Ladies and Gentlemen, there lies behind the Information Desk a mechanism of extraordinary ingenuity: the Pneumatic Tube. Installed in 1906 at a cost of £340, it conveys canisters of paper at the astonishing speed of twenty eight feet per second to every department in the building.
Over its long life the Tube has carried receipts, requisitions, a single small kipper, and, on one famous occasion, a young apprentice named Wilfred who had climbed inside to retrieve a toy mouse. He arrived in Haberdashery looking pleased and slightly flattened. The Tube is still in use. The mouse is on display in the Atrium.
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