The operation is very simple. The letters are placed in a leather tube or carrier, which fits snugly into the pneumatic tube. Then a blast of air from behind, or the suction of air from the front, or a combination of the two methods, forces the carrier and its contents forward. As the friction soon wears out the leather carriers, American genius will be called upon to invent a metal carrier on "ball-bearings." With leather tubes about ninety per cent. of the power applied is lost in overcoming the friction and in waste, only ten per cent. of the total force applied being used to propel the carrier.
The charge for sending pneumatic letters in Paris was 15c. each in 1879, and the territory covered was but a small part of the city. To-day every part of Paris is reached by the tubes, and the charge is 10c. per letter, the same as our special delivery. Nine varieties of the Paris pneumatic letters are collected. Probably many of the readers of the Round Table have one or more of them. They bear a map of the city on the face of the envelope, showing the different sections served by this post. The Berlin and Vienna pneumatic letters are simpler in design. There are no special designs on the London envelopes.
The latest development in Plate No. collecting is the great advance in values of all the lower Nos. (say under No. 50) on water-marked paper, especially of the 1c. stamps. Probably not very many were printed, but the chances are that many of the smaller post-offices still have some on hand. One speculator in New York, who travels a great deal, makes it a point to look over the stock of stamps on hand in every one of the smaller post-offices whenever he gets permission. He has bought a very large number, and the U. S. Post-Office Department is just so much nearer a paying basis, as these stamps never get used in the way of paying postage.
At the last annual dinner of the London Philatelic Society, Mr. Castle in a very humorous speech divided the purchasers of stamps into four classes—bird, beasts, fishes, and reptiles. The birds were those who collected stamps for the gratification of a hobby; the fishes were those who watched the market and picked up bargains to sell them thereafter at an advance; the beasts were, of course, the dealers who preyed on birds and fishes to the best of their ability, and the reptiles were the speculators who cornered everything they could find, and locked them up while awaiting a rise of prices, and thereby prevented many collectors completing their collections.
C. H. Osmond, St. Clair, Dunedin, New Zealand, wishes to exchange stamps.
J. O. Hall.—The 1861 pink is so scarce that I have known a dealer to let his boy look over two million of the 1861-7 3c. stamps without finding a single copy. The ordinary rose-color comes in a multitude of shades.
A. Allen.—"Silk threads" means a stamp printed on paper in which a silk thread is embedded. The first stamps printed on this kind of paper were the Great-Britain 10d. brown and 1s. green of 1847. The paper is sometimes called "Dickinson" paper, from its maker. Bavaria 1849-1868, Würtemberg 1857, Switzerland 1854-1862, are also printed on this paper. Specialists in Switzerland stamps collect the different sets on green, black, blue, yellow, white, purple, and red threads. Other advanced collectors usually pay no attention to the color of the thread. "Silk paper" in U. S. stamps means a paper in which a lot of short fine filaments of silk have been embedded when the paper was still in a pulpy condition. Usually found on some of the U.S. Revenues.
J. Cooper.—Yes. The Cuban stamps now offered in packages at such low prices are genuine. It seems the Cuban government kept all remainders for nearly twenty-five years, and have sold out the entire lot of many millions to stamp-dealers.
John G. Saxe.—The 5-rouble gold piece is worth full face value. Any money-broker will give you the full value, less a small charge for exchange.
C. B. N.—The present 5c. U.S. stamp is found in two conditions: 1. From a new plate, very carefully printed; this shows a faint line at the edge of the background on which the portrait is engraved; this line is made by the engraver as a guide. 2. The ordinary stamp, which does not show the line, or simply traces of it. This refinement in varieties does not meet with the approval of philatelists in general.
Yreka.—There are many minor varieties of U. S. Revenues in colors (shades), papers, etc. They are worth keeping if you are making up a big collection.
Ned C.—The 1803 cent can be bought of dealers at 10c. each; the 1820 dime for 50c. The French coin; no value. The Prussian coin has no value in this country.
Cecil Rawson.—Your British Guiana stamp, from your description, is the ordinary 1c. green, worth 5c.
E. Stebbins.—The U. S. 24c. 1861 is very common. All the other U. S. 24c. are comparatively scarce.
W. L. McKinnon.—Your coin is a 3 skilling Norway. No value in this country.
G. H. Clark.—The stamps are the so-called "Dominical" or "Sabbath" stamps issued in Belgium two years ago. On the Continent of Europe it is customary to deliver letters on Sunday. Some years ago a large number of Belgic citizens petitioned the government to forbid the delivery of letters on Sunday, or at least to make it optional on the part of the sender. As a result all stamps were issued in the following form: The lower part of the stamp bears the instruction, in the French and Flemish languages, "Do not deliver on Sunday." If the sender wishes the letter delivered on Sunday he tears off this part of the stamp.
G. H. C.—The word "Julia" in small letters on the bust of portrait on some of the Spanish stamps is the name of the engraver. Funchal is the capital of the Island of Madeira, with its special series of Portuguese colonial stamps. "Continente" is the main land of Portugal. New Brunswick never issued any stamped envelopes.
Philatus.
LAUGHING BABIES
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