The event of the Letterbox

The event of the Letterbox

Blog Article

The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there are two main methods for delivering correspondence; senders would be necessitated to take their mail to your Receiving House, or would await the Bellman. The latter would patrol the streets, collecting post in the community. In order to distinguish himself, and make his presence known, the Bellman dons a uniform and sounds familiar.
It what food was in 1852 the suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, using a trial proposed to the Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were placed on Jersey to try out the new system.
The success from the experiment generated one more four being set up on Guernsey, one of which now forms part of the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing around the mainland at the time of 1853.
However, there was clearly confirmed no universal pillar box design with which we have been currently familiar. Design and manufacture was with the discretion of local authorities, and it is at 1859 that attempts were built to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits took over as the favoured option over vertical ones, and became the norm in letterbox design. Further improvements upon the initial included the addition from the protruding cap to shield the contents from your elements.
As of 1859, the lamp ended up being be for sale in two sizes; a greater and wider size for highly populated areas, as well as a smaller version for elsewhere. However, the standardised pillar boxes did not receive universal acclaim. It was against the backdrop of such criticism the Liverpool Special was formulated.
This prompted the Post Office (opened in 1861) to make another standard letter box in 1866. Again, this became not a huge success and so, a further design came in multiple letterboxes Melbourne Australia 1879. This final design is the one in which were accustomed to today. It was 2 years prior to this that the iconic red colour of the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before this time, the most well-liked colour option was green to be able to blend in with all the green British pastures. However, after having a barrage of complaints how the structures were to difficult to locate because of the camouflage, it absolutely was agreed that bright red was the best choice. The programme of re-painting lasted for as much as decade.
For people most importantly, the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the capability for sending and receiving mail easily. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, everyone was afforded access with a delivery service nothing you've seen prior witnessed in Great Britain.