First day of the commemorative stamps Design made in Austria SWAROVSKI OPTIK - EL binoculars and 150 years of pneumatic tube mail
SWAROVSKI OPTIK – EL binoculars
Vision without limits
SWAROVSKI OPTIK specialises in the development and manufacture of high-precision binoculars, telescopes, rifle scopes, and optronic devices.
This Austrian family-owned business, based in Absam, Tyrol, is part of the Swarovski Group. SWAROVSKI OPTIK was founded in 1949 by Wilhelm Swarovski, the eldest son of Daniel Swarovski. A passionate science enthusiast and amateur astronomer, Wilhelm began experimenting with grinding and polishing prisms and lenses for constructing binoculars as early as the 1930s.
This year’s motif in the “Design made in Austria” series, created in cooperation with designaustria, features the EL binoculars by SWAROVSKI OPTIK. The binoculars were designed by Werner Hölbl (1941–2021), who received several Austrian State Design Awards for his various product designs. The EL was developed in the late 1990s, initially for birdwatching (“birding”), but soon gained popularity among hunters as well, setting new benchmarks in design, ergonomics, and optics. The EL binoculars impress with razor-sharp, high-contrast, and colour-true images. The name EL stands for "ergonomic" and "lightweight": its straight design with an open-bridge construction allows for a unique, comfortable, and secure grip. During its development, special emphasis was placed on low weight, ease of handling, and a smooth focus wheel.
150 years of pneumatic tube mail
Fast delivery
To speed up the transport of urgent mail within Vienna, an underground pneumatic tube system was launched in 1875.
Josef Ressel’s idea of a pneumatic postal system could not take hold in 1844. It was only after similar systems proved successful in other European cities that Vienna followed suit and established its own city-wide tube mail network. On 15 February (for telegrams) and 1 March 1875, the “pneumatic tube network” went into operation with ten stations, all located within what is now known as the Gürtel (the city’s outer ring).
The tubes, with an inner diameter of 65 millimetres, were laid about one metre underground. For a fee of 20 kreuzers (in 1875), rolled or folded letters, postcards, and telegrams were transported between stations in metal cylindrical capsules, propelled by air pressure at speeds of around 50 km/h. Each tube mail “train” could carry up to 15 capsules. The network expanded from its initial 14 kilometres to more than 80 kilometres by its peak in 1913, with 53 stations in operation. From 1880 onwards, special red letterboxes were installed specifically for tube mail, with collections every 20 minutes. The contents were then sent via the pneumatic system. Damage during the Second World War and the rise of telexes and telephony eventually led to the system’s decline, and it was officially decommissioned in 1956. The commemorative stamp depicts a central station of the tube mail system, with a tube mail letter card (from 1890) and a transport capsule shown in the background.
When?
11.02.2025, 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., presentation at 10:00 a.m.
Where?
designforum Wien MQ, Museumsplatz 1, 1070 Vienna
Group pictures:
Picture of presentation: © Österreichische Post AG
Group picture, left to right: Picture 1
Werner Hölbl's family, Kornelia Hochreiter (Philately POS East, Austrian Post), Severin Filek (managing director, designaustria)
