CCke Airpost Journal --·-- November, 1954 • Issued to Commemorate the 25th Anniversary of P. A. A. First Flight To Suriname by Col. Charles A. Lindbergh • OFFICIAL PU BLICATION OF WO RLD'S OLDEST AND , LARGEST SOCIETY OF AIRPOST COLLECTORS • V olurne XXVI Nu1nber 2 1954-55 SANABRIA CATALOG Well over 500 pages of valuable · authoritative infonnation (most of it not to be found in any other publication) on Air Stamps, including Semi•Officialll, l!rrors and Varieties, Air Post Stationery, Proofs and Essay&, First Day Covers, etc. Prices based on expert knowledge of World Market and one of the finest stocks. including free $6.00 subscriptiot to coming supplements poll: free New York City residents please send 3% Sales Tu: NICOLAS SANABRIA CO. INC. A. Medawar, President 521 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK 17, N. Y. ·Balloon Post Of The Siege Of. Ef:aris '·1870-71 • ·1:.:i~:, ))y LOUIS A. Cf!J\..• TRIER • Translated by DR. EVERETT E. THOMPSON and GEORGE W. ANG£i\s • CHAPTER• II '! l; CITTA DI FIRENZE 4500. meters (14,760 ft.) in search of a (Florence: City of Tuscany, Italy, 146 favorable current; after haviiig vainly m. N. W. of Rome) sought it at different altifudes, he found HE second balloon that left Paris himself above the forest of St. Germain was the property of Mr. Eugene at 800 meters (about 2600 feet) after Godard and was called "Citta di· Firenze" having passed over . Bougival and Le (City of Florence). It had a capacity of Pecq. · 1200 cubic meters, was. of recent con­ By a. curious coincidence we learn from stmction (October, 1869) and well made. ~fr. Edmond Newkomm "that at the It was chartered on account o{ the Ad­ s~we; mom1Jnt, wh,en th<; J'ryssians 'hatj. mini~ation of Telegraph Lines, and was just coni~. to .cut the si.1brrierged cable in piloted by Gabriel Mangin, a profession­ the Seine, mentioned earlier (see the al aeronaut. stor" of the "Neptune" flight) the 'Citta There was a passenger, . named Lutz, di Firenze" was passing majestically a native of the Department qf Rhone, above Bougival, releasing on the head. of whose subsequent behavior was extreme- our enemies copies of the Jules FaVTe ly strange. report. This communication had little ef­ The postal shipment comprised three fect in the German. camp, Bismarck de­ sacks of dispatches, with a total weight nying the truth of the assertions of Ju~ of 150 kg. ( 330 lbs. ) ; also some thous­ Favre. ands of copies of the report of Jules In the flight over Poissy the balloon Favre on the interview of Ferrieres; a was at 1800 meters ( 5900 ft.) The aerial basket containing thr~e pigeons belong­ travelers observed that there were no ing to Mr. Van Roosebecke, vice-presi­ enemies at Le Pecq or St. Germain or dent of the Pigeon Fancier Society, "L'­ Poissy. After ·throwing out ballast a num­ Esperance." . ber of, times, landing was effected at 2 The departure took place on Sunday, p. m. in a dead calm at a place called September 25, 1870 from a field called L'Abime located between Vernouillet '~a 9laoiere" (The Glacier) belonging and Medan (Dept. of Seine et Oise) at tb 'Mr. Eugene Godard, situated near the about one kilometer to the north of the Boulevard d'Enfer, along the Bievre (be­ !Zola home, at present an annex of the tween the present Postern of Poplars and Public Assistancii, Board,. where there is th5:) Bicetre Gate, 13th arrondissement) at a ~fnau' spring that serves. as a Washing 11;30 A: M., in a light east wind. place. The aeronaut rose rapidly to about · (Continued on next page) . THE AIRPOST JOURNAL ~1~tt~~N~ Entered aa second-class matter, February 10, 1932, at the . post · · office at Albion. Pa. under the Act of Mal'cll 3, 1879. Publfsbed montb.b;. • 'NOVEM~J:;R. l9S4 - VOL. X~VI, NO~ 2. -:- ISSUE 295. ~· 25c PER . COPY '. 40 THE AIRPOST JOURNAL PARIS BALLOON POST t~ree pige?.ns? each with the following (Continued from precedln.r page) dispatch: We have luckily descended near Tricl at Vernouillet; we are carrying At this time the aeronauts• were 28 km. the official dispatches to Tours; the ( 17 miles) by air line from their point packages of letters will be distributed". of departure and near the enemy lines. The three pigeons returned to Paris that The duration of the flight was thus 2 same evening where news of the land­ hours and 30 minutes and the average ing was received exactly one hour after rate of speed 11 km. 200 m. ( 6.8 miles) it occurred. per hour. The priest of Vemouillet took Lutz Mr. Mangin, not being able to trans­ into his home and procured for him a port his balloon, had much difficulty in suit of peasant clothes. The next day deflating, folding, and hiding it with the Lutz went to Evreux where he was re­ peasants, yet he succeeded in a half hour ceived by the Prefect and granted by in spite of the presence of enemy troops him a safe-conduct to Tours by the most in the immediate viclhlty. direct route. ' When the Saxon Hussars who were On the morning of the 28th he was at following at full speed from the "Alluets Tours. There he announced that he had le Roi" arrived at the landing place come alone as the "Delegate Commis­ everything had disappeared. sioner of the Government of National We know from Mr. Savary, former Defense". mayor of Vemouillet, as well as from In a hotel he posed as Mr. Nadarl Messrs. Josse and Potier that during the What was the purpose of all these fab­ following night, . the balloon envelope, rications? the basket and rlggmg were caniecl ·fnto On the arrival of Mr. Mangin at Tours the home of Mr. Cledat in Vernouillet the schemes were spoiled; the matter situated 900 meters (about ¥.! mile) had to be cleared up. But when search from the landing point. This house was was made for Lutz ... he was no longer still in existence in 1935 just as was at in Tours. Some days later the news­ the time with no change whatever. papers announced that he had been ar­ rested on October 2 at o'clock in the For the night of the 25th, Mr. Mangin 7 morning at Besancon by order of the slept in Malville forest in a camp of French soldiers who had escaped from Prefect Hubert Joe~h Edouard Ordin­ aire. For several days Lutz received the Sedan. attention of the daily press, but after a On the morning of the 26th when a series of adventures at Rocambole, he detach~ent of these soldiers was ap­ was condemned to 20 years of hard ]a. proachmg Mantes, sharp firing took place bor. He died in prison. hear the railroad station between Prus­ The dispatches were sent by those sian dragoons and the French; the officer present at the landing, persons not in command, who up to that time had known, to the postoffice at Mantes, accompanied Mr. Mangin, turned him where Mr. Delaunay, who received them, over to a Marine officer who conducted forwarded them to their destination. him to Rosny on the Seine. ~r. Gabri~~ Mangln was later ap-­ The two fugitives, pursued by the en­ pomted a~ m1h~ aeronaut in the Army emy, hemmed in on all sides in the wood of the Loire, with the rank of captain. and worn out by fatigue, arrived at Ros­ ••h •••• ,. ....... ,, ••_ .. ; ny at 5 o'clock in the afternoon; the Ma­ rine officer was cared for there, having With, regard to these first balloons the enemy s surprise was great but their .vex- received a bullet in his right calf. ation much greater. All the ingenuity of While Mr. Mangin was busy saving von Moltke and von Bismarck was his equipment and the sacks of letters, stranded before this "silken egg" let Lutz took possession of the Government dispacthes and the pigeons; he then ran loose in the clouds. Moreover, strategy (into Vernouillet to inform the mayor of and diplomacy had no other recourse his arrival from Paris and released the than to run after our dispatches, just as NOVEMBER, 1954 41 children- chase : after their red balloons when they get away. A special service Frankin!! Error J:n · was organized for this purpose. The mo­ ment a balloon rose from Paris, the en­ Herm Island Usage emy telegraph gave a description of it and from one stage to another, by con­ tinuous relays, horsemen set out in pur­ by John C. W. Fields,• F. R. G. S. suit. • We know from Edmond Neu;komm -~\ N interesting air franking error that another idea was put forth: ...It was... ft\ has arisen from Herm Island, on a question of holding balloons contin-"-' the occasion of the issue (on 1 Septem­ ually inflated around Paris, so · that as her, . 1954), of new denomination& of soon .as one should arise from .. within the B. K A. Airway . Letter Service Stalnps. precincts of the capital, a balloon would U:ntil September 1, the fees for the be launched from one of the places in Airway Letter Service and the Railway the. line .of investment corresponding to Letter Service _had been "out-of-step", the dir ti f th • d d th but on that date they were brought into ec on ° ~ wm ~ • ere alignment.. This was done by increasing would ensue in the air a purswt mth an the Airway Letter rates for the three entirely novel result". It is not known maximum weights (up to 2 ozs.; between why this smart idea was not put into ,2 ozs.