There are three primary reasons why custom cardboard boxes are needed; they need to be a certain size to meet particular logistics requirements, they need to be designed a certain way for marketing and aesthetic purposes, or some combination of the two.

One of the most interesting reasons for custom boxes being required is to meet the needs of certain supply chains and delivery systems, and one of the most fascinating examples of this involved the world’s fastest, and most forgotten about, intra-city delivery system.

There were many cities and individual buildings that implemented a pneumatic post system, but one of the longest-lasting, most widely used and last to be closed was in Prague, Czech Republic.

Despite this closure, caused by a natural disaster of terrifying scale, there have been plans and ambitions to see it used again. To explain why, here is a brief history.

What Is The Pneumatic Post?

The pneumatic post is any postal system that relies on pneumatic tube transport (PTT) to transport capsules throughout a system using a partial vacuum or the force of compressed air.

Initially developed in the 1830s, they became a critical element of the telegram system, where transcribed digital messages could be rapidly transported to post offices or major institutional buildings, where the message could be delivered in a matter of minutes.

The pneumatic post and the telegram made the stock market viable, but it was also widely used in hospitals, large offices and later as a general postal service, with dozens of cities having PTT systems of various sizes.

Most of these started to disappear by the mid-point of the 20th century due to the development of more advanced telecommunications, such as telephones, fax machines, e-mail and internet-based instant messaging, but one exception to this was the system used in Prague.

From Old Town To Prague Castle

When Prague, then the capital of Bohemia and part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, received a public pneumatic post system in 1889, it was only the fifth in existence, behind Vienna (the capital of Austria-Hungary), Berlin, Paris and London.

It was, like many pneumatic post systems, relatively limited in the size of post that it could handle. Packages were only 5 cm in diameter with a maximum weight of three kilograms.

In part, this was because the main use for the PTT system was to send telegrams; there were only three stations initially, and two of these were the post office and the telegraph office. 

However, it quickly grew, with new lanes and a greater scope for providing limited but vital parcel components. At its peak, the system transported millions of parcels per month, making it the most successful and widely used PTT system of its type in the world.

There were 55 km of pipework and 24 total stations, which supplied several major subscribers and businesses.

Rise And Decline

Its peak of growth was in the late 1920s, when many of the new lanes were constructed, and even amidst considerable political turmoil, the pneumatic post remained functional and widely used for decades after this.

The 1945 Prague Uprising, one of the final major liberation movements of the Second World War, was aided in part by the actions of Czech Radio, which itself was supplied both with information and supplies via the pneumatic post system.

This, alongside its versatility that enabled it to carry fragile parcels, helped it to survive, enabling the system to survive far longer than the rest of its European counterparts. By the 1970s, both Berlin and Paris were winding down their public PTT systems.

However, by the 1990s, it was in a state of decline, operating at a loss largely to ensure that it would survive in a future where everything felt uncertain following the fall of the Berlin Wall.

It would ultimately be closed completely in 2002, following one of the most damaging floods in European history. The 2002 floods displaced 50,000 people, took out half the metro system and caused millions of pounds of damage.

It also seriously damaged significant parts of the PTT system, and in the decades since, the system has yet to be turned back on.

Will The Pneumatic Post Be Used Again?

With the damage as severe and significant as it was, it was deemed a lost cause by Czech Telecom, as well as its later owners Telefonica O2, ultimately leading to its sale to businessman and pneumatic post enthusiast Zdenek Drazil.

However, even his attempts to reopen the system as a tourist attraction have yet to come into effect, leading to questions as to whether a system that survived everything the 20th century threw at it will ever work again.