Letter hons

8/8/2019 Letter hons

1/17

LETTERS

Communication is a very integral part of living creatures, animals and humans.Communication may be verbal or written. Written communication however isonly applicable to human beings. Can you even imagine a worldwithout communication? Verbal communication can be through telephones,webcams or in person. Written communication is through letters, emails andmobile phone messages.

While many things are sent through the mail, interpersonal letters are oftenthought of first in reference to postal systems. Handwrittencorrespondence, while once a major means of communications betweendistant people, is now used less frequently due to the advent of moreimmediate means of communication, such as the telephone or e-mail.Traditional letters, however, are often considered to harken back to a"simpler time" and are still used when someone wishes to be deliberate andthoughtful about his or her communication.

Bills and invoices are often sent through the mail, like regular billing

correspondence from utility companies and other service providers. Theseletters often contain a self-addressed, envelope that allows the receiver toremit payment back to the company easily. While still very common, manypeople now opt to use online bill payment services, which eliminate the needto receive bills through the mail.


2/17

Bulk mail is mail that is prepared for bulk mailing, often by presorting, andprocessing at reduced rates. It is often used in direct marketing andother advertising mail, although it has other uses as well. The senders ofthese messages sometimes purchase lists of addresses (which are sometimestargeted towards certain demographics) and then send letters advertisingtheir product or service to all recipients. Other times, commercialsolicitations are sent by local companies advertising local products, likea restaurant delivery service advertising to their delivery area ora retail store sending their weekly advertising circular to a general area.Bulk mail is also often sent to companies' existing subscriber bases,advertising new products or services.

There are a number of other things almost without any exception sentexclusively as letters through postal services, like wedding invitations.

HISTORY AND ORIGIN:

First Postal Service History

When writing evolved in the human world,communications came into existence. Postalservices long existed in China since 4000 BC.Millennium later, Egypt and Assyria had theirpostal services.

The Chinese and Egyptian services wereconfined to imperial court circles, but inAssyria the service was open to the mercantileclass.


3/17

These ancient services are well documented in existing records of events.Actual examples of letters during the ancient Egyptian still exist nowadays.This letter is in form of clay tablets bearing messages written in cuneiform(wedge-shaped) script.

In 1925, vast hoarding of cuneiform tablets was discovered in Kultepe

Turkey. The clay tablets were dated as far back as 2000 BC.

Ancientand Medievalservice

Historical references to postal systems in Egypt dated from about 2000 BC.

The Persian Empire under Cyrus the Great 529 BC made a regular postalsystem of mounted relay messengers.

The two Greek historians, Herodotus and Xenophon, wrote the detaileddescriptions about the postal network. The riders would stop at post housesto get a fresh horse or to pass on their packets and dispatches to anothermessenger for the remaining distance.

By this time, in China, a post house service had been started early duringChou Dynasty (ruled 1122-221 BC). At that time, Chinese had highlysophisticated post relays. It was used mostly to convey official documents.

The far-reaching system contained relays of messengers who changed their


4/17

horses every 9 miles (14.5 kilometers) apart. The postal system was enlargedunder the Han Empire (202 BC-AD 220), when Chinese came in contact withthe Romans and their postal system.

By 2nd century, it was the Chinese that first used the paper as a writingmaterial. In 13th century, Marco Polo described the imperial service havingover 25,000 relay stations.

The Roman Empire built the most advanced postal delivery system knownuntil the time that of China's service. The Roman Empire area covers thewhole Mediterranean. During that time reliable communication from Rome togovernors and military officials in some remote provinces was a necessity.

Rome needs the development of cursus publicus meaning public course. It isa state sponsored series of post roads with interval relay stations. By theuse of public course riders could travel as fast as 170 miles (270 kilometers)

in a 24-hour period.

Romans wrote their letters on wax tablets and on thin sheets of woods.Egyptians preferred to use papyrus.

Europe used the medium parchment but it ended in the 15th century when


5/17

China introduced paper via Asia Minor and Byzantine Empire. ByzantineEmpire is widely known as Eastern Empire.

The Western Roman Empire collapsed 476 BC, but the postal system was notdestroyed immediately. Vestiges continue to exist until 9th century beforeit became fragmented and fell into disuse.

On the other hand, the Eastern Empire lasted longer because it waseventually absorbed into the Islamic Kingdom based in Baghdad.

In the middle ages, there were postal services in Europe but none of them

are in general use. Postal services in the middle age were exclusively usedfor trade guilds (such as the Metzger Post of Germany served the guild ofbutchers), merchants of the Hanseatic League, Venice and the Italian citystates, universities, and religious houses.

Reemergence of Postal System

During the Renaissance period, the growth of international commerceresulted to in need of business correspondence. Corporations and guilds setup their own messengers. The most extensive and dependable postal serviceswere the great merchant and banking houses of Italian city states.


6/17

By the 13th century, connections were maintained between commercialcenters of these Italian countries like Florence, Genoa, and Siena andseveral communities in northern France. They held annual fairs. These fairsattracted most merchants from all parts of Europe.

Louis Xl had set up the Royal Postal Service in 1477. While in 1516, HenryVlll of England appointed a post master to maintain the regular postal servicealong the roads leading out of London. Neither of these systems wasintended to serve the public.

The postal service to France provided a major international link forcommerce and news. There was also a postal link between the Muslim capital,Venice and Constantinople. Russia also shared the postal communications atthat time.

The latter part of middle age private postal system was created and carriedpersonal mail as well as commercial correspondence.

In the late 15th century, innovation changed European postal services. Theinvention of printing press increased the amount of mail and made thetransport of letter a profitable enterprise. Private postal services emergedto carry mail to all parts of Europe.


7/17

On the same century, the best-known and most efficient postal service

operated by the Counts of Thurn and Taxis. A family, whose Italian namewas Tassis, operated the first courier services in the city-states from about1290.

Franz von Taxis served as postmaster to the Holy Roman emperor MaximilianI from 1489 and to Philip I of Spain from 1504. Von Taxis secured the rightto carry both government and private mail throughout the empire.

The Thurn and Taxis monopoly operated a network of postal routes in Spain,Germany, Austria, Italy, Hungary, and the Low Countries from 1512 to 1867.20,000 messengers were employed to deliver mail and newspapers.

The service survived in the era of adhesive stamps and was issued in variousstates of Germany until 1867. On the same year the family was forced togive up its postal monopoly to Prussia. They received 3 million thalers incompensation.

The family business lasted for over 420 years and the last hereditary GrandMaster of the Posts died in 1871. National postal services had emerged fromEurope and the need to postal services was passing. Governments start toinsist on controlling mail services.


8/17

Postalreforms

In the United Kingdom, prior to 1840 the postal system was expensive,confusing and seen as corrupt. Letters were paid for by the recipient ratherthan the sender, and were charged according to the distance the letter hadtravelled and the number of sheets of paper it contained. If there is oneman who can be said to have changed the face of the postal service foreverit is Sir Rowland Hill, with his reforms of the postal system based on theconcept of penny postage, and his solution of pre payment.[12] In his proposal

Hill also called for official pre-printed envelopes and adhesive postagestamps as alternative ways of getting the sender to pay for the postage, ata time when prepayment was optional, which led to the invention of thepostage stamp, the Penny Black.

It was around this time nationalization and centralization of most postalsystems took place. Today, the study of mail systems is known as postalhistory.

The start of Modern Postal Service

Between 1775 and 1815, Britain was at constant war with United States andFrance. The postage rates were increased to finance the war. The rates


9/17

remained for 25 years after the defeat of Napoleon in 1815.

Rowland Hill formulated proposals on reforming the postal system between1835 and 1837. His pamphlet, "Post Office Reform: Its Importance andPracticability," is now regarded as a milestone in the development of themodern postal system.

He proved that carrying charges were insignificant factors in the total costof handling mail. He also proved that complex series of rates based ondistance were needless. Sir Rowland Hill noted that the collection ofpayment for mail delivery could be avoided.

He made a solution to postal problems by imposing a uniform postage rateregardless the distance. He also suggested the use of prepayment throughadhesive stamps and will be sold at post offices. He proposed that paymentswill be based on weight and suggested a penny for each half-ounce.


10/17

Postage stamp design

The Penny Black,the world's first postage stamp

Stamps are issued in various shapes. Aside from stamps that are made inrectangular shapes there are postal stamps made in circular, triangular, and


11/17

pentagonal.

Some stamps are issued in the shapes of fruit by Sierra Leone and Tonga.Bhutan issued one with its national anthem on a playable record. Stamps aremade in a three-dimensional image or design of foil, sometimesgold.Switzerland made a stamp partly of lace and wood.

Several countries issued commemorative stamps to honor or commemorate aperson, place, or event. Commemorative stamps are issued alongwith definitive stamps. A definitive stamp is a postage stamp that is issuedregularly in a particular country. Special event stamps are available only for

a limited time.

Moreover, United States made a plastic stamp. Other stamps are made ofsynthetic chemicals, silver foil, and paper. Paper stamps have been producedin a variety of techniques such as lithography, line engraving, photogravure,intaglio and web offset printing.


12/17

Transport of Mails

Mails in the Roman Empire were carried by public course using light cartsthat drive through concrete roads. Post master originally meant horse-hirer. In 1830 mail by rail began to replace horses and coaches. Steamshipswere used and made the transport of mails faster.

Although the modes of transport made it easier but the national postalservice underwent revolutionary change. The cost of sending and receivingof letters remained high.

Indian postalsystem:

Just over one hundred and fifty years ago, the Post Office in theProvince of Sindh, (then in British India ), made postal history

in Asia ! India became the first country on the continent to issue postagestamps!

The first stamps of India issued just before 1854 came to be known asScinde Dawks, as they were issued in the Province of Sindh. Scinde washow the British spelt the province of Sindh and Dawk is the anglicizedspelling of the Hindustani word Dak or Post. And so, to this day, India sfirst stamps are referred to simply as The Scinde Dawks!

First Stamps:

The worlds first stamps were called the Penny Blacks. They were issuedin Great Britain by Sir Rowland Hill in 1840. The Scinde Dawk stamps wereissued just 14 years after the first postage stamps were introduced in


13/17

the world! So, they date back to a time when the postal system was still inits infancy.

Hitherto, in India , small copper tokens (called tickets), valued at 2 annas

(1/8

th

of a rupee) were generally the medium of payment for postage.Single letters of up to 2-1/2 tolas (29 gm) were charged at the rate of 2annas for every 100 miles.

In 1842, Sir Bartle Frere, then Chief Commissioner of Sindh, was askedby the Bombay Presidency Government to undertake the introduction of anew postal service in the province and also to popularize it with the public.

Sir Frere was a great admirer of Sir Rowland Hill and the Penny PostageSystem he had introduced in Great Britain .

With the help of the Postmaster of Karachi, Sir Bartle issued the firstpostage stamps in Asia embossed pieces of paper with a circular designin red, white or blue, of anna denomination. They carried the merchantmark of the East India Company. They were used inthe Province of Sindh and also on the Karachi-Bombay route.

In appearance, the Scinde Dawks are of simple design. But, collectors areprepared to pay huge sums for these early stamps, as on international

catalogues of philately, they are rated among the classic stamps of theworld.

The Birth of Philately:

People have always tried to send across messages to other people residingin different areas.

African tribesmen used booming drums. Red Indians resorted to smokesignals. In certain parts of the world (including India ) specially trainedpigeons were used to carry across messages.

Many of the princely states of the world had a system of runners orriders to take across messages from the king to the courtiers or generals.Even the ancient Mauryan Empire in India had a speedy system of ridersthat carried court messages to the subjects.

However, it was the British, who first introduced the idea of a paper


14/17

stamp to be purchased in exchange of the service rendered by the postalsystem.

This first postal stamp the Penny Black featured a portrait of

QueenVictoria . It got its name from the fact that it cost one penny andwas printed in black ink. The first association of stamp collectors wasfounded in 1856 in the United States . It was called the Omnibus club.Its members, however, were encouraged to collect not only stamps butalso a wide variety of objects including bugs!

The first stamps-only society was founded in 1866 in the UnitedStates and called itself The Stamp Association. As people began tocollect stamps, these little squares of paper began to have another,

secondary use apart from getting the letters across in the post. Theybegan to have an additional value to collectors. Thus, was born the conceptof the hobby called Philately!

With time, certain old stamps, or stamps with errors or misprints, andstamps with very limited copies in print, began to command great pricesamong collectors. These came to be known as rare stamps for whichpeople were ready to pay large sums of money!

Naturally, if a lot of people want a stamp that is in short supply, the valueof the stamp will increase! The worlds rarest stamp is the British GuianaOne Cent Black on Magenta issued in 1856. It is the most expensive stampin the world simply because there is supposed to be only one copy inexistence!

Ironically, the oldest stamps -- the Penny Blacks -- are not uncommon inthe collections of philatelists. They cost about rupees 20,000 today. Bycontrast, the Scinde Dawk (the red stamp in the series) may exchange

hands at prices as high as Rupees 2,00,000 (US $ 5,000).Another First for India

The year 2004 marked the sesquicentennial anniversary of the IndianPostal department. October 1854 saw the formation of a centralizedcontrol of the subcontinents post offices under the first Director


15/17

General. That year also saw the establishment of a Railway Mail Serviceacross India with a skeletal network of 701 post offices across thesubcontinent -- and a new sea mail service from India to GreatBritain and China .

In the year 1911, another postal first was achieved in India . In Februarythat year, a French pilot, named Henri Pequet, flew with 6,500 pieces ofmail in a biplane from Allahabad to Naini (a distance of six miles). Thisflight was the first official Air Mail in the world!

Here is the story of how that historic flight actually came about

That year, Sir Walter Windham a great adventurer, sailor and motorcarracer was touring India with eight aero planes and two European pilots

(one of whom was Frenchman Pequet). In Allahabad , the Chaplain ofthe HolyTrinity Church approached Sir Windham to help him raise fundsfor a new hostel for Indian students that were planning to build. SirWindham hit upon a novel plan to raise the money he planned toinaugurate an Aerial Post.

The local public was invited to deliver stamped and addressed mail to theChaplain of the Church, enclosing six annas (1/6th of a Rupee) with everyletter to be posted by air. The extra surcharge was donated towards thefund for the new hostel.

Frenchman Pequet, flying one of Sir Windhams biplanes, carried the loadof mail for the first time through the air. He landed his plane just 6 milesfromAllahabad at the town of Naini . Here, the mail was handed over tothe postal authorities, who sent them by surface transportation todestinations across the world. Well technically, the mail had flown a partof its passage through the air! And so, for historical purposes, this is

recognized as the worlds first Air Mail delivery! The flight by divinechance happened to coincide with the Maha Kumbh festival. And thus, asPequets biplane flew in the air, it was viewed by at least 1 million Hindupilgrims bathing below in the Ganges .

A special postmark was used on this inaugural Allahabad flight whichshowed a biplane flying over the peaks of the Himalayas . In addition, the


16/17

mailbag also contained a number of picture postcards showing Pequetsbiplane. These postcards were autographed by Pequet. They were sold forthe (then) princely sum of one rupee! Today, these postcards are pricelesscollectors items and are coveted by philatelists across the world!

One hundred and fifty years after the postal services came to the Asiancontinent, the India postal system with 1,55,618 post offices and over5,66,000 employees working in unison, is considered the largest postalnetwork in the world. Indias postal system was initially based on themodel that the British left behind. But, the British model was designedessentially to transmit administrative orders. The Indian systembroadened the vision of the postal system to reach the entire population

of the country. This includes such varied terrain as the arid deserts ofRajasthan and Kutch to the icy reaches of Ladakh and the North-east.The Indian postal system also boasts of postal code area 172114 in Sikkim,

which at 15,500 feet (more than 4700 meters approx.) is the highest

post office in the world!

We Conclude:

In todays world of great inventions and technology, letters have somehow

become redundant. It is the time for text messages or chats. But they stillcan communicate a lot more than all other modes of communication.Organizations and various government departments still bank on letters as astrong medium of communication. There is no comparison in costs of sendingletters as compared to costs of mobile phone messages though letters arefar cheaper. Letters now commonly known as hard copy documents are


17/17

considered more relevant and important than email copies of text messagesas proof or evidence of some sort. Hence letters are something which iseternally useful, whether it takes the form of expressing your feelingswritten or it be official....

-One by N.Avinash

Documents

Letter hons