THE ENVELOPE.

Shannon News, 7 September 1928, Page 1

THE ENVELOPE.

WHO INVENTED IT?

When you have received a letter, has* the question ever come to you, ‘ Wh» was it that invented the envelope!' During thousands of years of Writing by man, no one, it seems, ever thought of making just is so of cover for a message or letter. The people of three or four thousand years ago, especially the Babylonians and the Egyptians, often wrote such messages ■ on clay plates, then baked the plates, sprinkled them with smooth powder, and then put on an outer covering of clay all around the letter. This outer cover was sometimes baked also, or frequently simply allowed to dry, and then the epistle was ready to be sent. When the one for whom it was intended received it, he simply eracked the outer clay crust with a tiny hammer, stripped off the broken pieces, and found his baked letter ready to be read. The powder sprinkled over it had prevented the coverings from sticking to it. Sometimes among the Egyptians and people of ancient India lue letter was w ritten on dried reeds flattened out and pressed together into a Sort of paper’ called papyrus, and'then this was covered wdtli strips of the'same material placed at right angles to the message and gummed together at the corners. Sealing Wax. Then for hundreds of years, during the Dark Ages and the medieval days, when sheepskin parchment or a crude form of paper was in use, it was the custom to write the letter so as to leave the back of the last sheet blank, ond. then fold this sheet so that its blank side could be used for the ad-) dress. The corners of the folded message w r ere held together with sealing wax—a very necessary article on every writing table in those days. It w'ould seem that the first man ever mentioned as an envelope maker was a -Frenchman named de Valayer. As long ago as 1653 be obtained a permit from the King of France to manufacture and sell in Paris envelopes with stamps ou them, or as we now say, postpaid. Tho idea was slow, however in being followed, and evidently it was' not uhtil'l7oo tliat Ehglahd“began to use such covers. In fact, the very first time that wc can find the word * envelope* ’ used in the English language as the name of such a cover for a letter, was in 1714, when a certain Bishop Burnett WTote down the word.

Even as late as 3825 Charles Lamb, the English essayist, mentioned the envelope as a novelty. And, indeed, even at that time, both the British and French looked upon it as such a luxury that it was made of the daintiest, most expensive paper, and could be afforded by only the most wealthy. The first man to make a business 0.. manufacturing envelopes in England, was a certain Brewer } of Brighton, who began in 1830 to cut them out by hand In America they were being made bj Edward Maxwell, of Louisville, Ky., a.early as 1835; in fact, it is claimed that he cut out with his penknife every envelope sold in Louisville between 182 f and 1840. But yet that was not ne< cossarily a great many; for as late a:Civil War days thousands of letters written in America were still faldeo with the blank last page to be ueefl for the address. The Gummed Flap. In those old days the flap of tlu envelope was not gummed as it is to day, and every letter writer had L have a tiny wafer of sealing wax on hand for fastening even a regular oi bought envelope. In 1840, however 'an envelope with a piece ,of gum about half an inch square fastened to the flap was put on the market, and this proved so popular that the older kind went out of fashion. When about 1845 envelope makers began to gum the whole flap there was loud complaint from buyers for* the reason that the glue required too much licking and also had an unpleasant taste. But by 3850 the use of mint in the gum had largely overcome this prejudice, and those who wished to seem up-to-date, especially in business circles, bought the new-fangle, envelope. As late, however, as ISSO more ..than ten out of every hundred letters mail-, ed in great Britain used the folded last page instead of an envelope, and as late as 1855 such a substitute for the envelope was exceedingly common in America. It. is a long step from the baked clay wrapper of .the ancient Babylonian letter to the strong, light, dainty letter cover of our day, but the purpose has doubtless always been the same: to keep the message for the eyes alone of the one for whom it was intended and to protect it from damage on its journey to him.