The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and RomanceHyde, James Wilson
History
The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and Romance
Hyde, James Wilson
Postal service -- Great Britain
"SIR,--I have been rejoicing in the hope that when the last telegraph
wire was removed I should be at peace; but alas for human hopes! Last
Sunday and Saturday nights, I suppose all the wires must have been
working simultaneously, for about 2.0 A.M. I was awakened by the most
intense pains in my eyes, and for the two nights I do not think I had
more than six hours sleep--that is, none after 2.0 in the morning. Since
then I have slept from home, and must continue to do so until either the
wires are removed or I leave the house, which I shall be obliged to do,
even though it remain unoccupied. The wires are carried in a tube to a
pole about 30 yards from my house on the angle, and I imagine that when
they are all working, and emerge from the tube, that the electrical
matter thrown off must be very great. Pipes have now been run up ----
Road, where a pillar or pole might very easily be fixed, and the present
one might be removed 100 yards farther off, where it would electrify
nothing but fields.--With many apologies for troubling you again, for, I
hope, the last time, and with many thanks for your kindness hitherto, I
am," &c.
"SIR,--I am sorry to be obliged to trouble you again respecting the
wires opposite my house at ----. You promised in your favour of ----
that the wires should be removed within a month from that date, a great
amount of labour having to be gone through. I was not surprised that six
months were required for their removal instead of one, and therefore
bore patiently with the delay, although my eyesight, and indeed every
one's in the house, suffered most severely; but why, when at last eight
were removed, should one be allowed to remain? Since the eight have
gone, I have been able to sit in my own house without being in as
excruciating pain as formerly; but still I am pained, and particularly
between the hours of four and seven in the morning. If one wire affects
me so much, imagine my sufferings when nine were working! Such being the
case, will you kindly cause the remaining wire either to be removed or
encased in the vulcanized tube, so as to contract the current.--Thanking
you for your kindness hitherto, and hoping you will add this favour to
the rest, I am," &c.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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