the Central Post Office Building, Yasagatan, Stockholm, which was
completed in 1903.
The single steamer at present owned hy the Post Office, the “Öland”,
is valued at 125 000 kronor.
As regards the administration, it may he mentioned that a revision, to
a certain degree, of the central and local administration of the Post Office,
has been carried out from 1910; in connection with the adoption of a revised
scale of salaries of the officials of the Department. As early as 1893,
five Postal Inspectors were appointed, as intermediate authorities between
the Royal.Post Office Board and the post masters. From the year 1910,
these district chiefs, whose number was then increased to six, and who
were given the title of Postal Directors, have had their positions more
firmly established, while their powers have been not a little increased.
The Kingdom, consequently, is at present divided into six postal districts,
entitled, the south, west, east, Stockholm, central, and north district.
For the time being, however, Malmö town and the post offices and postal
lines under the jurisdiction of the Malmö post office have been taken from
the south district and formed into a separate section. The postal director
is the representative of his district in relation to the public, and has to
attend to the rigths and interests of the Post Office in that district.
The members of the Royal Post Office Board are the Postmaster
General, as the head of the Post Office, and four Bureau Chiefs. In 1913,
the permanent staff under the Board amounted to 101 persons, 43 of
whom were women-clerks. In receipt of fixed salaries there are also:
1 assistant for the postal steamer, 6 men clerks and, lastly, 21 women
clerks for the sorting of the money orders. In the various divisions of the
Board, there were, at the date mentioned, altogether 19 permanent and 3
extra porters, besides 1 engine-man and 2 firemen.
In the service of the district- and local administration there were, in
1913, the following officials belonging to the higher grades: 6 postal
directors, 250 postmasters (6 of these posts were not yet filled, however),
6 chief controllers, 7 first controllers, and 52 controllers, 142 men- and
27 women chief-clerks, 830 men- and 260 women-clerks, in addition to
which 1 postal director at Malmö and 1 controller were placed on the
provisional budget. Besides this, there were, at the close of 1913, 453
assistant clerks, 197 of whom were women, and 100 so-called temporary
assistants, 88 of whom were women. The number of permanent post-office t
porters and mail-drivers amounted to 2 300, the extra mail-drivers 680 and
the temporary assistants of corresponding grades 91.
Among the post-office staff in a wider meaning, must also be reckoned
managers of postal stations to a total of 3 136, of whom 450 were women; 155
managers of the steamboat post-offices; 2 097 rural postmen; 35 so-called box
postmen (whose duty it is to manage the local carriage of letters under certain
simpler forms in a number of villa-towns and suburban communities); 829
postmen on highway-lines; 1 427 sellers of stamps, 320 of whom were women,
and, finally, 11 persons forming the crew of the postal steamer, “Öland”. The
staff above mentioned is, as a rule, appointed under agreement, either by the
Post Office Board or, to a great extent, by the various postal directors.
Altogether the total number of officials belonging to the district- and local-
administrations, apart from the postmen on highway-lines and the sellers of
stamps, amounted at the close of 1913 to 10 634 of whom 9 605 were men
and 1 028 were women.
In order to obtain an appointment as an assistant clerk, it is necessary to be
between the ages of 18 and 24, both inclusive, and to have a course of training
as a postal pupil. Admission to such a course is granted only to those who have
passed their matriculation or “realskole” examination, or who possess a full final
certificate from the State Normal School for Girls in Stockholm, or from any
other 8-class girls secondary school whose final certificate is considered as showing
qualifications equal to those required for the “realskole’-examination. The course
of the postal pupils lasts 21 months and embraces trial practical post-office work
as postal-pupil probationer during the period August 16—January 15, a theoretical
course at the educational institute of the post-office in Stockholm during the
period February 1—May 15, and a practical pupils’-course during the period
June 1—May 15. The final examination is held during the latter half of the
May of the final year of training.
5. TELEGRAPH SERVICE.
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The first optical or signal telegraph (semaphore) in Sweden was erected
in 1794. In the autumn of that year, a signal telegraph, constructed
by A. N. Edelcrantg, was tried between Stockholm and the Royal Palace
of Drottningholm, 10 kilometers distant.
The telegraph erected — almost simultaneously with that of Chappe in
France, but on an independent system — proved so practical that, during the
following years, new telegraph-lines were established between Stockholm and
various important points at the sea-entrance to the capital, as well as at several
places on the west and south coasts of the country. The constructions
mentioned, which to a great extent were brought about by the necessity, during
the war of 1808 and 1809, for a quick and safe signal-service, fell into decay,
however, at the end of the war. I t was only in 1836 th a t the Government
determined on their re-establishment: a telegraph-corps was established, under
the direction of the chief of the Topographical Corps, and received its regulations
in 1838.
The subsequent development of the signal telegraph was, however, of very
short duration, in consequence of the discovery of the incomparably greater
capability of electricity to convey communications quickly and surely over great
distances. After the introduction of the electric telegraph, the signal telegraph
stations were, by degrees, done away with, and the last was removed in 1881.
The first electric wire telegraph in Sweden was set up in 1853,
between Stockholm and Uppsala, under the superintendence of Major-
General Carl Akrell, who afterwards became the first Director-General
of the Telegraph Service. During the two following years, new
lines were put up from Uppsala, via Vasteras, Örebro, and Vanersborg,