As any entrepreneur knows, one of the best ways to make a fortune is to own and manufacture technology that enables other businesses to increase their productivity and make money.

William Stickney Lamson from USA was an entrepreneur par excellence. In 1879 he invented the ‘cash railway’ system for the rapid transferring of cash in small cages from the point of sale to the accountant’s office upstairs (after the failure of trials of tying the money in a handkerchief and throwing it up!). His Lamson Cash Carrier Company grew and bought out other similar companies.

The pneumatic tubes system however, was invented much earlier in the 1800s by a Scotsman, William Murdoch (no close relative of our John Smith Murdoch). This system enabled the rapid and efficient carriage of solid objects with either compressed air or suction/vacuum and was first used in 1865 in Central London. Unfortunately, Murdoch died (1839) before profiting from his invention. Lamson saw the great potential of the pneumatic tube system and in the 1890s bought out several of the major companies producing these. His name became synonymous with these carrier systems.

From the 1860s to the late 20th Century, the Lamson tube system was used widely in the Western world for the carrying of mail, post and telegraph messages. Paris had 300km of ‘éseau Pneumatic’ and Berlin 400km. The system in Prague was in use until the floods of 2002, while the first tubes in Melbourne connected the Central PO to the Stock Exchange. Italy had special stamps for the ‘Posta Pneumatica’ and in the USA there was a suggestion that all households could be linked by tubes to their Post Office. In Orwell’s 1984 Winston’s newspapers were delivered to his desk by such a tube.

The introduction of the Lamson tubes into Provisional Parliament House has been attributed to Senator George Pearce. In 1922, when in Washington for the Conference on the Limitations of Armaments, he saw how efficiently and quickly books and papers could be delivered from the Congress Library to Members (and back). The tubes in Provisional Parliament House were laid down by 1925.

Three systems operated—internal, all connected with the King’s Hall Post Office, a despatch and return tube from King’s Hall PO to Canberra PO (in East Block, now the National Archives of Australia) and a 2 way service between the Hansard office and the Government Printing Office in Kingston (3km away). They were essential for not just politicians but the Press to communicate with the outside world. The tubes were very efficient and time-saving—that is, until the tubes became blocked or waterlogged! Then the resulting chaos was the same as when our computers are down today.

Lamson tubes were installed in the new Parliament House, opened in 1988, but computers and faxes made them redundant. Today the tubes are still used in hospitals (for moving drugs and specimens), factories (for moving parts) and even in a dairy to move samples for testing.

So when we think of Lamson Tubes we should also think of that Scotsman William Murdoch.

Article by Ann Ingwersen, Old Parliament House