The postal pipeline in Prague is unique. It played an important role during the war, the last straw was the flood
The foundations of the invention began with the 18th century inventor Denis Papin (1647–1714). Among other things, this Frenchman made cooking easier for housewives by supplying them with his pressure cooker – “papiňák”. In 1681, he obtained a royal patent for it in Paris. He also invented the steam cylinder, the steam cannon, the steam pump, the steam river pump and the submarine.
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From there, it was just a step away to implement fast pneumatic or pipe mail. The first ever urban post office was built thanks to the efforts of Phineas Balk and William Murdoch in London in 1853. Other European capitals soon followed: Paris, Rome, Hamburg, Naples, Berlin and Munich. But also more distant addresses such as Buenos Aires, Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston or Melbourne.
The ck Austrian postal and telegraph administration was also on the rise, and it was even the first on the old continent to open a public post office in Vienna. It happened on March 1, 1875.
Inspiration Vienna
The creation of the Prague pipe post dates back to August 6, 1887. The system of this post in our country was based on the same technical solution that was encouraged in Vienna.
“At first, the postal administration operated the system for 12 years only for official purposes,” explained the curator of the collections of the Prague Postal Museum, Martin Jahoda. Specifically, to transport telegrams from the main telegraph station on Malostranské náměstí to the Main Post Office in Jindřišská street.
One of the longest routes led from the headquarters in Jindřišská street to the post office in Libno and measured a total of 7.5 kilometers. The case insulted her in just 12 minutes. A permanent journey of 8 minutes to the Castle, about 10 minutes to Dejvice.
Full operation for the transport of telegrams and express parcels for the public began on March 4, 1899. At the same time, special red boxes of the pipe mail were placed on the streets of Prague. Their contents were selected every 20 minutes and sent to their specific destination.
The first lines of the Prague pneumatic post connected the Main Post Office in Jindřišská Street with both the aforementioned post office in Malá Strana and the post office in Malé náměstí in Dom u Rottů. In later years, a post office was added in Královské Vinohrady, Hrad or Smíchov – including another 14 private participants.
A turning point at the turn of the 20s and 30s
“The fundamental turning point came between 1927 and 1932. A total reconstruction took place, when other new routes were created and a powerful automatic system of the Berlin company Mix & Genest was installed,” explained Jahoda.
“That’s when the Prague Pipeline Post took on the shape and scope it still has today. Thanks to this, the pipeline mail could transport tens of thousands of cases per month. At the time, almost half of the post and telegraph offices, including state institutions, such as the Czechoslovak Radio and the Czechoslovak Press Office, were connected to the headquarters in Jindřišská Street,” he added, adding that news and photos were sent to editorial journals from there.
Pipeline mail routes were made of steel pipes with an internal diameter of 6.5 cm and a thickness of 2.5 to 3 mm. In the mid-1980s, all these routes were approximately 60 kilometers long.
They crossed the Vltava on three bridges
The network of the Prague post office consisted of a system of five main routes arranged in a star pattern, including switches. The Hlavní pošta building in Jindřišská Street was the place where all routes converged and where the evidence of all shipments was also kept, the entire system was managed and monitored. Some particularly busy routes were double-piped so that shipments could flow smoothly through the pipe in both directions at the same time.
The routes generally lay 80 to 100 cm below the surface and crossed the Vltava on three bridges. After the Bridge of Legions, Mánes Bridge and Hlávk Bridge.
Pipe mail played an important role at the end of the Second World War, when it was suitable for supplying the besieged radio on Vinohradská třída.
“At that time, an average of 420,000 cases were sent annually, which transported 1.1 million telegrams and traveled over two million kilometers in the process. One of the longest routes led from the headquarters in Jindřišská street to the post office in Libno and measured a total of 7.5 kilometers. The case insulted her in just 12 minutes. It took 8 minutes to get to the Castle, about 10 minutes to Dejvice,” explained curator Jahoda.
The pods were able to develop a speed of up to 36 km per hour. The shortest route was to Exico and was literally just a few steps since the address was right across the street.
Snacks were also transported
The metal cases (originally celluloid, later duralumin and finally aluminum) had a diameter of 5 centimeters, a length of 20 cm and could support up to 3 kilograms of weight. Mostly it was rolled up rolls of a blanket with telegrams, but really anything. Only hazardous substances that could damage the pipeline were prohibited. So various documents, small items, even snacks were transported.
Pipe mail played an important role at the end of the Second World War, when it was suitable for supplying the besieged radio on Vinohradská třída.
“The public could only use the Prague pipeline post until 1945,” noted Jahoda. According to him, it was then used exclusively for official purposes.
Last shot? Flood
Back in the 1990s, it transported 9,000 cases a month, and at that time about 20 companies used its services. However, traffic had a downward trend and gradually weakened. The last blow was the flood in 2002, which flooded the entire pipeline post office and put an end to its operation.
It is currently maintained in serviceable condition but not in use. In any case, this is a unique device that served honestly for 115 years. And it has one important first: it is the only surviving urban piped mail system in the world. Denis Papin would certainly be happy about that.
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Pneumatic mail undoubtedly has a number of advantages. It is environmentally friendly, reliable, safe, and relatively cheap to operate. Thanks to some improvements, I still use it successfully today. The installation of this system, understandably in a modern design, is well used in banking houses, warehouses and shopping centers. It increases the reliability, speed and safety of transport.
She also found great use at the Motol University Hospital. Here, it successfully transports biological samples, medicines, small medical equipment, documentation between laboratories and doctors’ workplaces. The transport of samples of biological materials helps to significantly shorten the response time of laboratory examinations, which is very important for compliance with the given conditions for their processing. Pipeline mail services operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
The pipeline mail routes in FNM measure 879 meters, have 316 stations and consist of 629 components. They are the largest system of their kind in Europe.
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