Presented by BOB VAN CLEEF of the North River Railway

SENDING A LETTER IN 1776

LIFE IN COLONIAL TIMES

• Back in the good ‘ol days you didn’t send a message by just typing in your text and hitting “SEND”. No siree! It just wasn’t that simple.

• There were no movie theaters and playhouses were rare. News was delivered by gossip, from the pulpit or the town crier in the town square. People made their own entertainment - Prominent citizens provided rooms for small gatherings.

• Most people rarely traveled more than

about 20 miles from home as that was

a good day’s ride by horse.

• Only the Government and a few wealthy

individuals could afford to import goods

from Europe and it took up to a year after

an order was placed to receive the goods.

MAIL in the COLONIES• The English Royal Crown

originally provided Mail services between major inland towns in the American colonies.

• Post riders were given routes with strict schedules they were expected to keep.

• Mileposts (complements of Benjamin Franklin) were erected to both insure he was on the right route and if he was on time.

• Mail was delivered only to towns when the service was first started but progressed to hand delivery to the person addressed.

MAIL IN THE COLONIES

Local Philadelphia currency with mica flakes printed by

Franklin

• In 1733 Benjamin Franklin published his First edition of Poor Richard’s Almanac. He also bribed the royal mail service couriers to deliver his products through the king’s mail.

• Philadelphia appointed young Mr. Franklin as the city’s postmaster general in 1737.

• In 1753 the British appointed Franklin as joint deputy post master for all the colonies.

• In 1774 Franklin was “judged too sympathetic to the colonies” and dismissed by the crown.

• A bit later he also printed the currency for a new nation.

SENDING A LETTER• Most letters were local at first and

simply handed to someone in town.

• Soon, sending a letter for any distance however was both complex and expensive.

• Envelopes were considered a luxury and often simply not available at first.

• The cost of mail delivery was by the sheet, not by weight.

• The Letter itself was folded and became the envelope itself.

The creases that appear here show how the letter was folded.

The Red mark on the center bottom was from sealing wax.

Look carefully to see the printing on the reverse side

The printing on the left would be covered when folded.

PREPARE THE LETTER How this letter was folded.

1)Fold and unfold the letter to find the center of the sheet.

2)Fold the top and bottom to the center fold.

3)Fold left edge at a bit more than 1/3 the width of the sheet.

4)Fold the right edge to not quite the right edge leaving enough room for the seal

5)Seal the letter.

6)These folds could be done by an experienced post master in less that 15 seconds.

CROSS WRITING• Americans have always been

resourceful if nothing else.• Since postage was by the

sheet, and some found it difficult to write small. They used the same sheet twice by writing the second ‘page’ ACROSS the first as shown here.

• It may have taken time to decipher but consider it also probably took several weeks to be delivered.

CALCULATING POSTAGE

While it is difficult to equate Colonial wages with modern times This early rate table makes it plain that it would cost a layman almost a month’s wages to send a letter From Boston to New York

• Postage was based on the number of sheets and the distance traveled.

• Counting the number of sheets was easy

• Calculating distances was a nightmare.

• First, the routes by land was constantly changing due to new roads, constantly expanding and shifting of population with new towns.

• Changes in management and treaties also caused constant changes to the published rate tables.

CALCULATING PAYMENT

• Postal rate charts were expressed in British currency and converted to pennyweights and grains of silver so that postage could be computed in colonial currency

• Charts such as this were displayed in local post offices. 

• British currency was confusing enough…

ENGLISH CURRANCY£  = pound (or l in some documents) s. or /- = shillingD = penny (for 'denarius', a Roman coin)

1 Pound = 240 grains sterling silver1 pound = 20 shillings .1 shilling  = 12 pennies.1 penny  = 2 halfpennies 1 Penny = four farthings (quarter pennies).1 halfpenny = 2 farthings1 penny (1d) = 2 halfpence 1 thruppence (3d) = 3 pence 1 sixpence = 6 pence (a 'tanner') (6d)

1 shilling (a bob) = 12 pence 1 florin = 2 shillings ( a 'two bob bit') 1 half crown = 2 shillings and 6 pence 1 Crown = 5 shillings * Sterling silver was 92.5% pure silver and 7.5% copper

NEW YORK CURRANCY• Some post offices were faced

with a huge array of money.• New York, for instance, harbored

more privateers and pirates than the Caribbean.

• It was also the port to many countries around the world.

• Pieces of eight from Spain as well as coins from France, Italy, Portugal, Canada were not uncommon.

• All these denominations, both paper and metallic had to be converted to British equivalents.

• This included both Gold and Silver.

PAYMENT• Once the postal rate was

calculated the value of the coins had to be determined.

• Scales were used to measure grains of silver, gold, or coins of questionable value.

• Counterfeiting and the shaving of high value coins was rampant.

• Coins of known values were kept on hand to further verify coin values.

1 grain of silver weighs .0678 grams Or .00208 troy ounces

READY FOR POST RIDER • Postage was always

defined in British money.

• Stamps did not exist until 1847.

• The amount paid (25 pence) was simply hand-written in the upper right hand corner.

• Note the lack of street number and zip code. They didn’t exist either.

ENVELOPES• Sometimes in big cities and

towns the store would cut and pre-fold paper for letters.

• Templates were also available for “standard size” dispatches.

• The user would buy the paper, write, then seal it wit wax to keep it closed, and handed to someone who was going to the closest post office

• The post master would add the postage to the customer’s account and prepare it for the post rider.

Early post offices were often located in a local tavern.

ORIGAMI FOLDS

The few Origami fold symbols displayed here are used to show how envelopes were folded. While Origami existed Centuries before in Japan it was quite rare in the colonies. Hundreds of ways have been developed since but again only a very few were actually used before the revolution and even then mostly for special occasions.

LOCKLESS FOLD• This very simple fold

was probably the most common.

• It did little to provide security.

• It did make the letter smaller and less subject to being crumpled.

POCKET BOOK FOLD

• The Pocket-book was an example of a single-lock fold.• Note that in step 5 the corner is tucked into a pocket at the lower

right corner. This is the single-lock• took a few seconds longer but made the letter much more secure

and smaller for an un-wrinkled delivery.

DOUBLE LOCK FOLD

• This is an example of a double lock fold.

• Note that in step 5 there are two corners to be tucked into their respective pockets.

• This of course makes the letter even more secure and can enclose small and flat objects.

• It can be made even more secure by using sealing wax in two places.

PEPI FOLD

The PEPI fold is high security single lock fold that folds down to a very small size.

TWO BY ONE

Another high security fold similar to the PEPI but done across the width instead of lengthwise.

RUSSIAN FOLD

• Russian soldiers sending letters home during WW-II had paper but no postcards or envelopes.

• They couldn’t be sealed anyway as they had to be reviewed by censors.

• The result was this unique triangular shape that allowed the letter to be opened, read and then closed without damage.

A SMALL SAMPLING OF OTHER FOLDS

RESOURCES

Medieval Manuscript Manual - http://web.ceu.hu/medstud/manual/MMM/home.html All about medieval period writing. Good background for Colonial writing.

The Rittenhouse Mill - https://books.google.com/books?id=dYpZZTzBxz0C&pg=PA3&lpg=PA3&dq=early+american+paper+making&source=bl&ots=zzey-JNI1-&sig=fhfjVXZcpuj2a3rTi_rx7lpdiO8&hl=en&sa=X&ei=v6GJVb2vH8HJsAXgoYDACw&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAzgK#v=onepage&q=early%20american%20paper%20making&f=false

All about the first American paper mill in Pennsylvania. A complete description of the workings of a paper mill.

Folding Envelope and Letter - http://www.ghh.com/elf/index.htmlA good basic source for folding letters and envelopes

Postal History of the United States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postage_stamps_and_postal_history_of_the_United_States

A short history of the early postal service

For More Information…

Once Upon a Time - http://www.paperindustryweb.com/oncetime.htm - A background history of paper making in the colonies

Arnold Grummer Paper making kits and supplies http://arnoldgrummer.com/ A complete line of paper making kits, supplies and instructional videos.

This presentation has been brought to you by the North River Railway

Bob Van Cleef46 BroadwayCoventry, CT 06238http://www.northriverrailway.net

THE END

PAPER MAKING TERMS

 

Mold – A device for making paper consisting of two parts, the deckle and the frame

A 'pour' hand mold has a deckle (frame) with high sides, usually 3 inches or so. To make paper, the hand mold is set in a dishpan with 3-4 inches of water. A small amount of pulp is poured into the deckle. 

A 'dip' hand mold has a deckle (frame) with shallow sides. It is dipped into a dishpan filled with 3-4 inches of pulp. 

Deckle – was the upper part of the mold. It was a hardwood box or fence that contained the paper slurry as the sheet was being formed

The frame was the lower part of the mold. It consisted or a screen, the screen support, and a wooden structure that mated with the deckle.

The screen support can be made from a Florescent light screen

 

WATERMARK - A design or pattern put into paper during its production, by making thinner the layer of pulp when it is still wet by wire or other means.

 

MASK – Template placed over the screen to form a shaped piece of paper smaller than the deckle such as for non-rectangular shapes or multiple smaller pieces of paper.

Template – a shaped piece of metal, wood, card, plastic, or other material used as a pattern for processes such as painting, cutting out or shaping

 

Linters – Linters is a tiny fiber that is left behind on the cotton seed after ginning removes the longer cotton fibers from the seed. Cotton linter is such an outstanding addition to the slurry that as little as 10% cotton linter to 90% recycled computer paper will make a very high quality, strong and beautiful paper for all sorts of papermaking uses. 

 

Vatman – Shredded the cotton and silk rags, mixed them with water,

pounded the mixture and molded the damp pulp in a mold

 

Coucher – Took paper from mold and placed on felt and built a post

 

Layman – peeled the paper from the felt and hanged it to dry and re-built post