Intercontinental and transcontinental mail transit times from Europe to Berkeley, 1892 to 1941

Abstract

SUMMARY Mail transit times from Germany to Berkeley, California, are computed for issues of the current awareness journals Botanisches Centralblatt (1880–1945) and the interdisciplinary Naturae Novitates (1879–1944). Issues of the former for 1892 to 1902 averaged 29.3 days (31.2 days if abnormal times are included) in transit from Kassel to Berkeley, with many issues (92) requiring only 20 to 25 days for intercontinental and transcontinental transit. Mail transit of Naturae Novitates from Berlin to Berkeley averaged 40.7 days (42 if abnormal times are included) per issue for 1903 to 1916 and 44 days (51.1 days) per issue for 1922 to 1941 (cumulatively averaging 42 days, or 45.9 days for abnormal times), with some issues in 1906 requiring only 11-12 days for intercontinental and transcontinental transit. A smaller sampling for Nature for 1923 and 1930 gave averages of, respectively, 21.5 and 22.4 days, with a minimum of 14 days in both years. These times are consistent with known transatlantic and transcontinental, ship and rail, mail transit times for these periods, as tabulated from various sources. For perspective, early intercontinental and transcontinental air transit times and pre-1892 intercontinental ship transit times are also tabulated.

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