The Development with the Letterbox

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The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there have been two main ways of delivering a letter; senders could be necessitated to take their mail to your Receiving House, or would await the Bellman. The latter would patrol the streets, collecting post through the community. In order to distinguish himself, and to make his presence known, the Bellman dons a uniform and sounds familiar.
It was at 1852 how the suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, which has a trial proposed to the Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were installed on Jersey to test out the new system.
The success from the experiment resulted in yet another four being attached to Guernsey, one ofthese now forms part in the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing for the mainland since 1853.
However, there were as yet no universal pillar box design with which we are currently familiar. Design and manufacture was at the discretion of local authorities, and it was in 1859 that attempts were made to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits had become the favoured option over vertical ones, and had become the norm in letterbox design. Further improvements upon the initial included the addition from the protruding cap to shield the contents in the elements.
As of 1859, this area ended up being to be accessible in 2 sizes; a bigger and wider size for highly populated areas, along with a smaller version for elsewhere. However, the standardised pillar boxes didn't receive universal acclaim. It was against the backdrop of such criticism that the Liverpool Special get more info was formulated.
This prompted the Post Office (opened in 1861) to produce another standard letter box in 1866. Again, this became not only a huge success so, an extra design started in 1879. This final design will be the one in which were acquainted with today. It was two years ahead of this how the iconic red colour from the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before this time around, the preferred colour option was green in order to blend in while using green British pastures. However, from a barrage of complaints how the structures were to tough to locate because of their camouflage, it was agreed that bright red was the best option. 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 capacity for sending and receiving mail without difficulty. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, everyone was afforded access to some delivery service never before witnessed in Great Britain.