air cargo and airmail

The siege of Paris and the establishment of airmail by balloon 1870–71

The Franco-Prussian War in 1870 proved to be catalyst for the use of free flying, manned balloons to transport post in an official, organised manner, that was capable of being both regular and relatively secure. War between France and Prussia was declared on 19th July 1870. Following the French Army's defeat at Sedan and its surrounding at Metz, its best units were destroyed or neutralised and the Prussian Army lost no time in laying siege to Paris. The Second Empire fell as a consequence of the defeat at Sedan and on 4th September 1870, a government of National Defence was formed in Paris. With increasing urgency for the French, the problem arose as to how the besieged positions could communicate with the outside world.

First Experiences in Metz

In Metz, where Marshal Bazaine had permitted himself to be entrapped with all his army, one Doctor Papillon, a surgeon in the ambulance service of the Imperial Guard, had the idea of using balloons to send ciphered or plain text messages. On 1st September 1870 he confided in Doctor Jeannel,the Pharmacist in Chief, who was later to write: “The idea of entering into communication with the rest of France by means of balloons launched above the Prussian lines caught my imagination, and I devoted some thought as to how it could be carried out.” Constrained by lack of means, he manufactured his balloons from tracing paper coated in varnish. The balloons were fragile and low in capacity, but since the weight of each letter was reduced to about 10 grams, Jeannel managed to send fourteen small balloons between 5th and 15th September. The balloons carried a total of approximately three thousand items of mail between the 5th and 15th September. As in the earlier attempts at Condé sur Escaut and Valenciennes, these were unmanned free-flying balloons; but in Metz,the recorded results were much more encouraging because about half of the items sent arrived at their destinations. Doctor Jeannel well deserves the following commemorative plaque which was affixed to a wall of the former military hospital in Metz:

The success of Doctor Jeannel's “balloon post” led to the concept being taken over on a grand scale by General Coffinières de Nordeck,the commander of the fortified city of Metz, who wished to place the balloon post “at the disposition of all those, whether soldiers or civilians,who were held prisoner in Metz”. The task of manufacturing the balloons was entrusted to the School of Artillery and Engineering in Metz; the balloons measured from three to five metres in diameter, were inflated with town gas and could carry up to 30,000 messages. Between seven and 10 balloons were launched from 16th September to 3rd October, carrying more than 150,000 messages. The balloon post had been made available to the public; a special post office was opened at the H.Q.of the Fifth Division, and the following notice was put up:

Unfortunately, several of these unmanned balloons fell into enemy hands, providing them with a flood of information concerning the morale of the besieged troops. It was therefore decided to put an end to the “balloon post”. Marshal Bazaine surrendered Metz on 27th October 1870. Similar experiments in sending messages by free balloons took place at Belfort and Neuf Brisach,although these were of a much more modest and symbolic nature.

Siege of Paris:Organisation of airborne postal service

The siege of Paris by the Prussian armies began on the night of 18th–19th September 1870. During the morning of Monday, 19th September all communication with the outside world became impossible, other than by air. Faced with this situation, some individuals reacted very quickly. Three dates summarise the establishment of the first airborne postal service in the world,which was set up by the authorities and available to the public.This regular and secure service was provided by manned balloons.

Thursday, 22nd September 1870

Germain Rampont,a committed, well regarded republican, was nominated as Director General of the Postal Service on 4th September by the Government of National Defence, and called a meeting of the Board of the Postal Service and the balloonists of Paris. Realising that the land route was closed (all couriers on foot either having been made prisoner or having to return without being able to get through) and that the airways remained the only feasible solution, Rampont was to play a decisive role in organising an airborne postal service using manned balloons.

Friday, 23rd September 1870

The pilot Jules Duruof (his real name was Dufour) was one of the best professional aeronauts of the period,and was the first to leave the besieged city of Paris on board his own balloon “Neptune”.Duruof was a member of the Company of Military Balloonists founded by Nadar on 18th August 1870,before the fall of the empire, and which, in his own words, was “revolutionarily installed” at the beginning of September on the hill of Montmartre, which he considered to be particularly suitable for ballooning operations. He took off from Montmartre at day-break, taking with him attached to the basket of his balloon three bags of mail with a total weight of 123 kilograms. Two days later, on 25th of September, a second balloon, “La Citta di Firenze”, piloted by Gabriel Mangin, left Paris. In addition to 120 kilograms of post and a particularly corpulent passenger, he took with him three carrier pigeons,“the first of the siege”,which were intended to bring back to Paris news from the provinces.The two balloons landed without problems, the first near Evreux and the second near Médan. In both these cases,it was possible to hand over the mail to the French post, to be forwarded in the normal manner.

A contemporary lithograph showing the balloon launching field at place Saint-Pierre. The small departing balloon is "The Strasbourg".