Page 15 - Mick Bister - The Postcode Programmes of France
P. 15
AUSTERLITZ 1
LONG START
ALPHA-NUMERIC LANGUAGE
A more sophisticated language was introduced in 1965 when the coding desk programme was
designed to transcribe the destination by the application of a five character alpha-numeric bar
code or indexation on the front of the envelope.
CH
1 234567890 ABCDEFG HIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWX~
---------------------------------------- -----------------------------.-------------------------------ยท--------------------
This indexation was applied reading from right to ----U ----0 ---T ----7 ----3
left and represented the two numbers of the
departement postcode followed by the first three
letters of the town. For example a letter going to
Tours would receive the indexation 37TOU although
transcribed in reverse as UOT73 .
Phosphor coated coding desk ribbon used during the early trials
The first coding desks used the Austerlitz 1 Long Start language so called because the first
stroke, or start, is two millimetres longer than the strokes below it. The language is identifiable
by its fixed start ie. all the characters have a stroke in position 1 and the two digits of the
departement always include strokes in positions 1 and 8 and in two of the remaining six. The
programme operated at the Gare d'Austerlitz sorting office from March 1965 to July 1966.
