Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries

90 BRITAIN AT WORK. are “ faced ” : that is to say, they are placed in such a position that the postage label is in the right-hand corner, and is ready for the stamper. At this table the first attempt to divide the correspondence is made, and large letters, packets, and newspapers are weeded out for separate treatment. Then the letters are removed to the stamping tables, where they are impressed by ma- chinery with a stamp indicating the time which our letter is placed, and Photo: IV. Childs, Leeds. A GREAT PROVINCIAL POST OFFICE (LEEDS). Photo: iV. G. IV. Sandisont Shetland. THE MOST NORTHERLY POST OFFICE IN THE KINGDOM : HAROLDWICK SUB - OFFICE AND POSTMAN. and place of posting, and the postage stamp is cancelled. New electric motor stamping machines are now used for this purpose. The stamped letters are passed on to the sorting tables, where they are divided into sections, representing the great railway lines of the king- dom—London, Scotland, Ireland, and several large provincial towns receiving special treat- ment. A survival of old mail-coach days exists in the name which is given to the various sections into which letters are sorted. They are called “ roads,” and on the sorting frames will be found inscriptions such as Chester Road, Carlisle Road, or Worcester Road. As an object lesson in the work of the Post Office, let us trace the progress of a letter from London to the Muckle-Flagga Lighthouse, on the island named Muckle- Flagga, to the north of the island of Unst, Shetland, the most northerly point in the British Isles. We post our letter at St. Martin’s-le-Grand on a Sunday night at six of Muckle - Flagga Lighthouse on Thursday morning. The letter is dropped into the box, and goes through the various processes we have described : is sorted into the Scotch division ; is sub-sorted into a pigeon-hole, and after- wards into a bundle labelled “ Aberdeen forward.” The bundle is dropped into a bag inscribed with the words “ London to Aberdeen,” and one of the familiar red vans conveys the bag to Euston. The bag is handed over to the sorters in charge of the two Post Office sorting vehicles, which are run in the clown Special Mail Train leaving Euston for the North at 8.30 p.m. On this train is a mail carriage that runs direct to Aberdeen, in p.m., and, given favourable conditions weather, it will be delivered at the Aberdeen is reached at 7.35 a.m. on Monday. So far the course of the letter has been simple and rapid, the remaining stages will show how much considerations of weather still affect postal operations in many parts of the country, and how dependent the Post Office is sometimes on quite primitive means of locomotion. The bag containing the Shetland letter on arrival at Aberdeen is quickly conveyed to the Aberdeen Post Office, where it is opened, and the letters are again sub-divided. The letter for Muckle-Flagga finds its way into a pigeon-hole labelled “ Lerwick,” and an experienced sorter then checks all the packets for the Shetland Isles very carefully,