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The West Indies & Pacific Steam-Ship Company: The Mail Contracts 1865-1888
by Colin Tabeart
The article describes the 5 Contracts that the Post Office entered into with the West India and Pacific Steam Ship Company between 1865 and their termination in 1888. The contracts concerned the carriage of mail from Liverpool to various places in the West Indies initially to Belize via Jamaica and to Tampico via Port au Prince. Later contracts included places on the Caribbean shore of South America and the 5th contract included Colon with the connection to Panama on the Pacific coast. Reports of sailings are very sketchy or missing from various sources consulted so it is not until 1874 to 1888 that details of sailings are given. These show the dates of departure or arrival at the different ports with an extensive number of footnotes providing extra clarification.
The Pneumatic Posts of Paris - including some extraordinary usages
by Bernard Lucas
Paris as with a number of cities built a pneumatic tube system which was opened in 1866 but was not available to the public until 1879 and for which special postal stationery was issued. The article explains the background to the service and illustrates a number of unusual usages eg Hors Limites (beyond the limits), Trouve a la Boite (found in the box), BM (boite mobile or movable box), mail to the suburbs, items that were too large, messages sent at a reduced rate instead of telephone calls when various telephone exchanges were flooded in 1927, advice of receipt, registration, postage due, express/airmail, official mail, National Savings Bank mail, 1900 international exhibition, cards for recording details of corpses in the 1884 cholera epidemic in Paris and the centenary celebration in 1966. |
Great Britain
West Indies
Paris, France |
