The Development from the Letterbox

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The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there are two main means of delivering a letter; senders can be necessitated to create their mail with a Receiving House, or would await the Bellman. The latter would patrol the streets, collecting post from the community. In order to distinguish himself, and make his presence known, the Bellman would wear a uniform and sounds familiar.
It was at 1852 that the suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, having a trial proposed to the Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were placed on Jersey to understand the newest system.
The success with the experiment led to an additional four being placed on Guernsey, one of which now forms part of the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing about the mainland at the time of 1853.
However, there was clearly confirmed no universal pillar box design in which we have been currently familiar. Design and manufacture was on the discretion of local authorities, plus it is at 1859 that attempts were made 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 first included the addition of the protruding cap to shield the contents through the elements.
As of 1859, the therapy lamp ended up being to be available by 50 % sizes; a bigger and wider size for get more info highly populated areas, and a smaller version for elsewhere. However, the standardised pillar boxes did not receive universal acclaim. It was against the backdrop of which criticism that the Liverpool Special was formulated.
This prompted the Post Office (opened in 1861) to make another standard letter box in 1866. Again, this was not really a huge success so, a further design were only available in 1879. This final design is the one with which we're acquainted with today. It was 24 months ahead of this how the iconic red colour of the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before this time, the preferred colour option was green to be able to blend in using the green British pastures. However, after having a barrage of complaints the structures were to tough to locate because of their camouflage, it absolutely was agreed that bright red was the most suitable choice. The programme of re-painting lasted for as much as a decade.
For the populace at large, the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the ability for sending and receiving mail effortlessly. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, people were afforded access with a delivery service nothing you've seen prior witnessed in Great Britain.