pneumatic postage

There are tracks and traces left by pneumatic systems of the past, particularly postal systems. For example, there are a number of postage stamps in circulation issued in Italy that were used especially for pneumatic post (other countries allowed users to pay with regular postage). The Web Urbanist, whose post I commented on previously, suggests that "one wishes the engravers would have used the mechanics of Italy’s pneumatic mail network for their subject matter". Imagine a set of pneumatic post stamps of the kind that artist Donald Evans created, with miniature watercolours of different parts of the system ...

Perhaps a scholarship from the Smithsonian National Postal Museum might provide the funds for an aspiring pneumatic postal artist (deadline September 1st 2010)?

Images from artpool.