Mailbox
Background
information
Mailboxes have a vast history
dating back to the mid 19th centaury. For instance, in Europe,
mailboxes were first used in Paris,
France. The
country had a slightly advanced postal service as compared to other nations.
However, by 1849 the British Post Office made a huge advancement in their
services by encouraging their subscribers to set up letterboxes in which
mailmen could drop their incoming letters. The idea was welcomed by majority.
People were guided on the design of the mailboxes (then called letterboxes) and
as such, most mailboxes installed in this early stage had similar designs,
colors and shapes. It is said that the British Post Office was in charge of all
installation processes and therefore used a common design for all its
customers.
In
America, the idea of
mailboxes came in the late 18th centaury with the setting up of the East Quogue, NY mailbox. The letterbox went into history
as the oldest mailbox in the United
States. Before the introduction of
mailboxes, postal officials under the formation of Free City Delivery services,
distributed letters to people in their homes. This involved knocking on the
doors of the recipients and waiting patiently for somebody to answer then
physically handing over the mail (Hamel, 2000). It was a tedious exercise for
the mailmen as researches carried out then showed that in a single day, a
mailman lost up to a total of two hours just waiting for the doors of the mail
recipients to be answered. In addition, mailmen were forced to visit particular
homes again later on in instances where they got nobody in the homes. This
become tricky in cases where residents travelled and had to be away for days.
As such, there was need for a more effective way of delivering mail.
The
whole idea of mailbox started with people making slots on their doors or walls
through which the mailmen could slide the mails through in case they visited
when nobody was at home. In fact, some residents preferred it that way as they
found the mailmen’s knockings disturbing. Some feared for their security as
mailmen walked all the way in their compounds to their doors. So, together with
the efforts of decreasing the time used by mailmen in cases where houses were
far from the gate, the U.S. postal carries suggested that people install boxes
in strategic locations where they felt would be ok for mailmen to drop their
incoming letters and pick outgoing mails for posting (Hamel, 2000). Another
factor that fuelled the need for these boxes was the reduced number of mailmen.
The ones present, who rode on horse-drawn wagons, were not enough to go
knocking on each subscriber’s door. And so the idea of mailbox was borne. It
was welcomed by the majority as they had been relieved of the burden of having
to travel all the way to the post office to physically pick up their mails
(Bernstein, 1999).
In
Canada,
it is reported that a number of people especially farmers and rural residents
were unwilling to take up the idea of dedicated letterboxes. Most of them chose
to use wooden boxes and baskets. One reason given for this is the high cost
that came with installing a dedicated mailbox. However, by 1923, the government
mandated that any family willing to receive home delivery letters should
install a mailbox or better still a mail slot. This was a major boost in the
creation of mailboxes as known today.
Upon
their establishment mailboxes had similar designs and shapes. This is mainly
because the concept was new. In addition, the British Post Office and the U.S.
Post Office were in charge of the mailboxes. As such, the design and the shape of
the mailboxes at this early stage were determined by the Post Offices. Among
the first designs include the curbside Joroleman mailbox (Rucker, 2007). The
mailbox was named after its designer, Roy J. Joroleman. Roy had a degree in mechanical engineering enabling
him get the opportunity to design the mailbox for U.S. Post Office where he was
an employee. This early mailbox was characterized by a design with a curved
roof, a door and a moveable signal flag.
Figure 1: Joroleman Mailbox
The
tunnel-shaped top was essential so as to prevent collection of water and snow
during bad weather. When it rained, water trickled down the curved surface thus
prevented licking of water that could have resulted from the stagnant water on
the roof. The mailbox had a slot big enough for the envelope size C4
(229 mm × 324 mm) mails to be slid through without being bent. The
door of the mailbox was made of metal straps riveted facing downwards so as to
prevent rainwater from entering the mailbox. The mailbox was also mounted with
a rotating arm and flag. Upon delivering mails, the mailman could raise the arm
as a signal to the property owner that he had received a new letter in his
mailbox. The case was same for the post box as the owner lifted the arm to
alert the mailman that it had a letter that should be taken for posting.
The Joroleman mailbox design has
lived on to be the most common design for letterboxes. This has been due to
various reasons. For instance, the design only needs metal straps, two rivets,
three axle bolts and four screws/nuts, thus making it inexpensive. In addition,
being made of metal, the design is durable and strong. As such, most people
prefer the design to date. Another reason for the dominancy of the design is
that the United States Postal Service (USPS) approved and recommended the
design. In fact, USPS retained the rights of approving all mail receptacles
including letterboxes, mail slots and postboxes in terms of size and other
dimensions and characteristics. It was believed that this would promote
uniformity and easiness of mail delivering (Rucker, 2007). USPS issued
particular specifications of the mail receptacles to the owners and
manufacturers. Mailboxes manufactured according to the specification and
approved by USPS could then be stamped and given its unique postal address (the
postal address of the owner) before being functional. At one point the monopoly
of United States Postal Services was viewed as a major hindrance to diversity
of the mail receptacle designs, shapes and sizes.
At this point most people did not
have control over the design, shape and size of the mailbox they preferred. For
this reason, the mailbox a homestead had could not essentially be used to guess
the personality of the owner in terms of his/her passion, feelings, desires and
hobbies among others. It is true that people liked the Joroleman design due to
its simplicity and inexpensiveness. However, not everyone was for the design.
Researches show that some people had altered the design a little bit to reflect
their favorite colors. Some had made some drawing and writings on the mailboxes
about various things that they felt they could make them known through writing
or drawing them on the letterboxes. The urge to express their feelings was
father noticed in the way some people kept the area around the mailboxes. For
instance, some people maintained some certain type of vegetation pruned in
shapes they desired. Others maintained flower gardens.
ليست هناك تعليقات:
إرسال تعليق