Balloon mail
Balloon mail refers to the transport of a mailpiece (mostly for reasons of weight in the form of a postcard ) by balloon. In the simple approach, there are cards with senders that are sent from unguided balloons to an unknown destination. For Philately regularly labeled and postage will be of interest to cover the first part of their journey with a manned balloon and handed over to the landing site at the post office for further dispatch.
Unguided balloon post
In the simple approach is one bearing the name of the sender card, which is transported by means of an unguided, filled with hydrogen or helium balloons. A concrete addressee does not exist, and most balloons are not found. In this regard, Balloon Post has a great resemblance to the bottle. The unknown Finder is requested by the sender of balloon mail to notify you by regular mail as to when and where the balloon was found. Frequently such balloons are in fact released as part of a balloon flight competition. The winner is the competitor whose balloon flew the farthest.
Helium-filled small balloons can sometimes travel a long distance. So flew a started by the Austrian Oskar Haberlandt 22 November 2008 balloon of Wildon, Austria to Mirenki ( Chuvash Republic ) in Russia. This is a distance of 2321 km. Overall, Haberlandt reached in a test series since 2003 with his balloons of Austria from 38 countries in Europe. Of the more than 28,000 launched balloon postcard arrived almost four percent returned to the sender (as of March 2009).
In addition, balloon mail was also already used repeatedly for the dissemination of information and propaganda materials, especially for the population in countries with dictatorial governments, as balloon mail can be started outside the sphere of influence of these governments and quite a few hundred kilometers comes with good wind direction.
Philatelic balloon post
Philatelic importance as a so-called all things have balloon mail letters and cards, the prepaid regularly post and addressed a first piece (mostly) have been transported by manned hot air balloon and then by regular mail. Such Ballonpost flights take place on special occasions, accordingly receive special designed forms. "25 Years of Christmas balloon post from Christmas " is numbered about constantly and, after the balloon ride their data stamped: free balloon ERGEE D- VI, Start: December 1, 1985 12:08 clock, maximum height 550 m, distance 1.5 km landing site, time, pilot.
Siege of Paris
During the German siege of Paris manned Post balloons were between 23 September 1870 and the January 28, 1871 67 mostly started ( everyone wore a special name ), the mail bags with special balloon mail letters contained. This was the only way to bring letters from the besieged city.
The special pre-printed balloon envelopes made of thin paper were 10 cm × 7 cm small. They were filled a weight of four grams not exceed and were for France ( and Algeria) to frank with 20 centimes or otherwise with normal foreign postage. They wore an address, and after the landing of the balloon in unoccupied by the Germans ( as they are reached ), the letters were conveyed by regular mail. But sometimes even mailbags were still dropped during the balloon ride as ballast discharge. So many of the letters arrived late and in a very roundabout way to their destination. Some balloons also carried homing pigeons, who were able to bring small messages back to Paris.