Additional franking for local delivery

Items occur with additional franking, but addressed within Vienna. These show the use of the pneumatic system for quick delivery to the nearest office, after which the item was put in the ordinary post. Ferchenbauer2000 (p890) says that this was allowed soon after the system started; we have not found the relevant postal decree. It was relatively common from 1881, and superseded by the Express Delivery system introduced in 1887.

Letter sheet with additional 3Kr franking of 1867 issue to cover carriage by normal post from the then limit of the pneumatic system to Hietzing, which is just to the west of Schonbrunn. The 4-digit numerical cancel on the telegraph imprint is from the Central Telegraph Office. [With permission, from Ferch2008 III p394]. We feel sure that the additional adhesive postage stamp on such items would have been applied by the original poster, and not donated by the Post or the Telegraph service!

Card from 2 Oct 1883 with an additional 2 kreuzer 1867 stamp at top left (yellow, so it reproduces badly) to take it from Landstrasse out to Simmering. Two different cancels from Landstrasse, one an arrival by Rohrpost and the other a cancellation of the additional 2 kreuzer stamp for local delivery from Landstrasse to Simmering.

Posted in Schönbrunnerstrasse at 2-3pm on 3 November 1888; sent to Lazarethgasse (K K Pneu Stat XVI) then transferred to normal Post Office Döbling (arriving 5-6pm) for delivery.

The example above is different: it was sent pneumatically to an address in Vienna [note the Central Telegraph Office number cancel (used March 1881 to January 1883) on the 20Kr imprint] then re-addressed to Graz.

This started at the Central Telegraph Office (number cancel on the 20Kr imprint) and was sent to Wien 66, the pneumatic station at Alsergrund. From there it went by ordinary post or special messenger to the Wäring office. The delivery postman then had to climb up a not inconsiderable hill to reach the Sternwarte observatory, and hand it to Madame Weiss, the wife of the Director. This card was posted on 10 Feb 1882, at which date the Sternwarte observatory was outside the city limits of Vienna - hence the need for added franking. Wäring wasn't incorporated until 19 Dec 1890; before that it was in Lower Austria.