Russia has digitized-digitized but not digitized.

I am an ordinary person and I stopped using envelopes 15 years ago. Before, I even had pen pals. We sent each other multi-page letters, photographs and clippings from computer magazines. No, everything is in order, friends remained, the way of communication has changed: we went to the Internet.

However, government agencies are not as nimble as I am, and they still send letters of happiness on paper. Pension reports on how it used money and how much I don’t have now. The tax authorities demand to pay for the use of the roads, and the traffic police thinks that I drive too fast and sends pictures of my speed records. In general, envelopes are still in use.

In this article, I will tell you everything about envelopes that I know myself, pulled from industry professionals and dug on the Internet.

I used to think I was pretty smart and thought that everyone around me knew about envelopes like me. In reality, this is not the case. Customers smartly ordered envelopes, and then wondered what came at all the wrong: for example, the wrong size. Well, of course, I had to go and exchange the wrong envelopes myself. Now, before placing an order, I ask the client all the possible information: why they are to him, what and where he is going to send, what size is needed and a thousand more clarifying questions.

But not understanding envelopes is the norm! I also don’t understand the dozens of types of sewer pipes or wires that run through my apartment. I need this knowledge every five years, if not less often. And I am always happy when I come across a professional in his field, and not just a sales manager. Perhaps enough thought, let's talk about the envelopes.

First, the definition of an envelope from Wikipedia. It looks like my colleague wrote it in his favorite stationery:

An envelope (German Kuvert, French couvert, couvrir - to cover) is a cover for inserting, storing and sending papers or flat objects.

History

The prototype of modern envelopes was invented by an English paper merchant, a certain Brewer. In 1820 he made and sold his first envelope. The people liked the invention so much that the envelopes quickly flew around the world. But they "galloped" to Russia only after 35 years. Probably, the Russian Post took up the delivery of the novelty to the country. We also had success in store for them.

Ilya Laptev

Chief Editor

A little about envelopes

Mail envelopes are gradually becoming a thing of the past. But apparently, they are unlikely to disappear forever. Even today, they are still a practical necessity - when sending business letters with wet stamps, documents, official notices. They have long lost most of their communication functions, such as maintaining relationships at a distance. Nowadays, such correspondence is more used as a beautiful gesture, an expression of friendship, love, affection.

Envelopes from the past

Surprisingly, the symbolic use of envelopes takes us back to the 19th century. Then their appearance carried much more meaning than the content. But first things first.

Envelopes are not that long ago. At first glance, it seems that they should have appeared not much later than parchment or paper, or even earlier, because writing has existed since time immemorial. But this is only partly true. What we now call an envelope was actively used by people in the Middle Ages. The exact dates of the evolution of the envelope are unknown. Representatives of ancient civilizations used clay tablets as information carriers. Sometimes they were sealed in something like a brick, which the addressee could break and read what was written.

Much later, something that looks more like a modern envelope appeared. In the Middle Ages and up until the 19th century, envelopes had one problem. Seals made of sealing wax were used to seal them. Actually, this is where the expression "seal" came from. It was not so easy to open them: for this they had to be heated or considerable efforts had to be made to open them. In either case, the content could be damaged. At that time, it could take months to deliver correspondence, and the letter reached the addressee in a shabby form.

An attempt was made to solve the problem at the beginning of the 19th century. In England, local entrepreneurs have put on stream the production of envelopes for business letters. True, they were used more by romantically inclined ladies to send love letters, invitations to a ball, and spread gossip. In this case, the color of the sealing wax was more important than the content. Therefore, despite the invention of another method of gluing, almost no one used them. Sealing wax of the same color announced that you were invited to the ball. Another - that bad ones came to you. A little later, the envelopes began to change design. Letters began to be distinguished not only by the color of the sealing wax, but also by the color of the envelope. Each color corresponded to a different day. Thus, during business correspondence, it was more convenient to sort them so as not to get confused.

More familiar envelopes - without sealing wax and colored paper - began to be used in the 20th century. The pace and rhythm of life became more intense, the machines were more perfect. Now the address bar has become the main one.

The envelope! How many tricks does a boring rectangle carry?

The envelope has changed dramatically over the past century and a half. Over time, it turned into an ordinary quadrangle. However, to this day, it is fraught with many small tricks. Now, unlike in the 19th century, it is not customary to hint at the addressee about the contents of the color of the sealing wax or envelope. Nevertheless, these nuances remained in a modern envelope, though not so catchy.

Today envelopes are distinguished by several parameters. The most popular are offset envelopes. They are the most common because they are the cheapest. If an organization buys a large batch, these are usually ordered. They are made from the cheapest raw materials. They can be found in any stationery store. Such envelopes are used both for sending letters and for household needs: storing money, notes, receipts, and so on.

More expensive envelopes are made from coated paper. They are denser, stronger and lighter in color. These envelopes cost a little more, but it is much more pleasant to receive letters in them.

If a rectangle made of coated paper is just white, then the brown color of craft paper gives it more solidity, or at least mysteriousness. An ordinary envelope, even if it is of the most dazzling white color, can always be automatically put aside in the far corner and forgotten about it. You never know any spam comes to them. Craft paper gets more attention.

There is also bleached craft paper available. Brown is used in special cases, but bleached is the prerogative of large companies and reputable organizations for mass mailings.

One of the most popular formats is euro envelopes. They are slightly larger than the standard ones, made of good white, thick paper. Often they are produced with a plastic window in the address bar.

Modern technologies allow you to order individual envelopes. In this case, the customer himself determines what will be on such a rectangle (square, circle, triangle, etc.), how it will look, and so on. Here, fantasy is not limited to anything. Such envelopes are usually used to send individual messages to emphasize a special relationship to the addressee.

Psychology of the envelope

Despite the fact that now is far from the 19th century, the format, color and illustration of the envelope still matter. Previously, this was not hidden: the format necessarily had a semantic load. Nowadays, design is used rather for hidden commercial purposes in order to push the addressee to certain actions (decisions).

It also matters not only what the envelope is made of, but also what is drawn on it and how the recipient's lines are arranged. For the first few seconds, attention is focused on the address bar. Therefore, if you supplement the envelope with an image, placing it next to this place, you can attract attention and create a certain impression. The researchers say that bright, circular images are better perceived, as well as images of children. In this case, it is better when the picture shows movement, rather than static.

Typically, such techniques are used by companies that want to make a certain effect on the reader, motivate him to something or interest in something. Correctly selected colors, arrangement of pictures, as well as themes that correspond to the perception of the content, can really do a lot to achieve your goals.

Specifications of envelopes

With the exception of individual envelopes, all others have specific standards. So envelopes are distinguished by the type of gluing. They come with a wet-glue valve - mk. This is the old-fashioned way of wetting a sticky strip with saliva. Another type of gluing is a self-adhesive valve - sk. The top and bottom of the glue flaps are simply pressed together. Well, the most common method in our time is self-adhesive tape - skl. The tape is removed from the upper strip and glued to the lower part.

Also envelopes are distinguished by the format and location of the sealing flap. Today, the most common formats are: C6, E65, C65, C5, C4. The sealing flap can be located on the side or top. In addition, envelopes can have two types of address bar layout. Some have guide lines, others simply have corners printed to indicate where to fill out the address.

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In contact with

Despite the fact that mail is increasingly replaced by electronic means of communication, the 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 the 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 succeeded in bringing it back under the pretext of paradise apples jam for his uncle.

Envelope preimage

However, the 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

Previously, the usual paper messages were transmitted simply in a folded form, just like during the Great Patriotic War, soldiers sent home "triangles" - paper folded in a special way 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.

Manipulations with a candle could also damage the text of the document that 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 postage 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. Envelopes at that time were more of a fashion - along with openwork umbrellas from the sun, hats and skirts with crinoline. A whole system of special postal etiquette has developed around the envelope.

IN 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 monetary 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 made it possible to more successfully mechanize 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.

History of the mail envelope

Even those of us who neversentand did not receive letters written on paper, they are faced with a mailing envelope every day. Only, already inirrelevant. When they look through e-mail 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 turns 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 everythingthisunderstand.

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" by 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 the 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 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 admit 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 other sailor had been able to do before him - 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 rich in nutmeg, pepper and cloves of the Moluccas, 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, the 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 story 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 found out: the "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, 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. All of them are 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 extremely 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". So called 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 secrecy of the 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 from "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 must take pure white resin," the good Samuel Zimmermann wrote in his book, "dissolve it over a moderate charcoal fire and, when it is open, remove from the 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 a wedding, a chocolate one invited to a gala lunch or dinner, and black, 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 were sold in the form of sticks polished to a shine, and sometimes, to heighten the glamor, they were covered with bronze paint, silver plated 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, they were not satisfied with one wax seal, which fastened the letter, 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 constructed a pyramid of the finest writing paper of all possible formats, the top of which was crowned with a stack of sheets 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-facedthe envelope

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 of Great Britain 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 used to seal 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 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 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, 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. Many Russian families carefully keep letters from the fronts of the Great Patriotic War folded in the form of a triangle. 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 ordinary envelopes were simply not enough. It was in this 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. It 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, consider the front triangle as a special type 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 stamped? 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 centers 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 were open on 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 another monument was erected next to it - a concrete one 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.

The history of the origin of the envelope

“A modern person who writes letters and seals them in envelopes hardly asks himself the question where the envelope came from and what it owes its 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 business card-format paper.

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 store owner 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 twelve special enterprises with their production.