Where were the Effekten-, Frucht-, Mehl-, Produkten- börse & their pneumatic posts?

Summary:

1. In 1872 the Vienna Stock Exchange moved from Herrengasse into Schottenring 19-25.
2. On 1.3.1875 their Pneumatic Post Station opened in that building. It was numbered 10 in the 1875 Decree but mail to it received the route mark 8.
3. In 1876 the Produce Exchange was formally separated from the Stock Exchange.
4. On 19.3.1877 the Stock Exchange moved into their new building at Schottenring 16 and took their pneumatic service with them. The Produce Exchange stayed put (as Fruchtbörse).
5. In 1879 the Produce Exchange, which had remained in Schottenring 19-25, got its own pneumatic station there, using the old pipe; it was assigned the Instradierungs-Chiffre 11.
6. On 1.9.1890 the Produce Exchange moved to Bez. II, Taborstrasse 10 as Produktenbörse and its pneumatic station was renumbered 36.
7. In 1892, as part of the 'Great Renumbering', the Post Office of the Stock Exchange at Schottenring 16 became number 7.

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Chronology

The pipes

Research undertaken in the 1970s by the late John G Fluck brought to light an 1875 map drawn on a Vienna street plan showing the original ten pneumatic stations with the pipes connecting them. Looking closely at an enlargement of this 1875 map shows the Börse building as Station VIII piped to the Central Telegraph Office AND a dotted pipe crossing Schottenring from Börse to a building on the outer side marked Provisorische Börse (it and its pipe are shown on the diagram below in red). On a modern map it's number 19-25 Schottenring; the fuzzy splodge on the 1875 map is at Nr 19's end. Note that Börsegasse (shown in lilac) crosses over Schottenring (in pale yellow) and runs up the left side of the building to Maria-Theresien-Strasse; the boundary of Bezirk I runs down the middle of Maria-Theresien-Strasse and ALL of Börsegasse is in Bezirk I.

The original pneumatic system had compressor houses only at Centrale and Gumpendorf; and it was a single-pipe system. The branch to Börse was operated by blowing the mail-carrying cylinders (the Büchse) from Centrale, and sucking them back. So, it would have been relatively straightforward to move the pneumatic apparatus from the provisional Börse to the permanent one: break into the single pipe from Centrale running under Börsegasse and insert a bend leading into the new building; dismantle move and reassemble the apparatus itself. If the new foundations & trench were done in advance we estimate it would take four days - and after all, they had 3 (maybe 5) years notice! The old pipe would be left in place, crossing under Schottenring to the provisional building … and when the volume of mail for the Fruchtbörse rose it was reused for their own pneumatic station. [They could have left the old pneumatic apparatus in the provisional building and installed a new one in the new building; however, in those days labour was cheap and materials expensive.]

The cancellations

The first column is the serial number used in this book for the cancel type or subtype; 'Text' is the wording on the cancel, K/R is the Klein Vol II reference if it begins 'K', the Stohl Rohrpost reference if "R".

EffektenBörse

In July 1878, the oval No. 8 canceller used by the Wien Börse (the Stock Exchange) was damaged and taken out of service. Various "Wien Börse" handstamps were used to replace it, the first being a rectangular boxed handstamp measuring 15x47mm with the wording "K.K. Tel. Station Wien Börse". (Our X-16; sorry, no copy!).

The second handstamp was a straight line canceller with the legend "WIEN BÖRSE". (Our X-18.) This can be found in two formats, Type I measuring 5x32mm and Type II measuring 4.5x38mm. It has been enhanced in the illustration! The date may be 1880.

Here is a second example posted on 28 Jan 1882 (it's on the other side!) with a Type II cancel and sent to Gumpendorferstrasse. Cancel not enhanced.

Single-circle cancellation (Klein 7789b; our III-20) dated 31 May 1887, sent to Kärntnerring.

Following the 1892 renumbering, the abbreviations C.R., E, and P were used for the Telegraph-Centrale, Effektenbörse (Stock Exchange) and Produktenbörse.

From WIEN 1/1 E●r to WIEN 2/4 P●r - Effektenbörse to Produktenbörse, 17 Oct 1893. Klein 7789c; R0007.

Frucht-, Mehl-, Produkten-börse

Several different cancels from the various incarnations of this organisation are known; some rare and some rarer. A selection follows.

K K TELEGRAPHENSTATION FRUCHTBÖRSE dated 12.2.1880

Wien Fruchtbörse to Zieglergasse, office 12. Dated 12 Jan 1884. The message on the card is a cyclostyled notice of a meeting the following day, Sunday, at 11am (electronically enhanced). Klein 1198b.

Ottakring to WIEN FRUCHT U MEHLBÖRSE; note Office Number 11 and the handwritten 1888 11 05. An enhanced copy of a badly-inked original, with an unused specimen of the card (Schneidebauer 11) underlaid to give an idea of the colour. The arrival cancellation date, which would be between the horizontal lines in the middle, is invisible in the original item. The sending cancellation is mostly readable and is 9 10 V 7 X #, where # is 0 possibly preceded by 9. That is, 09:10 on 7 Oct 1890.

The canceller was issued in 1889; on 1 Sep 1890 the Fruchtbörse moved to Taborstrasse 10 which is an eminently sensible office for delivery of a card to Untere Donaustrasse; the routing code was 36 but had only changed from 11 a month previously. Thus, the "1888 11 05" must be the date the card was issued (our references only give years).

Centrale mis-sent to Taborstrasse thence to WIEN FRUCHT U MEHLBÖRSE; note Office Number 11. Despatched 10am 9 Oct 1890, cancelled at Taborstrasse 10 minutes later; the Börse cancel lacks any date/time.

K. K. TELEGRAPHENSTATION FRUCHTBÖRSE. Sent at 10am on 19.9.1891 to district V, arriving at 10:25.

Sent to PRODUCTENTBÖRSE on 27 May 1891. Blue-green arrival cancel.

Sent to PRODUCTENTBÖRSE on 22 Nov 1891. Blue-green arrival cancel. 'Loco' means 'In this place', ie Vienna.

From WIEN 2/4 P which is the Produktenbörse in Taborstrasse; 36 BAHNHOF is its Railway Letter canceller. The splodge at the bottom of the canceller is a doubly-struck ~P●~r The imprinted 15kr pays for pneumatic transit to 101 Westbahnhof; the added 5kr for normal post to Munich.

Searching the archives

Only two examples are known of the "WIEN FRUCHT U MEHLBÖRSE" cancellation. The date, which will be between the horizontal lines in the middle, is invisible in the original items because of bad inking; on one of them it may be xxy/7.X.90 where ‘y’ is probably ‘V’ – ie it’s a time followed by a date. The Stempelprotokollebuch "M-Z" which was thought to be lost was discovered by the late Dr Kainz and is now in the archives at Postgasse. Unfortunately that volume is even more damaged, robbed, and vandalised than the other volumes. No trace of the "WIEN FRUCHT U MEHLBÖRSE" cancel could be found. So, the formatting of the date cannot be determined; this would be of interest in that it might indicate whether the canceller was specifically made for pneumatic service.

Andy Taylor formulated the following theory to explain the layout of the Stempelprotokollebuch. At some date, someone decided that it would be a Good Thing to collect together all the cancel-examples from 1882 to 1900, and place them in alphabetical order. This was done by taking the filed copies of the documentation returned by the cancel-makers, on which they had imprinted a cancel-proof to confirm they had done the job, annotated with what had been done (eg repair, brand new, alteration). The annotated cancel was cut out, and the rest of the form recycled. These cut-outs were then sorted into more or less alphabetical order, and stuck into a large (about 24 x 18 inches) book using some type of thin sealing wax.

However, Martin Brumby pointed out that Dr C Kainz had written several articles on the Stempelprotokollebuch. She had stated (in Wurth’s Yearbook volume 16) that a slip of paper had a blob of sealing wax placed under it; by the striking of the handstamp on the slip of paper the sealing wax was spread out and became a fairly reliable adhesive. She continued by reminding the reader that in 1882 it was decreed that all cancellers would be centrally provided (and paid for!) – and that the reason was the changed language laws. These permitted non-German place-names on cancellers, but required the German name to be at the top. The Postal Administration, being cautious bureaucrats, kept a copy of every canceller issued in case they had to prove that misuse was not due to the issued canceller being faulty. It is clear, said Brumby, that the specimens in the books were NOT all inserted at the same time, but progressively as new or repaired cancellers were issued.

The net result is however the same: the cancel we sought is not there; and the book is so damaged that one cannot tell if the cancel had ever been present.