The Development on the Letterbox

The Development on the Letterbox

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The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there was two main means of delivering instructions; senders could be necessitated to bring their mail to 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 dons a uniform and sound familiar.
It was at 1852 the suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, which has a trial proposed for your Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were placed on Jersey to understand the brand new system.
The success in the experiment resulted in an additional four being placed on Guernsey, info now forms part from the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing for the mainland by 1853.
However, there was clearly as yet no universal pillar box design that were currently familiar. Design and manufacture was at the discretion of local authorities, also it was at 1859 that attempts were created to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits had become the favoured option over vertical ones, and took over as norm in letterbox design. Further improvements upon the main included the addition in the protruding cap to shield the contents from the elements.
As of 1859, the box would read more have been to be for sale by 50 % sizes; a greater and wider size for highly populated areas, as well as a smaller version for elsewhere. However, the standardised pillar boxes would not receive universal acclaim. It was up against the backdrop of which criticism that this Liverpool Special was formulated.
This prompted the Post Office (opened in 1861) to make another standard letter box in 1866. Again, this is not really a huge success and so, an extra design were only available in 1879. This final design will be the one with which we are acquainted with today. It was a couple of years just before this that this iconic red colour with the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before this time around, the most well-liked colour option was green in order to blend in with all the green British pastures. However, after a barrage of complaints how the structures were to hard to locate because of the 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 capability for sending and receiving mail without difficulty. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, people were afforded access to a delivery service nothing you've seen prior witnessed in Great Britain.