George Stephenson

George Stephenson who is an illiterate until the age of 17 rocked the whole world with his Steam engine.  He is considered as the "Father of Railways".  

George Stephenson was born on 9th June 1781 in England.  His father is worked in the coal mine finding hard to make both ends meet.  To make things easier George worked in the same coal mine in his child hood.

When he was working in the coal mine he was watching the animals struggling to pull the load of coals, he determined to invent something for hauling coal.  He realized the need of education, he enrolled himself in the night school at the age of 18. 

After getting inspiration from James Watt's stationery steam machines, he made a locomotive called "Blucher" for dragging coal at Killingworth Collinery. Because of this success he was appointed as a engineer for the construction of the Stockton and Darlington railway. He successfully made a engine called "Locomotion No.1"  which was the first passenger train.

Latter he designed a engine called Rocket which won the competition conducted by the directors of Liverpool and Manchester Railway.  It is still in the working condition.

Many countries including America, Belgium, Spain consulted him for their railway and they used some of his engines.  His son Robert stand by him and supported him in his experiment with engines.

George died at the age of 67 at Chesterfield. 

The above stamp was issued by Magyar Posta in 1981 shows George Stephenson along side his passenger engine "Locomotion No.1"

People At Work: Post Men and Women

The concept of mail - conveying a message from the sender to receiver in a written form - dates back to the invention of writing itself.  Even though Egyptian employed Pharos to send and receive written documents throughout Egypt, Romans are the ones who started proper postal system under Augustus Caesar.
At first mails were send through friends, merchants and native people.  After the development proper mail service first they were delivered by the couriers appointed by the local authorities.  They run with the mail from one place to another at regular interval of time.  Then horses, mules, camels and stage coaches are introduced.  Along with the increase in population several Post offices formed and the post man, post box, delivery system everything took several  faces.

The concept of community mail boxes is prevalent in many parts of the world.  Due to houses been spread over large area, mail boxes were installed in a common place.

 

The process of sorting mail has evolved over the years.  The concept of zip codes or PIN codes play a key role.  With the advent of Bar codes and computers most new mail gets sorted using OCR and Bar Codes.

Below you can see a Swiss stamp depicting a mobile sorting facility.

 

 

In olden days mail was mainly delivered by Post man waling long distances in rural terrain.  

The uniform worn by postmen and women has changed over time. And so has the look over the post boxes. Below you can see the 'pillar post box' which is a common feature of most of the erstwhile British Empire.

The uniform of the early postmen of India was very distinctive, with their unique head-gear and cummerband (waist-band). While the mail was delivered by hand, the long distances between postal offices were traversed by road on animal drawn carts.

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As time went by, the mode of transport moved to cycles and then other motorized vehicles. Till today, post men/women use cycles for local delivery of post in India.

    

The importance of mail and it's reach can be gauged by the picture on the Bangladeshi stamp below. We can see people queuing up to avail postal services from a mobile post office.