led to all such
newspapers being surcharged before delivery.
THE MAILS COME IN
The principle night dispatch is hardly out of the
way when the mails begin to come in from various parts of the country,
beginning, as a rule with several bags from the London train. Men are waiting
for them, and they are at once taken to a large table and opened, the opened
carefully searching for the green registered letter slip, and the registered
correspondence. Finding it, he takes it to the registered post office,
the necessary checking is done, and he gets a receipt for what he has handed
over.The rest of the contents are
emptied on to the table and the sorting commences. It differs a little
from the sorting for dispatch. Each sorter has the table and the bay of
pigeon holes, but this timethe holes
are numbered according to the “walks” of the postmen who deliver the letters.
The “walks” are the itineraries of the postmen into
which the town is divided, and the letters for that part of the town are
put into the appropriate holes. In the case of big letters and packets
these are dropped into bags suspended on frames, but the bags in this case
are red ones, where as those for out going mails were grey. I was told
that all the bags used for work in the town were red and those for dispatch
grey.
Each postman has a sorting table and a set of pigeon
holes of his own, and by the time he arrives in the early morning the letters,
etc, from the primary sorting frames are on his table. Then he gets busy
sorting them again according to the route he takes over his walk. Streets,
and parts of streets, have been carefully worked out to save time crossing
roads, or walking back over ground covered, the wholes being labeled according
to the blocks of property, while big institutions or concerns have pigeon
holes of their own. The hole plan is so arranged that the first delivery
is out by seven o’clock and the postmen are back at head office about nine.
There are about a dozen bags of mail in one corner
seemed to be particularly interested in while I was there. On inquiry it
appeared that these were football pool coupons for the following week which
had already arrived, but which were not to be delivered before a certain
day. Having seen these, and the number of bags which had been dispatched,
one realized what a colossal business the pools must be taking the country
right through.
POSERS FOR POSTMEN
There was one quite office wherein letters which could
not, for one reason or another, be delivered were taken. These bore the
signatures of two different postmen, for the Post Office always makes two
attempts at delivery by different men to deliver a packet before opening
it. In the majority of cases the failure to deliver was due to the fact
that the addressee was not at the address given, in others the address
was not sufficient. One letter gave rather detailed instructions. It bade
the postman not to leave it at the address if the person named was not
there, whilst on the reverse side of the envelope was an instruction in
case of non delivery the letter was only to be opened at the local police
station. When all local efforts to deliver have proved abortive, a letter
is opened and returned to any address given inside of the letter. If there
is no such address the letter is destroyed in some cases, but if there
is anything of value in it, it is sent to a clearing office in Manchester.
Carefulrecords of all these letters
and packets are kept at the local office.
EXTENSIVE OPERATIONS
As the night wore on the chiefs of staff on duty were
able to give some idea of some of the volume of correspondence dealt with
that night. I was informed that the high speed letter stamper had passed
nearly 52,000 letters, while a matter of 3,000 had been stamped by hand.
About 10,000 of these were items for the football pools. The usual number
of items dealt with about this time of year was between 54,000 and 55,000
per night. Remarking on the speed of the mechanical stamper, I was told
that before its introduction some of the expert hands could stamp nearly
200 items a minute by hand. While on this subject I was shown what at first
glance looked like a big scrap book. It was in fact an official record
of all the canceling stamps used. These were changed from time to time,
but each change is shown in the book, and initialed by the officer in charge
before it is put in to use. It is therefore easy to trace when a letter
was dealt with by the dispatch men.
A query as to the normal business done in a week brought
forth some actual figures for a week corresponding to the present one which,
I was told, would in all probability show a slight increase over the figures
given.
In the week under review 982 bags of letters were
dispatched from, and 977 received at Grimsby, while 914 bags of parcels
were dispatched, and 779 received. During the week 227,000 letters were
delivered in Grimsby alone, and when Cleethorpes and the immediate district
was included, the figure rose to 360,000. In the town approximately 5,000
parcels were delivered, with about 3,000 more in the district. No fewer
that 2,000 registered items were delivered in the town, and about 500 in
the district.
On the other side of the ledger the collections in
Grimsby for the week amounted to 281,000, and in the district about 76,000;
parcels posted in the town about 4,000 and in the district just over 2,000,
while registered items posted in the town were 1,200, and in the district
300.
To handle all this, 103 postmen were employed, of
whom 76 were engaged on the night mail work. An indoor staff of 20 handles
the sorting and dispatch, exclusive of course of the administration staff
necessary to keep such an undertaking in order.
TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE
Although the
great majority of their work is done in the day time, I was introduced
to the inner workings of the telegraph and telephone departments. Both
are very remarkable undertakings and worthy of a story of their own. The
telegraph department closes down before the night is very old, but I was
informed that in the case of a normal day it deals with about 5,000 telegrams,
and one days working showed it received about 960 telegrams through the
phonogram system, by which telephone subscribers can send telegrams over
their phone, and transmitted over 716 telegrams the same way. Thirty four
messages had come from foreign parts or by means of radio. The telephone
exchange operates all night, a fascinating business of which more anon.
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