letterbox

There was a mention of letterboxes last night on TV.... I wondered when they first came into being and how mail was delivered before that..... Luckily we have Wikipedia and other sources :~)

Private letterboxes or mail slots did not become popular in most of Europe until the mid to late 19th century, although they were used in Paris, France from the late 18th century.

They were often from brass with a knocker.

We are all familiar with the US type of mailbox, either individual ones by a house or these forests of them along the byways.

The US Post Office dept found that it was taking to long to deliver post because the postman had to knock on the door, wait for the recipient to answer and then maybe even have a chat with the postman/woman. So in 1916 they made it law that every address had to have a mailbox.

In Canada they have introduced 'community mail boxes' (2004) instead of individual ones in rural areas. This saves time delivering the mail......

Some suburban areas are also being fitted with them.





Maybe mail will eventually die out altogether as the world becomes more and more digitized. For instance here in Holland they are talking about only delivering mail on three days a week.



Statistics show that USPS, who delivers 40% of the world's mail that, the total mail volume dropped 20% from 2006 to 2010.

Post offices are disappearing fast as well and being integrated into other shops and outlets. Some countries are trying to make their postal service more commercial, but there are also loads of private companies bring (junk) mail to our doors. I've counted as many as 5 different deliveries in one day !