Paris balloon mail
The philatelist understands Paris balloon mail to be the mail connection by balloons and carrier pigeons between Paris and unoccupied France during the siege of Paris in the course of the Franco-Prussian War . This took place between September 23, 1870 and January 22, 1871 . The Paris balloon mail is a crucial point in the history of air mail .
history
The balloon mail and the use of carrier pigeons
During the time of the siege of Paris, a total of 67 intractable balloons rose, carrying 2.5 million letters and postcards weighing a total of 10,000 kg, 363 carrier pigeons , 238 passengers and even six dogs . Most of the balloons went down in safe foreign countries or in unoccupied France. Three balloons fell into the hands of the Germans , two fell victim to the floods. The French city of Tours was chosen as the collection point for the letters sent . The balloon mail letters were first sent there and then subsequently to their recipients .
The carrier pigeons, which were gradually given to the balloons, were used to transport letters to Paris. This turned out to be much more difficult than balloon mail. First the messages were written on extremely light tissue paper and tied around the pigeon. A carrier pigeon could carry very little information in this way. The first pigeon mail of this kind took place on October 9, 1870 .
René Dagron tried to improve this type of pigeon mail. Above all, he was anxious to increase the number of letters a pigeon could carry. He came up with the idea of transferring the messages collected in Tours as letterpress photomicrographs on gelatinous membranes so that a carrier pigeon could carry up to 40,000 letters with a maximum of 20 words each. Until the surrender of Paris on January 28, 1871, two million messages were transmitted as "pigeongrams" (pigeon telegrams).
In Paris these pigeongrams were shown greatly enlarged on a canvas with the help of a magic lantern . The postal workers copied these messages and delivered them to the recipients. The fee for one word of a pigeongram was 50 centimes .
The balloon mail letters
The balloon mail letters were initially folded mail letters made of thin paper. They were not allowed to weigh more than four grams. Numerous publishers and printing houses produced such letters that corresponded to the edition. The inscription was mostly Par ballon monté or Par le ballon .
In addition to these folded letters, balloon postcards were also permitted for carriage. These special balloon postcards were 11 × 7 cm in size. They were also produced privately. Their inscriptions were very similar to those on balloon mail.
Within France, postage for 10 cents and letters for 20 cents were carried. The usual postage had to be paid for international mail.
The collection area
The collection area of the Paris balloon mail is one of the most popular and interesting, but also one of the most expensive in philately . Only a few balloon mail letters and pigeon telegrams have survived.
Effects
The Paris balloon mail delights and inspires not only philatelists. When Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin observed the postal balloons in action during the siege of Paris, he began to be seriously interested in the problem of the construction of a "steerable" balloon. The idea of the zeppelin was born.
literature
- W. Hofinger: The oldest airmail in the world, historical study based on original documents from the Paris balloon mail 1870/71, 2nd edition, supplemented in 1976 by Dr. W. Locher / A. Eckert, 120 pp.
- Wolfgang Jakubek: Knaurs stamp book. The whole world of philately. Publisher: Droemer Knaur, Munich / Zurich 1976, ISBN 3-426-02244-3 , pp. 61-64