The event of the Letterbox

The event of the Letterbox

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The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there were two main strategies to delivering correspondence; senders would be necessitated to bring their mail with a 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 might wear a uniform and sound familiar.
It what food was in 1852 that this suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, which has a trial proposed for your Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were attached to Jersey to test out the modern system.
The success with the experiment resulted in one more four being installed on Guernsey, info now forms part in the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing about the mainland as of 1853.
However, there were up to now no universal pillar box design with which we're currently familiar. Design and manufacture was at the discretion of local authorities, plus it is at 1859 that attempts were created to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits took over as 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 through the elements.
As of 1859, the therapy lamp would have been to be available in two sizes; a more substantial and wider size for highly populated areas, and a smaller version for elsewhere. However, the standardised pillar boxes failed to receive universal acclaim. It was against the backdrop of these criticism how the Liverpool Special was formulated.
This prompted the Post Office (opened in 1861) to produce another standard letter box in 1866. Again, it was not just a huge success so, a further design started in 1879. This more info final design could be the one with which we are familiar with today. It was a couple of years before this that this iconic red colour of the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before this time, the most preferred colour option was green so that you can blend in while using green British pastures. However, from a barrage of complaints that this structures were to challenging to locate this can camouflage, it turned out agreed that bright red was your best option. The programme of re-painting lasted for approximately 10 years.
For the population 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 to some delivery service never before witnessed in Great Britain.