Mailbag

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bag span or bag frame with size III bags in a Deutsche Bundespost rail mail car
left: EMS postal bag, right: small letter bag of size I as it was used almost exclusively as a value bag

The mailbag , more rarely also letterbag , incorrectly also called mailbag or letter sack , is used to transport mail such as postcards and letters. A predecessor is the Felleisen . The field post bags from the Thirty Years' War are among the oldest examples in the Bundespostmuseum , making it one of the oldest means of transport still in use for mail. Today, mail containers are mostly used for the transport of mail . The mailbag is to be distinguished from the mailbox emptying pocket, which is used to empty the mailboxes . This article mainly deals with the mail bags of the Deutsche Bundespost . Mail bags are also used by other postal service providers.

material

Ordinary mail bags are usually made of durable linen , jute or similar textile fabrics. Airmail or Express Mail Service (EMS) bags are made of lighter types of fabric, mostly cotton, to save weight for expensive air transport. Hard-wearing synthetic fabrics are also used in newer bags. The bags are printed with the name of the respective postal company . In the past, mail was often sorted in rail mail cars and discarded in a so-called bag span, which had a bag for each routing region. Since the introduction of modern postal centers with mail sorting roads are mostly for transporting postal containers used. If at all, mail bags can only be found today in international air mail transport or as storage bags .

Bag types

The form of the letter and parcel post, the length of the transport route, the type of means of transport and the intended use determine the size, label and quality of the bags at Deutsche Bundespost.

Letter bags

The sorting force sorts the parcels according to their destination and discards them in the letter bags (1953).

They were the standard bags and were used in all areas except for airmail and EMS. Depending on the bag flag, they became letter, parcel , value , registered , express mail , newspaper, printed matter , mass printed matter , pouch or storage bags.

There were three sizes in use (length × width):

  • 1: 125 cm × 41 cm; Due to their small size, these were unsuitable for sending ordinary shipments and were almost only used as bags of value. Especially for sending cash grants and Barablieferungen between post offices and post offices and the money collector box .
  • 2: 100 cm × 58 cm; This size was also mainly used as a value bag.
  • 3: 125 cm × 75 cm; This size was the standard pouch used on the pouch racks. In these were letter Bunde , piece of correspondence, coarse and packets discarded and transported. Well over 90% of all mail bags corresponded to this type and size.

As a rule, gray linen was used as the textile fabric. Due to a lack of raw materials, domestic bags made of jute were temporarily permitted (before 1952), but these were replaced by round-woven linen bags that could be woven seamlessly and whose durability is five times as long with an average service life of 20 years.

Parcel sack

Airmail bag with a picture of an airplane

Parcel sacks were only used for domestic and European traffic with a size of 133 cm × 83 cm and a circumference of 166 cm. The sacks had rectangular bottoms, a rucksack lock with eyelets and two handles. The capacity was adapted to the physical capabilities of the staff and the circumference was therefore reduced to 102 cm. This increased acceptance, as the bundling of the packages in sacks accelerated processing. Since the introduction of the roll-up container in the early 1980s, the parcel sacks have not been used and have been discarded.

Parcel bags in three sizes were used in non-European traffic.

  • 120 cm × 45 cm
  • 120 cm × 55 cm
  • 130 cm × 65 cm

In addition, overseas bags in size III (125 cm × 75 cm), which have a beaded edge instead of eyelets for hanging, were also used.

Air mail bags

To save weight for expensive air freight, airmail bags were made of particularly light linen or sturdy cotton fabric in a light blue, later green color.

EMS bag

Express Mail Service bags were made of cotton in the EMS colors blue and red. They were available in many different sizes and were only sent from value point to value point with their own EMS loading slip.

Storage bag

modern mail bag from Deutsche Post AG
Far right in gray: a mail box

Usually, the deliverers cannot take the entire volume of mail from a district with them at once. This is why so-called trays are made with which the postman refills his pockets. These files are either located in lockable so-called mail storage boxes or, where they cannot be set up, are deposited at storage locations. These deposit points are located with confidants who have signed a mail deposit agreement with Swiss Post in which they undertake to keep the bag locked up or to supervise it until it is picked up. As these bags are temporarily removed from the Post's sphere of influence, they are fitted with a storage lock that only Post has the key to. These bags are only available in one size, are made of cotton or a similar light material and are the only ones still produced and used in the German post office today. Originally, normal letter bags were used for this purpose, whereby the use of EMS or airmail bags was prohibited. Since the airmail bags are no longer needed for their actual purpose, but are still available in large numbers, these are now often also used as storage bags.

Inner bag

They were used to securely transport cargo items that had to be identified or handled with particular care to and from the transfer point. They were red and made of cotton thread (nettle fabric). Of the total of four sizes, mostly only size I (40 cm × 25 cm) and size II (60 cm × 35 cm) were used. They were usually packed in larger bags, usually in groups.

Hideout bags

They consisted of light red, light linen yarn or cotton in the size 50 cm × 40 cm and were used to package large and heavy printed matter and samples , items in roll form and local letters in post offices with one another. The need for bags of this type was low because domestic bags of size I were mostly used for this purpose.

Special forms

Fire rescue bag compared to the smallest normal bag and airmail bag

Loading sacks (formerly Course bags) were for the postal exchange in the railway mail and force postal service used. These were usually size III letter bags made of sturdy linen. Useful letter bags or sacks without a bulge were also used as fire rescue bags. Both special forms belonged to the equipment of the post offices that had to be verified.

Labelling

The following applies to the labeling of the mail bags of the Deutsche Bundespost:

  • All postal bags have a fraction number in the upper left corner, the upper number shows either the week of manufacture or, in the case of some series, the internal manufacturer number, the lower the year of manufacture. Bag types that were available in different sizes had the size information after them.
  • Letter and EMS bags as well as parcel sacks bore the imprint Deutsche Bundespost in black and had a woven stripe in the federal colors .
  • Airmail bags were printed in black with the imprint Deutsche Bundespost and the designation Luftpost or later the pictogram of an airplane. Parcel sacks were labeled Parcel sack , in international traffic these were marked with Colis Postaux .
  • Inner bags only bore the inscription Deutsche Bundespost in black.
  • Storage bags are dark blue and bear the yellow inscription Deutsche Post Briefversellung and a post horn.

Clasp

The bag clasp, a reusable bag clasp

Postal bags that did not contain any items to be verified were provided with a reusable bag closure, the bag closure, in internal mailing . This was a plate made of plastic or sheet metal with a spring attached to it. The bag was closed by wrapping the string. In addition, the so-called bag flag was attached under the pane , on which the destination was noted. Value bag and bag during shipment leaving the sphere of influence of the post, for example, when air mail or web mailing without accompanying postal worker, the bag with the aid of a Plombenschnur and were seal sealed by means of a sealing pliers, these bags were mixed with a special bag knife opened. The sealed seal showed a post horn and the words Post. Mail storage bags were provided with a bag lock. This is similar to the bag clasp, but instead of the cord and the spring, it has a chain that is secured with a lock and an address label . The bags always had to be turned to empty to ensure that no letter was left in the bag (so-called letter trap).

logistics

Mail bag of the Bundeswehr field post .

The main bag balancing office at the Central Post Office in Darmstadt , which was also responsible for procurement, was responsible for determining the need for bags and managing the bags . In addition, bag balancing points were set up at the large post and railway post offices. They regulated the demand and circulation in their supply area, which included several upper post offices . There was a bag collection point in every district of the Oberpostdirektion for compensation within the district. Some of these bag balancing and collection points have been entrusted with bag maintenance (maintenance and removal of the bags). They took care of the cleaning and, if necessary, the repair or decommissioning of the bags. They had the necessary equipment for this, such as a bag tamping machine and a bag cleaning system .

philately

As early as 1969, at the World Congress of the Personnel of the Post, Telegraph and Telephone Companies (IPTT), the Berlin brands had a brand that showed airmail loaders from Switzerland with airmail bags. In addition, two welfare stamps were issued in the last year of stamps issued by the Deutsche Bundespost Berlin , on which, among other things, postal bags were depicted. In the corresponding federal edition, only one stamp was used in the same series to show postal bags.

  • Special stamp from 1944 "Field Post in the East": Field post officer with a mail bag, a Kraftpost bus in the background

  • Airmail loading forces from Switzerland

  • Airmail bags are waiting to be invited to the plane

  • Mail bags in use at the railway mail around 1900

  • Mail bags in use in electric parcel delivery vehicles around 1930

  • Mail bags in use with motorized mail cars around 1900

  • Not a stamp but ...

  • ... a template for this brand from 1991

art

The artist Karl Schaper used mail bags in several of his works of art and pictures, including:

  • The last piece of sky blue , 1983, oil on mailbag, 120 × 140 cm
  • Soldier's hat , 1983, two mail bags, folded, colored, 70 × 134 × 58 cm
  • German-German dialogue , 1984, spade, wooden spade, two mail bags, photo, 120 × 60 × 15 cm
  • Post Office of Thanatos , 1984, oil on canvas, 200 × 300 cm (based on an object made of four wooden ladders, plywood, 14 mail bags and 27 wooden postcards)
  • Hysterical-hypernational jumping jack or: Deutsches Gespenst , 1985, mail bags, willow poles, oil paint, 202 × 85 × 200 cm
  • Roman homage to Brecht , 1985, two mail bags, painted in color, two axes, 220 × 130 × 15 cm
  • Hommage à Jean Lurçat in thoughts of two German states , 1985/86, textiles and mail bags on canvas (in collaboration with Susanne Schaper ), 400 × 235 cm
  • Roman she-wolf , 1985, painted mail bags on canvas, 150 × 165 × 8 cm
  • Caution: hand of oath! , 1985, two mail bags, wooden barrel, 155 × 55 × 40 cm
  • Two sacks , 1991, oil on canvas, 120 × 160 cm

Official German

In his work “Earlier the day began with a gunshot wound” from 1969, Wolf Wondratschek mentions a leaflet on Section 49 of the General Service Instructions (ADA), which clarifies the ambiguity in dealing with the terms “Wertsack”, “Wertsasche”, “Versackasche” and “Wertpaketsack” “Should eliminate. This text has been used as a prime example of official language for years.

"If, when determining the contents of a value sack, it turns out that a sack sacked into a value sack must be sunk into one of the value sack sacked bags instead of a value sack, the relevant sacking point must be notified immediately."

- allegedly from a leaflet of the Deutsche Post from 1992 : Duden - Auf gut Deutsch 2009, caution Fettnapf, calendar sheet from December 18, 2009

Indeed, there was a very similar comment to § 49 of the "Instructions to the Postal Operations Part 2," which deals with the fact that in the language in a bag sags and not verbeutelt is:

In circles of beginners, the terms "valuables bag", "valuables bags", "pouches" and "valuables bags" are always confused. To remedy this evil, the following leaflet must be attached to Section 49 of the ADA:

The value sack is a bag which, due to its special use in the mail delivery service, is not called a value bag, but a value sack because its content consists of several value bags that are not bagged in the value sack, but rather sunk.

However, this does not change the fact that the value bag flag used to designate the value sack is also designated with a value sack with a value bag flag and not with a value sack flag, value sack bag flag or value bag sack flag. If, when determining the contents of a value sack, it turns out that a sack sacked into a value sack should have been sunk into one of the value sack sacked sack, the relevant sacking point must be notified immediately.

After it has been emptied, the value sack becomes a bag again, and it should not be counted as a sack, but as a bag when counting the bags.

However, a bag entered on the loading slip with the comment “value sack” is not a value sack, but rather a value parcel sack, because a value sack is not designated as such on the loading note, but is simply indicated by the notation “sunk” the sacked value bag is a value sack and not a value parcel sack expressly designated as "value sack".

Confusion is also excluded insofar as every postal worker knows that a bag labeled with a value sack is not a value sack, but a value parcel sack.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Herbert Leclerc: "The Post Department of the Federal Post Museum" - Section: Mailboxes and mailbags; P. 30
  2. ↑ http://www.ukpt.de/pages/publikationen/zeitung.php?mid=19990403 Unfallkasse Post and Telekom about the correct handling of roll containers
  3. ^ Catalog: Karl Schaper, Objects and Pictures
  4. ^ Hanser series, Carl Hanser Verlag 9th edition 1978, title "Bundespost", page 70
  5. ↑ Wolf Wondratschk's leaflet on § 49 ADA

Web links

Commons : Mailbag  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Unsecured information: