The Development in the Letterbox
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The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there was two main means of delivering correspondence; senders would be necessitated to take their mail to some Receiving House, or would await the Bellman. The latter would patrol the streets, collecting post through the community. In order to distinguish himself, and make his presence known, the Bellman dons a uniform and sound familiar.
It was in 1852 the suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, which has a trial proposed for that Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were attached to Jersey to understand the brand new system.
The success with the experiment generated a different four being installed on Guernsey, info now forms part from the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing about the mainland as of 1853.
However, there is confirmed no universal pillar box design with which were currently familiar. Design and manufacture was at the discretion of local authorities, plus it was in 1859 that attempts were built to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits became the favoured option over vertical ones, and took over as norm in letterbox design. Further improvements upon the original included the addition from the protruding cap to shield the contents from your elements.
As of 1859, the box would have been to be available in 2 sizes; a bigger and wider size for highly populated areas, plus a smaller version for elsewhere. However, the standardised pillar boxes didn't receive universal acclaim. It was from the backdrop for these criticism click here how 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 thus, another design were only available in 1879. This final design may be the one in which we have been used to today. It was two years prior to this how the iconic red colour in the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before this time, preferred colour option was green as a way to blend in using the green British pastures. However, after a barrage of complaints the structures were to tough to locate because of the camouflage, it absolutely was agreed that bright red was the most suitable choice. The programme of re-painting lasted for about 10 years.
For the populace at large, the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the ability for sending and receiving mail without difficulty. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, everyone was afforded access to your delivery service nothing you've seen prior witnessed in Great Britain.