Italy Pneumatic Post Stamps

[Tim_Balm]

Italy has a BOB category called Pneumatic Post stamps.  The first of these (Sc#D1-D8) were issued from 1913-1928, and the last (D19-D20) were issued in 1947.  I have been unable to find anything in my reference books (including Linn's Stamp Almanac), at the library, or on the internet as to what these stamps were used for.  My "powers of reasoning" - i.e., trying to link the definition of pneumatic (pressurized air) to postal delivery - likewise got me nowhere.

Italy, being the creative postal entity that they were, issued the world's first airmail stamps in 1917.  Were these pneumatic stamps some sort of forerunner to those?  [The D1-D14 stamps do bear a close resemblance to the airmail C3-C9 stamps issued during the same period.]  But if they were forerunners to airmail stamps, why would they have continued into the late 1940s?

Does anyone know what these were used for?

[Jesper]

According to AskPhil:

[size=10pt]Pneumatic Mail: mail sent between post offices and railroad stations by pneumatic tubes, 1893-June 30, 1918.
Pneumatic post: distribution of mail through air tubes below ground using compressed air.
Pneumatischen Expressbef

[Nick]

Hi Chaps

Mackay's Philatelic Terms Illustrated describes "a system of conveying letters and cards by pneumatic tubes". While France (1866), Germany (1867) and Austria (1873) had them and issued special stationary and postmarks, only Italy issued special stamps.

There is more detail in Wood's This is Philately. "The idea of a pneumatic post in Italy was initiated in 1907, and construction began in Milan in July 1910, in Rome in December 1910 and in Naples in 1911, but WW1 delayed the project. Up to 10 letters or telegrams could be carried in a transparent container that was propelled by compressed air and assisted by equipment that created a vacuum at the other end.". He also notes that Chicago had a system in 1905 and New York until 1953.

Cheers

Nick

[Tim_Balm]

Thanks to all,   

Jesper, thanks for the reminder about AskPhil.  I have no excuse about not going there; I simply forget about that site all the time

Nick, I have neither of the references that you cite.  I need to get Wood's book sometime.  Probably need to get both - some day.

I take it that this is an intra-city system for transporting among neighborhood post offices.  It couldn't possibly be for sending mail between cities   Even so, I can't envision an air-propelled system (even with vacuum assistance) working for more than a few hundred feet.     That must have been not only an extremely air-tight tube, but also a virtually frictionless system. 

Can you imagine this kind of technology in the 1860s (France and Germany)?

Now I have several more questions (as is typical) which I shall research.

1. Since the first Italian pneumatic stamps were issued in 1913, I guess at least one of the systems was partially in operation by then.  Wonder which one(s)?

2. It appears that the pneumatic post rates were higher than the regular post rates.  I wonder if the pneumatic system was pitched to the populace as an expedited delvery system commanding a premium?  Or if the premium was added just to pay for the construction?

I may have to send Gini Horn at the APS library an email.  [Now I wonder what their schedule is for moving the library into its new home.]

In any event, it must have been an exciting time to work for the Italian post system, what with the pneumatic system being built, the experimentation with delivering mail by airplane, etc.  Then again, being in the middle of WWI adn having Benito Mussolini's rise to power  in the 1920s being on the horizon - perhaps it was not all that exciting.

Tim

[Jesper]

Now that you bring this up ...

I seem to remember that the sewer system in Paris is (was) home to a similar system (also in the 19th century), but perhaps only used by the postal service internally. As far as I remember, the system enabled the mails to be delivered almost anywhere in Paris within hours of being handed to a post office. Might be worth researching, now that you're at it

[Tim_Balm]

All,

For what it is worth....   I attended a local stamp show this weekend.  Spent very little money and bought nothing of real note, but on a table as I entered were some extra copies of recent Linn's Stamp News.  I used to be a subscriber, but dropped that one when trying to cut down (and kept the Scott Stamp Monthly instead).  As it turns out, on page 6 of the May 17th Linn's there was an article about pneumatic tube mails.  The article was written by a collector of covers with "auxilliary markings" who just acquired a couple of covers - one marked with "The damage to this mail matter was caused by the accumulation of moisture and from rust in the pneumatic tube ..." and another marked "received in bad condition from pneumatic tubes".  One cover was from Massachusetts and the other from New York.  The article gave a nice history of the US pneumatic tube experimentation.

In short, there were 6 US cities with pneumatic mail tubes: Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Brooklyn (which must have been considered separate from New York City), Chicago abd Saint Louis.  All were in operation at various times between 1893 and 1918 when the tubes were shut down in favor of motor trucks and horse-drawn wagons.  The tube system was restored to service in the mid 1920s in New York and Boston (reasonnot given) and shut down again in the early 1950s.  Mail carried by the tubes used normal postage stamps.

One tube line in New York City was over 26 miles in length with 24 stations along the route.  Brooklyn's tube was only 1.35 miles long with a station at each end.

The tube lines were 4 to 6 feet underground (mostly under sidewalks).  The mail cartidges could carry 8 to 10 pounds of letter mail and moved at speeds up to 30 miles per hour.  The article said the system serviced large volumes of mail.  I find it astonishing that 4 kilos of mail in a cartidge could be whistled 2 km through the tubes at that speed.

Tim

[Tim_Balm]

All,

The March, 2005 issue of American Philatelist (journal of the Amer Phil Society) has an article on pneumatic mail (title: Faster Mail -- In a Vacuum).  It talks primarily about the pneumatic systems set up in Vienna (Pneumatischen Expressbeforderung), Berlin (Rohrpost), and Paris (Pneumatique).  These were the first systems set up (in the 1870s) as a way to deliver express mail orders between telegraph offices and the stock exchange.  Buy/sell orders were expedited with the system.  At that time (as still remains in many countries), the postal system and the telegraph system were operated by the same group.  These special delivery pneumatic mails used telegraph stamps and stationery.  I found the last sentence in the article very interesting in that it said the last pneumatic mail systems were finally put out of business by the use of telephones.

It is a very interesting discussion of why pneumatic mail was created - but fails to discuss the Italian pneumatic system that issued special stamps to be used on pneumatic mail.  Disappointing for me because I was hoping to learn more about the actual stamps rather than just the pneumatic system of delivery.

Tim