A letter box, letterbox or mailbox is a private box or slot for receiving incoming mail.
Two primary designs of letter boxes exist:
- a slot in a wall or door through which mail is delivered
- a box mounted near the street
Contents |
Slot
Almost all buildings in the United Kingdom feature letter boxes. They are commonly horizontal slots approximately 30 cm × 5 cm, found in the middle or lower half of a front door. Most are covered by a flap on the outside to offer a degree of weatherproofing. The flap may by sprung to prevent it opening and closing noisily in the wind. Many letter boxes also have a second flap on the inside to offer further protection from the elements. There may also be a small wire cage mounted on the inside of the door to catch the delivered mail. The British Post Office first encouraged people to install letter boxes to facilitate the delivery of mail in 1849. Before then, letter boxes of a similar design had been installed in the doors and walls of post offices for people to drop-off outgoing mail. An example of such a wall box (originally installed in the wall of the Wakefield Post Office) is dated 1809 and believed to be the oldest example in Britain. A number of designs of letter boxes have been patented, particularly in the USA.
History
First public mailboxes in Russia appeared in 13'th December 1848, they were made of wood and iron. But because these boxes were lightweight and easy to steal, they disappeared frequently. Because of that, future mailboxes were made of cast iron and could weigh 40 kilograms.
Box
To reduce the need for the mail carrier to walk extra distances when the front door is some distance from the street, letter boxes may be mounted on convenient posts at the property boundary. Many jurisdictions in the United States hold regulations stating the distance a letter box may be from the road. These boxes might have a slot to put the mail in, and a larger lockable door to take the mail out again. This design is popular where the distance between houses is larger, in countries like the United States and Australia. On a property with several units or businesses, a letterbox with multiple compartments is often used. The mail carrier will have a key to a large door on one side that reaches all the compartments, and the tenants will each have a key to the door into their individual compartment on the other side. In the U.S. some letter boxes are fitted with a semaphore arm - usually a red flag - that is raised to indicate to the mail carrier that there is outgoing mail in the letter box. However, this use in letter boxes has since dwindled in recent years because of fear of postage theft , especially since these traditional mail boxes often do not have a lock on them.
Standards
The European standard for letter boxes, EN 13724:2002 "Postal services – Apertures of private letter boxes and letter plates – Requirements and test methods", replaces earlier national standards such as BS 2911:1974 "Specification for letter plates" or DIN 32617. It specifies among other things
- that envelope size C4 (229 mm × 324 mm) must be deliverable without bending or damage;
- that the internal volume must able to hold at least a 40 mm high bundle of C4 envelopes;
- an aperture width of either 230–280 mm (> C4 width) or 325–400 mm (> C4 height);
- an aperture height of 30–35 mm;
- a mounting height of between 0.7 and 1.7 m for the aperture;
plus various privacy, theft-protection, rain protection, vandalism resistance and corrosion-resistance test requirements.
See also
 An unusual Australian letterbox |
 A mailbox in southern Nebraska, featuring a red semaphore arm |
 A typical suburban/exurban mailbox in North Carolina |
