The history of the envelope. Paper envelopes - the history of invention. I. Organizational moment

Printing paper envelopes- one of the activities of our printing house. Therefore, we decided to devote today's material to paper envelopes, or rather, to the history of their invention. But it's worth starting with the appearance of envelopes in general. Indeed, in fact, it began even before people began to write letters to each other on paper.

In dr. After firing the plaque with the text of the letter in Sumera, it was covered with a layer of clay, on which the recipient's address was written. Then the plates were fired again so that the letter and the envelope did not become a single piece (a tricky technology, we will not go into details). Upon receipt, the envelope was broken. By the way, two such letters with envelopes are kept in the Louvre.

In antiquity, letters were written on wax tablets. They were folded together and tied with a string, on which the sender's wax seal was put. And about the envelopes, as they say, no one bothered. Concerning paper letters- as we all remember from history, at first they were simply folded and sealed with wax or sealing wax. And, it would seem, why is there an envelope?

It's simple. The first paper envelopes appeared in England, and the “fault” of that was the new fashion for letters on small sheets of paper. And then (it was in 1820) the savvy owner of a stationery store in the English city of Brighton, Mr. Brever (or Brewer) came up with a brilliant business idea: to sell paper bags for them along with small sheets of paper. Seeing the success of the venture, Brever entrusted the manufacture of postal envelopes to twelve special enterprises and even invented a machine for their manufacture. Among other things, other sources write that the world owes the invention of the envelope-making machine to the masters De la Rue and Hill. The idea of ​​gluing the flap of the envelope certainly appeared in France. The surname of the inventor is Poirier.

At the end of the nineteenth century, the British introduced new fashion! The envelopes began to be produced in different shades. Then each of them corresponded to its day of the week. Colored envelopes and now in a trend, we quite often order the printing of colored envelopes for invitations, postcards or business correspondence. And if they want to give the envelope an elegant look, they do

The history of the origin of the envelope

"Modern man, writing letters and sealing them in envelopes, hardly asks himself the question where the envelope came from and what he owes his birth to.

The word "envelope" comes from the English verb "to cover" - to close.

The appearance of the paper envelope is due to a simple accident.

In 1820, the owner of a sand paper shop in the city of Brayton (England) Brever decided to arrange an original exhibition in his shop window to attract customers. All night long he worked tirelessly on the construction in the large window of a grandiose pyramid of countless sheets of paper of various sizes.

The base of the pyramid was sheets of paper intended for printing newspapers, and the top was a piece of paper the size of a business card.

The paper pyramid in Brever's shop window caught the attention of the entire city. Day and night, a crowd gathered around the shop window. Particular attention was paid to the leaf on top of the pyramid.

If before that the Breiton people used paper of any format for letters, then after the "exhibition" it was considered a special chic to write letters on paper in the format of a business card.

Soon, however, it turned out that this was inconvenient: in order to send a letter by mail, it was necessary, of course, to write the recipient's address, and since then no one had the slightest idea about envelopes, the address was written on the same sheet of mubaga as the letter itself ... For this, the letter was folded in such a way that there was free space for the address. There was no free space left on a small piece of paper.

The owner of the store began to receive numerous complaints from his customers about this, which led him to make a kind of paper bags for putting letters in them.

Brever, having thought over the shape and size of such a bag, made a small batch in 1820 and began, at first as a free supplement to the paper purchased from him, to hand them over to his customers.

The pouches were a huge success and got the name "envelope", from the verb "close". The success of the envelopes was so great that Brever was forced to entrust their production to twelve special enterprises.

31.07.2013 15:35

Much has been written about the merits of Direct Mail, a direct mailing list. And, nevertheless, a significant part of the letters are not even opened by the recipients, going straight to the trash can. What's the matter? Let's look at the current situation. The peak of the popularity of the mailing list came in the mid-70s. of the last century: this is when Direct Mail becomes a powerful marketing tool in the United States. However, as long as digital technologies literally burst into our lives, significant changes have taken place. From the late 90s to this day, the victorious march of the Internet continues. Today it is not only an information resource, but also a kind of sales mechanism. Of course, in such an environment, Direct Mail is difficult to compete with the capabilities of the Internet. But, nevertheless, no one canceled the address mailing list, and in certain cases it copes well with its tasks. Conventionally, mailing lists can be divided into two categories: informational and advertising. In the first case, the mailing company informs its regular customers about discounts, special offers, reports news, etc. Advertising mailing is used both to retain existing customers and to acquire new ones.

Clothes for writing

For address mailing, envelopes and packages are used. They can be purchased in the store (and arranged as you wish) or ordered from a printing house. Structurally, envelopes and packages differ in the following: for an envelope, the flap is located along the long side, for a package - along the short side. Both envelopes and bags are available in various standard sizes, as well as to order. Let's dwell on the materials from which envelopes and bags are made. The most commonly used paper. When ordering an envelope, you can choose paper based on your letter. In most cases, 80-120 g / m2 offset paper is suitable. An envelope made of coated paper looks more beautiful, although it costs more. Not every company can afford to use designer paper, but envelopes made of such paper certainly stand out from the general mail: the image printed on them looks bright and rich. Bags and envelopes made of kraft paper are used to send magazines and catalogs, especially over long distances: kraft is a very strong paper. As for the bags, they are made not only of paper, but also of polyethylene. Moreover, they can be transparent, opaque or with printed information (logo, drawing, etc.)

A separate topic is envelopes with a window. They are, of course, more expensive than usual, but they look more prestigious. A window is an opening, usually in the shape of a rectangle with rounded corners, covered with a transparent film that allows partial view of the contents of the envelope. The window is located anywhere on the front side of the envelope, not less than 15-20 mm from the edge (depending on the envelope size). Standard size windows - 45-90 mm, standard location - lower right corner of the envelope.

OVPO - return domestic postal item

The Domestic Return Mail (DOM) is a letter with printed decals. Thus, the addressee gets the opportunity to immediately respond to the proposal of the company. A postcard can be used instead of an envelope. OVPO is widely used abroad. In Russia, for example, the Moscow Post Office Department sends return forms using the postage payment scheme based on the number of letters actually sent.

The main advantage of envelopes with a window is that they are convenient for personalized sending: information about the recipient (address, full name) is placed on the form with the message, and in such a way that when the form is folded (folded), the inscription is located in the place of the window ... Some firms use a transparent window to attract the recipient's attention by placing special attachments with colorful pictures in the envelope.

SDMF - Spesial Direct Marketing Form - special direct marketing form

SDMF (Special Direct Marketing Form) is a booklet for bulk mailing lists. Complete absence a traditional envelope allows you to save money on packaging and weight of the item with a circulation of more than 30 thousand copies. All necessary postage information is placed on the booklet with side gluing, and there is perforation on the tear-off line. Also SDMF may contain a tear-off postcard coupon for a return reply.


The SDMF form appeared in the West, and in Russia it has gained popularity since 2003, mainly due to the cost-effectiveness of mass mailing.

Halfway to typography

If you decide to order envelopes from a printing house, you will definitely need a layout. You can make it yourself, but it is better to entrust it to professionals, since there are a number of requirements imposed by postal services, and they may differ in different regions. The layout shows what format the envelope will be, where the company logo will be located, the addressee's data, decorative elements (if any), etc.

Having decided on the material, size and type of envelope, you can call a courier from the printing house in which you are going to place an order. The courier will bring samples of finished envelopes and materials from which they can be made.

Before giving an order to a printing house or transferring it to an intermediary company, it is necessary to choose the format of the envelope and the material from which it will be made, resolve all issues related to its design, agree on the terms of execution of the order and its cost.

By the way, about the outer design of the envelope. You may have left electronic files with a logo, after ordering business cards, for example. If not, the logo, like decorative elements, can be on paper. You can draw the layout by hand: submit a drawing to the printer, indicating the boundaries of the envelope and the location of the text and graphics. True, then you will have to pay for the production of an electronic layout.

Sizes and types of envelopes

Modern envelope sizes are strictly based on paper sheet standards. For example, an A4 sheet folded in three is placed in an E65 envelope (euro envelope); in an envelope C6 - A4 - folded in four, or A5 folded in half; in a C5 envelope - a sheet of A5 or A4 format folded in half; in the C4 package - a sheet, or a magazine of A4 format. There are also K7, K8, K65 and K5 envelopes designed for greeting cards. The standard Russian envelope is C6 (114x162 mm). It was this format that was the main one on the territory the former USSR until 1997, when the "Eurostandard" - E65 was officially introduced.

There are three main types of envelope sealing, depending on the materials used: wettable glue (dextrin) - the traditional method of sealing; "Latex" - with two stripes of glue on the back of the envelope and a tear-off tape made of siliconized paper - before sealing such an envelope, it is necessary to remove the tape that covers the adhesive layer.



What else is important to know

    if you use corporate colors- provide own samples, or "names" of colors on the Pantone scale;

    printout of the layout on an inkjet printer cannot be used as a sample, since jet printer always distorts colors. Therefore, never sign a color printout with your boss or customer;

    when sending a layout by e-mail, be sure to archive the files, and the size of the archive (ZIP, ARJ, RAR) in one letter should not exceed 1.4 MB. Do not send self-extracting archives, as they may be infected with viruses and will not be accepted for work;

    to create a layout, MS Office programs (Word, Excel, etc.) are not used. The files created in these applications are not intended for print reproduction; it is difficult, if not impossible, to extract graphic information from them and print in a printing house.

Printing on envelopes is done in several ways, and each of them is cost-effective in a particular case. We will tell about the features of the printing methods in the next issue.

Structurally, envelopes differ from bags by the location of the flap: for an envelope, it is along the long side, for a package - along the short side. In this case, the valve itself can have different shape... Depending on the format of the postal item, you can pick up an envelope of one size or another.


History of the mail envelope

Even those of us who neversentand did not receive letters written on paper, they are faced with a postal envelope every day. Only, already inirrelevant. When viewed email or pick up a mobile phone that beeps about the receipt of SMS-messages... What in these casesseesa man on a computer monitor and on a phone screen? The familiar rectangle withintersecting diagonallines - Toonvert!It's amazing how firmly he entered our life! He did not lag behind at the bends of history and continues to keep pace with the era! But have people always usedsoa simple and irreplaceable thing? Was there a time when the envelope simply did not exist, and what preceded its appearance? Let's try everythingthisfigure out.

Valuable cargocaravels "Victoria"

In the early morning of September 20, 1519, the port of the Spanish city of Sanlúcar de Barrameda hummed like a disturbed hive. Hundreds of people - loaders, sailors, merchants - were scurrying around five beautiful caravels, ready to go out into the ocean from minute to minute to embark on a long journey full of dangers and adventures. Finally, this solemn moment has come. He straightened the sails of the "Santiago" of Captain João Serran, a comrade-in-arms of the famous Vasco da Gamma, gave the mooring lines "Victoria" to the treasurer of the expedition Luis de Mendoza, removed the ladders of the "Concepcienne" of the noble Gaspar de Cassada. The last to raise flags and leave the port of "San Antonio" Juan de Cartagena, personal representative of King Charles I, and the flagship "Trinidad" of the commander of the campaign, Rear Admiral Fernand Magellan, Portuguese in the service of the Spanish crown. “Where is such an impressive, well-armed, well-equipped expedition heading?” The Sanlukarians who had come to escort the brave sailors wondered. Be it to India, to Madagascar and even to the mysterious, recently discovered America. There is nothing to surprise us. But we cannot guess where Rear Admiral Magellan is heading! Moreover, the sailors of his five caravels are not aware of this. ! " Yes, except for the sailors! The captains of "San Antonio", "Concepcion", "Victoria" and "Santiago" did not know about the purpose of the upcoming voyage! To all the questions of his subordinates, Magellan answered evasively: "Your duty is to follow my flag during the day and follow my lantern at night." But why did he make a secret of his plans? It's very simple: for fear of betrayal, Magellan did not trust anyone. At the same time, most of all he was afraid of meeting the ships of his former compatriots - the Portuguese, Spain's main rivals in the ocean. Magellan could not allow that the expedition, which he had been preparing for so long and carefully, would be thwarted. And in fact, it would be very annoying, because the brave traveler conceived to do what no sailor had ever been able to do - to reach the Spice Island by the western route. This is how Europeans called the Indonesian Moluccas in the 16th century. It was by the western route, not across the Indian Ocean, where the ubiquitous Portuguese ruled, but across the Atlantic, rounding the southern tip of America. Today we all know that the goal set by Magellan has been achieved. The expedition not only reached the Moluccas, rich in nutmeg, pepper and cloves, opening the Pacific Ocean on the way to them, but also made the first round-the-world voyage in world history. Thanks to the campaign of Fernand Magellan, people became convinced that the Earth is round, and the oceans that wash its land are inseparable. Unfortunately, the price of these great discoveries was also high. Three long years after the start of the expedition, on September 6, 1522, only one Victoria landed on the shores of Spain, the only caravel out of five that survived. There were only eighteen people on board. Descendants remember these heroes by name, including two brave boys - the cabin boy Juan de Santander and his assistant Juan de Subiletu. Eighteen of the two hundred and fifty-six who set sail! Someone drowned, someone died of hunger while ships crossed the endless Pacific Ocean, someone was captured by the Portuguese, someone, like Rear Admiral Magellan, died in clashes with warlike aborigines - inhabitants of distant islands. However, contemporaries recognized the expedition as successful - the cost of its equipment was more than compensated for by the valuable cargo delivered by the long-suffering Victoria. These were mainly spices. Although, not only them. In addition to sacks of pepper and nutmeg from the distant Indochina, full of mysteries, Spanish sailors brought something else, not less important: a special sticky substance, which we call "sealing wax".

The secret of the seal

But why did you start the story of the mail envelope with a story about sealing wax? - an inquisitive reader will ask me in surprise. - Is he the main character of the book? No, my friends, the main character, of course, is the mailing envelope. But the history of the envelope is, first of all, the story of how people protected their messages, guarded the secrecy of correspondence. In addition, it will be enough for you to know the origin of the word "envelope" in order to appreciate the significance of the sealing wax brought by the Spanish sailors. So ... The word "envelope" is foreign. That is, it came to us in Russia from abroad. It's just where it comes from, it's hard to say. The Germans will surely assure us that it is German. Say them das Kuvert it is translated into Russian - "envelope". At the same time, the French, I think, will disagree with them: their language has an adjective couvert, which means "hidden, secret". The English, by the way, also have a similar sounding word - the verb to cover - "close". Let's not argue with any of them. Especially with the Germans, since their das Kuvert, I'll tell you a secret, I myself came from the French couvert. The main thing, we have found out: "an envelope" is something "closed" and "secret". -Of course, "secret"! - you will agree. - After all, we trust him with our letters! That's right, someone cares about the safety of the message, and someone about its secrecy. For example, one of my neighbors, a young artist Nikita, is concerned that the drawings that he sends to the competition reach the addressee unharmed, do not get wrinkled on the way, and do not get dirty. But another friend of mine - an extremely amorous young lady named Nastya - is worried that no one would read her letters. Nobody except her boyfriend, of course. Therefore, both Nikita and Nastya seal their envelopes or, as they say, seal them. Are they sealed ?! How so? Neither Nikita nor Nastya put any stamps on their envelopes! They do not set, but our ancestors did, at first just on letters folded in half or three times, protecting them in such a simple way from prying eyes. That is why it was with sealing wax, the best material for making seals, that I began my story.

His Majesty Waxand letters with gold clasps

In ancient Greece and Ancient rome the messages were often written on wax tablets. Before sending such a letter, the tablets were folded facing each other and tied with a cord. It was on it, on a lace, that the seal was put, the protector of the letter from the eyes of others. The Greeks made their seals from a mixture of clay and wax, while the Romans made do with wax alone. Yes, they were only unreliable "defenders". Each of you has ever used a candle, even if not wax, but paraffin or stearic, it doesn't matter. The properties of wax, paraffin and stearin are very similar. They are all malleable and fragile. Is this what security seals should be ?! But what to do? For a very long time, the Europeans simply did not have any other, more worthy protection for their letters. So until the sixteenth century and tormented with "His Majesty the Wax." Already they wrote on paper, and all their letters - a sheet folded in text inside - were sealed with wax seals. True, sometimes, from time to time, metal seals were used - lead, silver and even gold. To put such a seal, a thin piece of metal was folded over the edge of the letter, then some personal sign was put on it. It could be a coat of arms or a monogram - capital letters of the sender's name. However, how much valuable metal one needed to have in order to "decorate" letters with them! Noble persons hardly sealed their messages with lead, more and more silver and gold. Scary to think - letters with gold clasps! Now imagine how the kings, dukes, barons and their spouses were delighted at the appearance of ordinary sealing wax, which they habitually dubbed wax, only "Spanish", in honor of the Spanish sailors. By the way, in French and English sealing wax is still called wax, however, it is no longer "Spanish", but "sealing".

Clay envelope

At first, sealing wax was not available to everyone. In the first years after Magellan's expedition, only a few craftsmen could make it, so wax seals guarded the secrets of exceptionally important persons. Everyone else continued to seal the letters with wax, which, as we recall, was an extremely unreliable protector. Helped weakly against hacking mail correspondence. Not like sealing wax. The seal made of sealing wax had to be broken if you wanted to read the message. This is where the expression "print a letter" came from. - Was there really no good glue to seal the envelope in the Middle Ages? - many will be surprised. Dear ones, the envelope did not exist in those days! He was just being born. A sheet of paper folded in three, sealed with a seal, wax, metal or sealing wax, this is the prototype of a modern envelope! The first step towards the invention of our main character. -Wait! my most informed reader will exclaim. - And I heard that the first envelopes appeared a long time ago, many thousands of years ago! In the Middle East. Indeed, something like an envelope appeared about five thousand years ago, in Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia is translated from ancient Greek as "Mesopotamia". This was the name of the land between two Middle Eastern rivers - between the Tigris and the Euphrates. Now it is the territory of the state of Iraq. So, the Mesopotamian envelope looked very unusual ... But first, let's remember what people used to write on in such ancient times? On clay tablets! Paper had not yet been invented at that time, so instead of it they used something on which one could leave any signs. -But how, then, was the Mesopotamian envelope made? - you ask. At first glance, it is simple: the already burnt message - a tablet with the text - was coated with a new layer of raw clay and burned a second time. As a result of the release of water vapor during the repeated firing, two plates - "letter" and "envelope" - did not stick together, did not become one piece. The recipient of the message, in order to read it, just had to carefully break the "shell" of the envelope. This is how the secret of correspondence was kept in an interesting way! Only the clay envelopes did not take root. Disappeared along with the clay letters. The ancient inhabitants of Mesopotamia used both of them, and they forgot about their invention.

Color matters

So, the clay envelope left no "descendants". This Mesopotamian invention did not affect the birth of its paper brother. Therefore, let's continue our conversation about wax seals, about how the Europeans, with their own minds, reached the creation of a paper envelope. The preparation of sealing wax was not kept secret for a long time. It soon ceased to be a luxury item. In some twenty or thirty years that have passed since the expedition of Magellan, not only kings could afford to seal letters with relief seals made of "Spanish wax". Already in the middle of the eventful 16th century, anyone could make them. And all because a certain Samuel Zimmermann, a resident of the German city of Augsburg, was not greedy and in an essay on the art of correspondence revealed a recipe for red sealing wax known to him. "We need to take pure white resin," the good Samuel Zimmerman wrote in his book, "dissolve it over a moderate charcoal fire and, when it is open, remove from heat and stir in one pound of resin four lots of fine paint cinnabar, let it harden together or pour into cold water, and you get a beautiful red, strong sealing wax. " Red sealing wax has long been the most common. Although not the only one. The ancient Romans thought of giving seals a different color, hinting at the content of the letter. For example, wedding invitations they were fastened with a white, then wax, seal, and tragic messages - black, mourning. So the sealing wax, depending on the wishes of the sender of the letter, could be: black - due to the addition of lamp soot or burnt ivory to the resin; green due to the paint of the yar-copperhead; or yellow due to chrome yellow dye. It is known for certain that in England and France different types of messages were assigned different colors of seals. For example, in France, red sealing wax was used, as a rule, for business letters, a white seal announced the wedding, a chocolate one invited to a gala lunch or dinner, and a black one, as in Ancient Rome, to a funeral. In general, the imagination of the senders of letters knew no bounds, and in various life cases they used seals of the most unexpected shades, including pink, ruby, blue, gray. Over time, entire factories for the production of sealing wax were created, where the recipe of the magnanimous Augsburgist Samuel Zimmermann was constantly becoming more complicated. What was not added to the sealing wax to improve its qualities. Even fragrant clove oil, so that the smell of burning resin does not defile the smell of noble people who personally seal their messages! In the end finished products sold in the form of sticks polished to a shine, and sometimes, to heighten chic, they were covered with bronze paint, silver and even gilded! However, the main thing in the production of sealing wax has always been its properties, not color. Sealing wax should not lose hardness at the highest summer temperature and at the same time easily melt from the flame of an ordinary candle.

Mr Brever's bag

However, I have a presentiment that some of my most impatient readers in this place will definitely interrupt me. “Everything is clear to us about the press,” he will say. - When will the envelope itself finally appear? Not so fast, my friends, not so fast. Only in the nineteenth century. There are many legends telling about the appearance of the paper mail envelope. For example, according to one of them, envelopes were invented in France during the time of Napoleon Bonaparte. And not for some intriguing politicians, but for young amorous persons, such as my friend Nastya. These windy girls have no less secrets and secrets than diplomats. Therefore, as the legend says, one wax seal, fastening the letter, was not enough for them, so they began to glue their frank messages into an additional sheet of paper. However, this is just a beautiful legend. In fact, the first envelopes familiar to us appeared in England in 1820. It was there and then that a certain Mr. Brever, a stationery dealer from Brighton, decided to renovate his shop window. To this end, he built a pyramid of the finest writing paper of all sizes, the top of which was completed by a pile of pieces of paper the size of a business card. And suddenly, quite unexpectedly, these "kids" became the most popular among buyers. For some reason, it has become fashionable to use them for short letters. One problem: these pieces of paper were so small that there was not enough space on them for the recipient's address. Then the enterprising Mr. Bremer came up with the idea of ​​glueing small bags for his "kids", on which the senders wrote the coordinates of the addressee. The ingenious Brighton man's invention was a resounding success. Such that soon our merchant entrusted the production of his bags to special enterprises, whose employees did nothing but make new-fangled envelopes. By the way, at first the envelope was called not at all an envelope, but "Mr. Brever's packet", thus glorifying the name of its inventor!

Such mleg-facedenvelope

As soon as Mr. Brever's bags became fashionable, other inventors and just random people immediately began to improve them. The way envelopes were produced changed rapidly. So in 1845, Londoners Edwin Hill and Warren De La Rue came up with a machine capable of making them without human intervention. Since then, few people have undertaken to cut and glue the envelope by hand. True, the first samples of Hill and De La Rue's products were diamond-shaped, which the English postal workers did not like at all. For this reason, a few years later, the Royal postal service Great Britain has adopted the old rectangular "Mr Brever's bag" as a reference. Another early invention concerned the wax seal, which for some time continued to be sealed by newfangled envelopes. Once the Frenchman, Monsieur Poirier, suggested simply glueing the flap of the envelope, and then the need for a wax "protector" disappeared altogether. However, the era of the wax seal did not end at that moment, parcels and parcels were sealed with sealing wax for a very long time - until the beginning of our third millennium. And at the very end of the 19th century, multi-colored envelopes and multi-colored writing paper came into fashion. Just like the color wax seals used to be. However, now the color of the envelope and paper did not always depend on the content of the letter. For example, some English eccentrics wrote on different colored paper on different days of the week. On Monday - on sea green paper, on Tuesday - on pale pink, on Wednesday - on gray, on Thursdays - on light blue, on Fridays - on silver, on Saturday - on yellow, and only on Sunday, thank God , on a regular one - white.

Frontal triangle

It would seem that this can be the end of the story about the envelope. After all, it has already taken on the form we are accustomed to: it acquired a rectangular shape, received a sealed flap, and even began to be produced in factories where it was cut and glued by machines, not people. And yet I would like to tell you about one more - almost - envelope. In many Russian families Letters from the fronts of the Great Patriotic War, folded in the form of a triangle, are carefully kept. How their relatives and friends were waiting for the soldiers of the Red Army! It is not for nothing that the front-line triangle still remains one of the symbols of that formidable era. How did it happen that letters from the front began to arrive not in envelopes, but folded in a special way? The fact is that with the outbreak of the war, the usual life of all Soviet people was disrupted. Millions of families were torn apart. And only the post office could help the inhabitants of a huge country not to lose each other. During the war years, so many letters were sent that regular envelopes just not enough. It was in such a situation that the front-line "triangle" was born. The letter was written on a piece of paper, folded in three simple movements and handed over to the postman. Now try to make such an "envelope" yourself. This is not difficult. Put a regular notebook sheet in front of you, grab its upper right corner and bend the sheet diagonally. The result is a two-layer triangle with an appendage - a narrow strip of paper at the bottom. Then fold the two-layer triangle in half again, but from left to right, and insert the same appendage - the remaining strip of paper - like a flap inside the resulting "envelope". Ready! Perhaps you will say that this is not an envelope, but a specially folded letter. Maybe you're right. Although ... remember the French adjective couvert, from which, apparently, did the word "envelope" come from? And from what word did it come from? Is it not from Latin couverte what does "transform" mean? Then why don't we, as an exception, count the front triangle as a special kind of envelope, or rather a letter, transformoval in an envelope? What do you say to that, my friends? Do you agree?

History of the envelope in Russia

In Russia, sending letters in envelopes, or, as they said then, in "stamped envelopes" (remember the German das Kuvert?) began on December 1, 1845. Why was the envelope ... oh sorry, the envelope was called a stamped envelope? Due to the fact that on its white obverse there was a round stamp - the prototype of future postage stamps. The stamp of the first St. Petersburg envelope was blue or blue, and the stamp of the Moscow City Post was red. Initially, the cost of the envelope was 6 kopecks in silver, but when in 1848 "stamped envelopes" were issued for the whole of Russia, their price began to depend on the weight of the envelope with its contents. An envelope for 10 kopecks in silver with a black stamp was intended for correspondence weighing no more than one lot, something about 13 grams. The blue postmark "weighed" the envelope several times: for 20 kopecks twice, for 30 kopecks three times. By this time, a well-established city post office was already operating in St. Petersburg. She began to work in January 1833. Letters were handed over to the post office through reception centers organized in small shops. Initially, 42 reception points were opened in the capital of the Russian Empire, and by the middle of 1834 their number had increased to 108. The shopkeepers were responsible for the reception, as well as the safety of correspondence and money. The letters paid for by the senders were dropped into a locked mailbox, from which they were regularly taken out and delivered to the post office, from where they were delivered to the addressees. At first this was done 3 times a day, then much more often - 6 times. In Moscow, such an innovation was introduced a little later, in 1846. Moreover, the Moscow post office, in addition to the points of reception of correspondence in small shops, organized reception places for letters in large pastry shops. This was done for the greater convenience of Muscovites: unlike small shops, large pastry shops also worked in holidays, and on weekdays they closed later than all other stores. And already in 1848, street mailboxes appeared in both St. Petersburg and Moscow, available to everyone at any time of the day or night. Now there was no need to go to the post office or knock on the shopkeeper with every letter. Therefore, in 1866, reception centers in shops and stores were closed as unnecessary.

First mailbox

Do you want me to tell the legend of how the first mailbox appeared? They say that another great navigator, Bartolomeo Diaz, or rather, members of the crew of his ship, had a hand in the birth of the first mailbox. In 1500, Diaz's ship was returning from Brazil to his native Portugal and was caught in a terrible storm off the coast of Africa. The storm-battered caravel took refuge in a quiet bay and remained there until the sailors finished repairing it. And before leaving the saving harbor, one of the ship's officers wrote a detailed report on the results of the voyage and on the death of his captain, the valiant Bartolomeo Diaz. They decided to leave the report ashore, in case the ship was not destined to reach Portugal. The message was wrapped in a tarred waterproof cloth, tucked into a sturdy leather shoe and hung on a tall tree that was clearly visible from everywhere. The sailors hoped that someday someone might discover their message. And so it happened! Once the ship of Captain João da Nova - also, by the way, a Portuguese - entered that very hospitable bay. Da Nova's sailors immediately noticed a tall tree on the shore with a wind-worn boot dangling on one of its branches. This is how the unusual message reached the recipient. By order of João da Nova, a chapel was built in the bay, around which a large settlement, later called Mossel Bay, grew over time. And the famous shoe of an unknown sailor remained hanging in its place for a long time, in memory of the brave sailors Bartolomeo Diaz. Many, many years later, the tall tree that had miraculously survived was declared a national monument, and next to it was erected another monument - concrete, in the form of an old Portuguese shoe. By the way, this concrete shoe is not just a Mossel Bay city landmark. This is a valid mailbox, an envelope with a letter in which any local resident can drop it, as well as you, my dear readers, if you visit those glorious places.

Despite the fact that mail is increasingly crowded out electronically communication, good old Postal envelope still serves us.

Of course, in the field of transferring clean information, mail is no longer a competitor to the Internet, but there are things that cannot yet be transmitted in the form of electronic impulses - valuable parcels, parcels, packages of documents with "wet seals", seed material and much more.

And although in modern world via the Internet Ostap Bender could have sent a million to the People's Commissariat of Finance in a fit of Tolstoyism, but he would not have been able to bring it back under the pretext of paradise apples jam for his uncle.

Envelope preimage

However, envelope- is by no means such an old invention as it might seem. Although, if one renounces the fact that the envelope is something of paper, or at worst, parchment, then the very principle of the envelope was known in ancient Assyria.

It was there that the clay cuneiform tablets were coated with wet clay and fired again: with proper firing, adhesion did not occur. With a certain skill, the "letter-brick" could be neatly split and read.

Letters without an envelope

Military triangles

The paper messages familiar to us were previously transmitted simply in a folded form, just like during the Great patriotic war soldiers sent home "triangles" - specially folded paper for letters. So it happened before: most of the messages were sent without any postage envelopes, just the letter itself was folded in a certain way.

But sealing letters by simple addition did not solve a very important issue - protection from other people's curiosity. Everyone could neatly unfold the paper, read the contents and wrap it back without arousing any suspicion.

Medieval wax seals

The problem of confidentiality of correspondence has existed for a long time, therefore, already in the Middle Ages, they began to use a special composition with which letters were sealed - sealing wax. The seal from the sealing wax could be removed only once, but it was difficult to restore it so that no suspicions arose. The seal made of sealing wax had to be broken if you wanted to read the message. This is where the expression "print a letter" came from.

The dignity of sealing wax was also its disadvantage - it adhered strongly to the paper and sometimes it was quite easy to tear the letter during opening, especially if the paper had become dilapidated due to dampness and a long journey.

Manipulation with a candle could also lead to damage to the text of the document, which was going to be sent by mail. In addition, a letter without an envelope would inevitably get dirty and frayed, and during long journeys by horse mail, which sometimes lasted months, the letter reaching the addressee risked turning into a dirty piece of paper, which is even unpleasant to take in hand. It was then that the idea of ​​the envelope appeared.

The envelope not only protected the letter from pollution and damage, limited the access of unauthorized persons to information, but also allowed sending several messages in one package without the risk of losing them.

The first envelopes we are used to

"Language of envelopes"

First envelopes appeared for diplomatic messages in the 17th century, and mass production standard envelopes for postal items was carried out only by the Brighton Brewers bookselling house in 1820. And in this case, the customers were not diplomats at all, as it was before, but mainly the fair sex, among whom the fashion of writing "graceful letters" quickly spread. At that time, envelopes were more of a fashion - along with openwork umbrellas from the sun, hats and skirts with crinoline. Folded around the envelope whole system special postal etiquette.

V mail envelope At the beginning of the 19th century, everything mattered: the color of the wax seals, the shape, and the method of gluing. A whole "language of envelopes" arose, similar to the language of flowers. White wax seals on a square envelope most often served as an invitation to a wedding, small elongated envelopes with ruby ​​or gilded sealing wax - a marriage proposal or a love confession. A red envelope with red sealing wax is a solution to money issues, most often a business proposal or notice. Chocolate sealing wax on a dark parchment envelope is a clear invitation to a banquet.

Machine Created Envelopes

In 1844, Londoners Hill and de La Rue invented a machine that could mechanically make envelopes. The British, on the other hand, introduced into fashion multi-colored envelopes marking the days of the week: on Monday it was customary to write letters on aqua paper, on Tuesday - on pale pink, on Wednesday - on gray, on Thursdays - on light blue, on Fridays - on silver, on Saturday - on yellow, and on Sunday - on white. This had not only an aesthetic, but also a practical meaning: it was quite easy to sort letters by the time they were written, which was of tremendous organizational importance in regular business correspondence.

The envelope developed rapidly, getting more and more complex design. In the future, another requirement, important for the industrial era, began to be presented to it - standardization. The standard size allowed for more successful mechanization of postal processing.

Of course, modern telecommunications have done Postal envelope rather, a tribute to tradition in business and personal correspondence. But, nevertheless, the envelope is not completely squeezed out, and in many cases it is simply irreplaceable.

 

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