On September 23, 1911, airmail began in the United States.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

There are 41 days until Election Day, and early voting has begun.

On this day in 1911, Earl Ovington took off with the first airmail.

And speaking of mail, there’s still no basis for the conspiracy theory that #VoteByMail will lead to a rigged election.

104 years ago today:
@USPS
"Official Air Mail Pilot #1" Earl Ovington carried the 1st airmail in the United States.

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[James48]

1. Wrong.

The first official Air Mail flight in the United States was more than 50 years earlier.


The officially sanctioned airmail flight marked its 150th anniversary in 2009. On August 17, 1859, the balloon Jupiter, piloted by professional balloonist John Wise, attempted a ‘transcontinental voyage’ from Lafayette, Indiana, to New York City. Although his flight was cut short by unfavorable weather conditions, Wise earned a place in history by having arranged with Lafayette postmaster Thomas Wood to carry a mail bag containing 123 letters. Previous attempts to carry mail by balloon had not been sanctioned by the Post Office Department.

Two days prior to the Jupiter flight, the following notice appeared in the Lafayette Daily Courier:

Balloon Mail.

Prof Wise will take a Balloon mail from this city to-morrow. All persons who wish to send letters to the seaboard, will place them in the Post office before twelve o’clock to-morrow, properly stamped, and directed “via. Balloon.”

(John Wise)

The letters were placed in a ‘brass- locked’ mail bag marked ‘New York City.’ Wise was originally scheduled to ascend on August 16 at 3:30 p.m., but unfavorable conditions forced him to delay his voyage by one day. On August 17, at precisely 2:00 p.m. , the Jupiter ascended from a vacant lot near the Lafayette gas works. It was Wise’s 233rd voyage by balloon. The local newspaper referred to the crowd as “the largest ever assembled at Lafayette on any occasion.” Wise claimed “not less than 20,000 persons” gathered in the town square.

In addition to the mail bag, Wise carried what he referred to as a “good Smithsonian barometer,” which had been given to him by Joseph Henry, the Smithsonian’s first Secretary. Wise was a member of Henry’s small army of weather observing volunteers, faithfully reporting his weather observations back to the Smithsonian.

Source: the Postal Museum of the Smithsonian.

https://postalmuseum.si.edu/collections/object-spotlight/150th-anniversary-of-the-balloon-jupiter-airmail-flight


Even Abraham Lincoln knew that absentee ballots by mail made it home without a hitch. That’s why Civil War soldiers voted by US Mail.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. Someone who replied to the FAA's tweet made that point. My guess is that the FAA is

referring to scheduled airmail service.

[lagomorph777]

3. So cool. And lest we forget, e-mail preceded air-mail.

Samuel F.B. Morse sent the first e-mail in 1844.