Difference between revisions of "General Post Office"
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Horse-drawn mail vans carried mail between railway stations and places distant from them, and between sub-post offices and sorting offices. | Horse-drawn mail vans carried mail between railway stations and places distant from them, and between sub-post offices and sorting offices. | ||
1880 Acquired the instrument works in Gloucester Road which became the [[G. P. O. Instrument Factory]] | |||
1880s the General Post Office began hiring larger enclosed box vans from '''McNamara and Company''' (carriers and mail car contractors). These had elliptical spring front suspension, semi-elliptical spring rear suspension, a double driving seat, and mail coach style headlamps. These were frequently called mail coaches, although they carried no passengers. At least six regular long-distance mail van services ran from London in the late 19th century. | 1880s the General Post Office began hiring larger enclosed box vans from '''McNamara and Company''' (carriers and mail car contractors). These had elliptical spring front suspension, semi-elliptical spring rear suspension, a double driving seat, and mail coach style headlamps. These were frequently called mail coaches, although they carried no passengers. At least six regular long-distance mail van services ran from London in the late 19th century. | ||
Revision as of 17:36, 29 July 2017
The General Post Office reported to the Post-Master General, a member of the Government. It operated the national postal service in Britain, the Royal Mail
Rowland Hill commissioned two engineers to investigate the feasibility of a pneumatic tube-based package transport system for the General Post Office in London.
1870 On 28 January (under the Telegraph Act, 1868) the privately-owned inland telegraph system was transferred to the British State. About 30 telegraph companies were taken over by the General Post Office. The central telegraph office of the new service would be located at the offices of Electric and International Telegraph Co[1]. Capital stock worth £10,948,173 was created to compensate the owners of these companies. The Post Office took over 1,058 telegraph offices and 1,874 offices at railway stations, 60,000 miles of wire, generating revenue of c.£550,000 per annum. In 1869, 6,830,812 telegrams had been transmitted.
1874 The Post Office made several trials of the Pneumatic Despatch Co's underground tube system but did not find it provided substantial time savings so its use was abandoned
1877 William Henry Preece was appointed electrician to the Post Office.
Horse-drawn mail vans carried mail between railway stations and places distant from them, and between sub-post offices and sorting offices.
1880 Acquired the instrument works in Gloucester Road which became the G. P. O. Instrument Factory
1880s the General Post Office began hiring larger enclosed box vans from McNamara and Company (carriers and mail car contractors). These had elliptical spring front suspension, semi-elliptical spring rear suspension, a double driving seat, and mail coach style headlamps. These were frequently called mail coaches, although they carried no passengers. At least six regular long-distance mail van services ran from London in the late 19th century.
1880 First use of tricycles for delivery
1887 Introduction of horse-drawn mail service
1890 The assets of the Submarine Telegraph Co were taken over by the General Post Office.
1892 William Preece became Engineer-in-Chief of the General Post Office.
1896 When Guglielmo Marconi arrived in England, Preece encouraged him by obtaining assistance from the Post Office for his work.
1897 The General Post Office introduced bicycles for delivery and conducted trials of powered vehicles, one a petrol-powered provided by British Motor Syndicate with a Daimler engine; this was used in London for about 2 weeks; it had capacity for about 6 cwt of load. The other (illustrated) was a steam-powered vehicle which was supplied by the Liquid Fuel Engineering Co; it was used on a route from Mount Pleasant to Redhill, particularly to see if it could reduce the costs otherwise incurred through charges for use of rail; it was modified with asbestos insulation to protect the parcels; a tailboard was added at the rear to bring the capacity up to the required 12 cwt[2]. Further details of the vehicle were given in The Engineer 1897/06/04.
1908 The London to Chatham mail van service ended in the summer of 1908
1909 The mail van service from London to Oxford ended
1912 The Post Office acquired full control of the telephone system from the National Telephone Co.
1914 Having previously contracted out the service, the Post Office started planning its own vehicle fleet and purchased a small number of vehicles in order to begin trials.
1919 The first publicly-available overseas airmail service started on 11 November between London and Paris
1921 The Postmaster General purchased the tubes, etc. of the Pneumatic Despatch Co[3].
1927 Opened the Tube Railway, connecting major sorting offices in London
1930s The Post Office's long-wave transmitter at Rugby was among the most powerful in the world. The Post Office supervised all radio communications and broadcasting in the United Kingdom, collected licence-fee income for the BBC as well as managing the allocation of frequencies.
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ The Times, 23 October 1869
- ↑ The Engineer 1897/12/24
- ↑ London Gazette Issue 32525, 22 November 1921