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Airmail Service in the Franco Prussian War  |
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| 5/21/2002 5:42:16 PM, by Stamp2 Staff Writer |
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The commonly held view is that the mastery of the skies began on 17 December 1903 when the Wright brothers demonstrated their breakthrough aircraft at Kill Devil Hill. Similarly, it is also assumed that air mail service was officially launched with the Allahabad flight of 18 February 1911. Well, this is only true so far as the heavier-than-air craft is concerned, but in truth, man conquered the skies centuries ago. Before the advent of the heavier-than-air craft, man has employed air transport for the transportation of messages - with hot air balloons. For the interest of philatelists, delivery of messages through the air was officially instituted during the era of Napoleon III, forty years before the Allahabad event. Although this fascinating story is not new, it is worthwhile retelling. The series of innovations which were brought about by the necessity of the war time conditions are amazing and at times sound more incredible than science fiction.
The background to the advent was the Franco-Prussian War. In the beginning, the French met with some slight success, but by the middle of August 1870, Marshal Bazaine was surrounded in Metz and on 1st September 1870, as a result of the Battle of Sedan, the Emperor and 80,000 men were captives. By 5th September, Marshal Metz realized the need for outside communication and it is at this point that an unidentified newspaper correspondent of the Manchester Guardian came to the aid of the French. He suggested the use of balloons. Immediately, on the same day, a small unmanned balloon, designed with white paper and inflated by burning straw, was released. This was the inauguration of an unofficial communication service called "Aerostatic Mail." The first cargo consisted of 8,000 letters wrapped in oil cloth. It was affixed with a notice that the finder would be rewarded with 100 francs upon turning the packet over to the nearest postmaster or mayor.
Though this unique method of mail delivery did not win the war for the French, and Marshal Metz was forced to surrender on 2nd October, a total of about 33 other balloons were released throughout the siege. However, sad to say, only half of them ever reached their destinations. This was probably because of the poor methods employed to inflate the balloons, as coal gas was scarce at the time. The letters were dubbed "papillons" or "butterflies," because they were written on tissue paper 5 x 10 em and also because they were sent by air. They were not franked or even cancelled, except for one lot which landed at Neuchatel.
As always, bad news traveled fast and by 4th September, Paris knew of the capture of her Emperor. Immediately, the liberal party under the leadership of Thiers proclaimed the Third Republic. Despite the change in regime, it was impossible to put another army in the field in time to be of any assistance to the besieged army and two weeks later Bismarck laid siege to Paris. Although the French had provided for just such a contingency by laying a telegraph cable in the Seine, the Germans learned of this precaution and promptly cut the cable. Following this, many ingenious efforts were made to establish contact with the outside world, but although men and trained dogs made desperate attempts to slip through the enemy's lines by way of the famous sewers and catacombs of Paris there were few successes.
During the entire period of the siege, the ingenious French made all sorts of efforts to establish contact with the outside world. They tried to float letters into and out of the city with water-tight balls, but the results were discouraging. Some writers say that the failure of this plan was due to the nets stretched by the Prussians across the Seine, north of the city. This is not logical because the French too spread nets of their own at the other side of the town, which were equally unsuccessful in catching the packets, in case they floated downstream into the city. During the last month of the siege, 55 zinc balls, attached with fins, were released into the rivers. It was expected that the current would keep them rolling even if they sank. Of these only one ball was recovered in the nets. Apparently, the rest were wedged between the rocks on the river bottom or carried out into the English Channel. To safeguard security, the public was kept in ignorance as to the method employed and was merely instructed to mark their letters "Par Moulins." The, weight of such letters was limited to 4 grammes and the postal fee was 1 franc.
Having tried land and water, only one more element was left: The besieged forces realized that they had to attempt using the air. They constructed balloons of thin cloth varnished with linseed oil and oxide of lead. After just one unsuccessful attempt, their efforts were rewarded and on 23rd September the "Neptune" with a cubic capacity of 1,200 meters ascended from the Place SaintPierre at 7:45 A.M. carrying a pilot, a passenger and 500 pounds of mail. Three hours and fifteen minutes later the balloon descended safely with its cargo near, Evreux, about 65 miles away. The problem of communicating with the outside world was solved!
The besieged army next directed its efforts at getting news into Paris, for the anxiety concerning the deposed government and the fate of the army at Metz was of paramount importance. Before the Germans had surrounded the city, "L'Esperance," a pigeon breeding society, had placed all its birds at the disposal of the government, but their generosity had been scorned. Now the sorely pressed officials were glad to clutch at any straw and on 25th September Postmaster General Rampont and an aeronaut left the city, by balloon, on the second flight with three pigeons and a cargo of mail, and eventually landed at Tours. By 5 o'clock, two of the birds had returned and the anxiety of the townspeople, as to their isolation was relieved.
During the next few days three more balloons were released, which exhausted the supply. Quickly, a factory was set up in the Gare d'Orleans where, apparently in answer to the desperate situation, in less than a week two more balloons were completed. There being no shortage of materials it soon became a routine matter and the craft were made as quickly as needed.
The balloons from Paris were more successful than those from Metz, due to, their better construction and the fact that they were inflated with illuminating gas. Apparently this was because there was no shortage of coal, which was the source of supply of the hot gas. Take offs were made from many sections of the city but always near gas plants, and usually only when there were prevailing winds from the north or northeast to take the balloons in the direction of Tours. Since the 'air war' was a new factor, the Prussian guns could not aim upwards and at the acute angles of elevation necessary to bring down the balloons. Still to make sure, most ascensions were made during the early hours of the morning under cover of darkness. Up until the time the siege was lifted on January 28th a total of 65 ascensions were made; none of them were brought down by gun fire.
The heaviest load of mail, 1,320 pounds, was carried by the "Garibaldi" on 22nd October and the longest flight was made by the "Ville d'Orleans". This balloon left Paris just before midnight on 24th November with a load of six hundred pounds of mail and six pigeons. After having ascended to a considerable height it was caught in a heavy gale, enveloped in a fog. For hours neither the aeronaut nor the lone passenger had any idea of where they were headed. At one time, when they realized that they were about to land on water, they threw everything overboard - including one of the four sacks of mail they were carrying. Eventually they descended near a small village about 185 miles north of Christiania, Norway! Apparently, they had flown about 850 miles in less than fifteen hours. The bag of mail which they had thrown overboard was later recovered and forwarded to its destination. Due to the immersion some of the pieces had lost their postage, so the covers were stamped "P. P." (Port Paye) to indicate that postage had been paid. These letters, together with those recovered from the wreck of the "Jacquard," (which left Paris on 28th November and was last seen over the English Channel), and the "Richard Wallace," (which ascended on 27th January 1871 and was lost in the Bay of Archachon) constitute authentic crash covers and are eagerly sought after. Other balloons in the desperate postal venture are known to have landed as far off as Belgium, Flanders, Switzerland and even Austria.
The mail to be carried on these flights was required to be marked "Par Balloon Monte." The charges were fixed at 20 centimes for a letter limited to four grammes and 10 centimes for cards. Most of the covers were franked with the 10, 20, 30, 40 and 80 centime stamps of the Napoleon III type and the 10, 20 and 40 centime of the Ceres type. The latter were reprinted during the siege from the 1849 plates which were on hand.
Shortly after the service was established, both the government and certain private individuals prepared special envelopes and cards for airmail use. They even bore 'airpost' instructions. There are even post cards bearing the print "Non Monte," but these were never actually carried on free balloons, since the only one to carry mail and be released without an aeronaut descended in the German lines within sight of Paris. This effectively discouraged any further such attempts. As a matter of fact, this special stationery did not meet with public approval, owing to the appearance of the "Gazette des Absents." This periodical, which appeared three times a week, reported the highlights of the siege in very small print on one side of thin paper. It was the publishers' idea that by using the reverse side for personal messages, the beleaguered Parisians would not have to bother narrating general facts in their letters. Needless to say it met with instant approval, and as a result many competitors soon sprang up.
Since two of the three pigeons taken by the Postmaster General returned safely, the people were encouraged to include birds with every load of mail which left the city. While the actual number of birds sent remains unknown, the number is believed to be between 360 and 385. However only 73 returned. Some birds made several trips, but only about twenty carried on for the few months during which they were employed. Night, winter, friendly dove cotes along the route, and the unfriendly hawks released by the Prussians, all played their part in drastically reducing the numbers of the feathered 'postmen'.
The messages carried by the pigeons were naturally not in letter form, nor did they bear postage stamps, for weight and bulk were limited to how much the birds could carry. At first, a goose quill was attached to the main tail feather with silk thread, but even with the smallest writing, the birds could carry only two or three dispatches. This was unsatisfactory for snow, rain and dirt often made the writing undecipherable. To rectify this, a chemist by the name of M. Barresville proposed that the messages be affixed to a card 2 ft. x 3 ft. and photographed in a reduction of 300-1. The first letters were written by hand but later it was found that more messages could be carried by printing, so the latter practice was adopted.
The besieged forces at Tours first tried microphotography, which had been introduced by M. Dagron, with ordinary cameras. Later the Parisians sent finer instruments via the balloons. To read the mail, the clerks in Paris initially used powerful glasses to enlarge the messages. Later when the finer printing was used, improvements were made and the messages were projected on a screen with a stereopticon. This allowed several scribes to work at the same time. Even with this breakthrough technology it often took a week or ten days to copy all the letters carried by a single pigeon. Eventually, to save time, the letters were enlarged upon collodion film, cut up and pasted to gummed sheets of paper and then forwarded to the addressees.
We can better appreciate the importance of these pigeons to the people when we realize that a bird frequently carried as many as 12,000 messages, and at least in one instance as many as 40,000. The charge, in the case of the pigeon post, was 50 centimes per word with the average message being about 20 words. It has been claimed that dispatches were sent repeatedly until acknowledged by balloon. In one case 30 birds were released, but only one arrived safely. While this may be true of official communications, it is very doubtful if the same applied to private letters, especially so since the birds carried no identification marks. Calculating the average number of messages, one bird could gross 120,000 francs, payable in advance. After December, the cold and distance proved to be too much for them; and from the 19th December until 8th January 8th no birds succeeded in making the journey.
The balloons were also a success from a financial standpoint. A single load averaged 50,000 francs while the inflated balloon only cost about 5,000 franks. In addition to the pigeons, it is estimated that for the duration of the escapade the balloons carried about 4,000,000 letters, 238 passengers and aeronauts, and six dogs. It has been claimed that the birds brought back 156,000 official dispatches and about 1,000,000 private communications, but this is probably an exaggeration. This is because at the beginning, the messages were limited to about three per bird, while towards the end the average was about 12,000. As only 73 birds returned, the average claimed would not have been possible for the number credited.
The collection and study of letters, postcards and newspapers which had been carried on these historic flights has become one of the most interesting branches of philately. Fine covers clearly cancelled and bearing the sending and receiving postmarks command prices upwards of $200.00. Ordinary letters, however, are neither scarce nor expensive and deserve a place in every collection.
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