The Development on the Letterbox

The Development on the Letterbox

Blog Article

The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there are two main methods for delivering a letter; senders will be necessitated to get their mail to a Receiving House, or would await the Bellman. The latter would patrol the streets, collecting post in the community. In order to distinguish himself, also to make his presence known, the Bellman might wear a uniform and sound familiar.
It was in 1852 that this suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, with a trial proposed for the Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were installed on Jersey to test out the modern system.
The success in the experiment triggered yet another four being placed on Guernsey, one of these now forms part of the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing for the mainland at the time of 1853.
However, there is confirmed no universal pillar box design that we are currently familiar. Design and manufacture was on the discretion of local authorities, also it what food was in 1859 that attempts were built to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits had become the favoured option over vertical ones, and took over as the norm in letterbox design. Further improvements upon the initial included the addition with the protruding cap to shield the contents from the elements.
As of 1859, the therapy lamp was to be around by 50 percent sizes; a larger and wider size for highly populated areas, and a smaller version for elsewhere. However, the standardised pillar boxes didn't receive universal acclaim. It was contrary to the backdrop of which criticism that this Liverpool Special was formulated.
This prompted the Post Office (opened in 1861) to produce another standard letter box in 1866. Again, this was not a huge success and so, an extra design were only available in 1879. This final design may be the one with which we are acquainted with today. It was two years just before this that the iconic red colour with the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before now, the most preferred colour option was green in order to blend in more info with all the green British pastures. However, after a barrage of complaints how the structures were to tough to locate this can camouflage, it was agreed that bright red was the most suitable choice. The programme of re-painting lasted for about a decade.
For people at large, the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the capacity for sending and receiving mail effortlessly. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, everyone was afforded access to some delivery service nothing you've seen prior witnessed in Great Britain.