Postal system

A postal system is an organized service for collecting, transporting, sorting, and delivering letters and parcels. It connects senders and recipients through a network of routes, facilities, and delivery services.

Mail sorting: The process of classifying mail by destination, service, or handling requirements. Sorting directs each item into the route that carries it toward its delivery address.
Royal Mail: The British postal service, founded as a royal institution and later opened to the public. Its changing role shows how a state communications network became a public postal service.
Rowland Hill: A British reformer whose proposals helped establish prepaid postage and the Penny Post. His reforms made postal charges simpler and reduced dependence on distance-based payment at delivery.
Registered mail: A postal service that records an item's acceptance and delivery, often with added safeguards. It adds documented handling for items whose delivery needs verification.
Postal censorship: The inspection, restriction, or interception of mail by authorities or other actors. Control over delivery routes gives institutions power to monitor or suppress correspondence.
Postal code: A sequence of letters or numbers used to identify geographic areas for mail delivery. Postal codes help automate sorting and pinpoint delivery areas.
Pony Express: A fast horse-relay mail service that operated across the western United States in 1860–1861. Its short-lived route illustrates the costs and limits of long-distance mail before rail and telegraph expansion.
Benjamin Franklin: An American statesman, printer, and scientist who served as a colonial postmaster and organized postal routes. His administration helped improve routes and service between American colonies.
Parcel post: A postal service for sending packages through a public or commercial mail network. Parcel delivery extends postal networks from correspondence to goods and commerce.
Mail-order business: Retailing in which customers order goods remotely for delivery, traditionally through postal services. Reliable parcel networks allowed businesses to sell beyond their local markets.

Linked from 8 pages