^ above is a picture of a post office in Victorian America...about the late 1800's, early 1900's.
Postal Services were created in Egypt in 2000 BC. Back then, letters were carried from place to place on a horse, or a horse-drawn wagon. During this time, letters mostly consisted of government dispatches.
The Postal Service started in China around 1122-1121 BC. Carriers had to change horses every 9 miles or so at a place called a "relay post."
Other places around the world used the Postal Service as well, and mostly had the same method.
Sure, this was not the quickest form of communication, but at least they had a way to communicate with others, right?
I found this entry very interestiing, I had of course heard of the pony express but never realized that the origins of the postal system went back as far as 1122 BC
ReplyDeleteWOW. I had no idea that the postal system went back that far! That is crazy! I think the most interesting part is that postal services didnt originate in the United States. It is insane how far they had to travel in order to get mail from one place to another. We think nothing of it now, mail gets from the east coast to the west coast in two days with a UPS tracking number
ReplyDeleteI also said WOW when I read this. Who knew the postal system went back to 1122 BC. I never would have thought that!!! The postal service was one of the most greatest inventions of all time, although other forms of letters such as e-mail and text message have pretty much dominated the postal service.
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing that everytime we think we have a new idea it turns out being a hybrid of an older idea. It does prove however, how people past, present and in the future will always need to reach out to eachother in order to communicate and to collaborate.
ReplyDeleteYou know you got to hand it to the Postal Service. Throughout history we can see the evolution of the Postal Service...from horse and rider, to every form of transportation available today. It has endured and continues to change right before our eyes. Ex: I use to hate running down to the Post office to buy a stamp, now I have electronic stamps I print up right at home...now that's technology evolution.
ReplyDeleteBen B.
Postal service has come a long way. It is hard to imagine how far they had to travel to get the mail to it's destination. Nowaday with email, text, and chat rooms some people are not using the postal service much. Poeple still use postal service for their packages obviously you can't send them through email, text or chat rooms. It's sad that today the postal service might lose a day of service because of the advance in technolgy.
ReplyDeletei never knew it started in egypt, interesting. long way from the pony express to the postal cars now.
ReplyDeleteYes, I never knew it started in Egypt. We have come a long way from delivery by horse. It could take weeks for someone to receive a letter back than. Look at the postal service today. If we need something to get to someone fast, we can over night it and have there is twenty four hours. We have a choice in which postal service we use. If it's not high priority, just a note to a friend, we can eamil it and they could have it in a matter of minutes. What happened to a handwritten letter, that is more personal than something that we type. With technology advancing it could only mean the demise of the US Post Office.
ReplyDeleteI think it shows how technology has evolved, we continue to communicate with each other It's just In different ways. It's amazing how the United States Postal Service has continued to evolve with technology to continue to service every house, not to many companies can say that.
ReplyDeleteI cant believe what the postal service actually started out as. The mail took forever to get to where it was going and by that time the information could be useless. To think that people just used wagons and footman is a shocker. We take for granted how quickly mail can get to us now and days.
ReplyDeleteI didn't realize the postal service started this early. I would have guessed the 1700's at least. This delivery system must have taken forever. E-mail has replaced a good amount of America's traditional postal methods. Just another example of how impatient technology is allowing us to be.
ReplyDeleteI did not realize how long the postal service has been around. It was interesting to hear how they used horse drawn wagons to deliver the letters and even had to change horses. I can only imagine how long this whole process took. If I'm waiting for something to come, after 2 days I'm already impatient. I wonder how long the postal service will be around for?
ReplyDelete