The Dumfries Post Office, 1642-1910. Ill 



<]uately fitted with sorting tables, stamping tables, bag racks, 

 newspaper and parcel sorting divisions, lockers, etc., with special 

 apartments for the Superintendent and Registered Letter Clerks. 

 This room is well lighted from the roof as well as by windows 

 back and front. Gas with inverted incandescent burners is in use 

 at night. Ventilation has likewise been amply provided for. 



Leaving the sorting office by the side entrance we pass in 

 turn the postmen's retiring room, and the male clerks' retiring 

 room, both fitted with convenient cooking apparatus for the use 

 of those employed on lengthy duties. The present male clerks' 

 retiring room was originally set apart for the telegraph engineer's 

 office, but in May, 1908, the engineer's headquarters were 

 removed to Hamilton, and a re-arrangement was rendered neces- 

 sar}'. In the basement provision is made for the heating apparatus, 

 coal cellars, lavatories, engineers' store room, postal store room, 

 and caretaker's room. The battery room, to which the wires, 

 which run underground from the railway station, are conducted 

 direct, is likewise accommodated here. 



On the second floor there are two large retiring rooms, one 

 for male and the other for female clerks, the telegraph operating 

 room of the same size as the public office, and an adjoining apart- 

 ment, fitted with double switch board, for telephone exchange 

 duty. 



To the rear of the main building wooden erections extend for 

 a considerable distance along the boundary wall and afford shelter 

 to the official cycles, while provision for a similar purpose is avail- 

 able for the mail barrows and parcel delivery vans. 



With the exception of a short interval on Sundays the Head 

 Office in Buccleuch Street is always open for the despatch and 

 receipt of mails. 



At the Station Parcel Depot important alterations have 

 recently been made. In the autumn of 1910 a large addition was 

 built and the depot fitted throughout with electric light. The 

 depot now measures 78 feet in length by 20 feet in breadth and it 

 is connected with the Head Office in Buccleuch Street by tele- 

 phone. In this department the parcel mails to and from Dumfries 

 are opened and despatched, while parcels posted at the Head Office, 

 collected from the Town Sub-Offices, and received from the 

 rural districts or from offices sending combined letter and parcel 

 despatches, are transferred to the depot by means of hand-carts. 



