The first proposal for a tube line to carry the mail was put forward by Rowland Hill in 1855; he suggested a line from the Post Office at St. Martins-le-Grand to Little Queen Street in Holborn. The initial proposal was for an ‘atmospheric railway’ designed by Thomas Rammell who came up with a scheme by which a stationary steam engine would drive a large fan which could suck air out of an air tight tube and draw the vehicle towards it or blow air to push them away.