Telecommunications History

Drop bag fittings are well constructed metal devices fitted in mail bags where large postal packets and parcels are sorted according to their destinations. This came into use in the late 19th century.

Old mail bags dates back to 1863. It was first made of leather satchels for free delivery service letter carriers to carry mails before the advent of parcel post in 1913 and in 1973 Leather satchel was replaced with Canvass ones.

Postman at work in Lagos Street

P and T staff discharging mails from the mail boat at the Lagos Port

Collections of Mail from Post Boxes in the city (Date: 19th September, 1956)

This is a 1920's brass faced 'Dynamometer', manufactured by Salter and made in England. It has a cast iron body with four large springs and two large apertures for fixing to the wire guide ropes. It was used to measure the weight of big mail bags and other postal item in the post offices. It was also used to measure the stress or strength on wire ropes on a huge Industrial land crane. The brass face is calibrated in 25lb units to 4500lb and is marked 'Salter Improved Dynamometer'.

The Balance Spring Scale apparatus is simply a spring fixed at one end with a hook to attach an object at the other. It works by Hooke's Law, which states that the force needed to extend a spring is proportional to the distance that spring is extended from its rest position. Therefore the scale markings on the spring scale are equally spaced. The first spring balance scale in Britain was made around 1770 by Richard Salter of Bilston, near West Bromwich.

This was introduced in England in 1908. The ideal office reckoner describes the rising by pence to 3 pounds published as RISING BY PENCE TO 3 POUNDS London Gall & Inglis. It has tables of Discount, Interest, Wages and Foreign Money. It includes year calendar, etc.

Express delivery docket is a paper statement that should match the goods delivered. It is a fast and economical delivery services that guaranteed next business day delivery of postal parcel when sending it through the express post network. It came into use in the late 1860s.

This is a savings bank book which contains the rules and records used to record bank transactions on a deposit account in a post office. It was introduced at about the same time as the Money Order Paid Journal in 1836.

A typewriter is a device that prints letters one at a time on paper using ink when the user presses keys on a keyboard. In 1902, American inventor Hidalgo Moya, arrived in Leicester, carrying his handmade model of what, at the time, he considered a revolutionary design of typewriter. A local businessman, Mr J.G. Chattaway, was persuaded to finance the opening of a small factory in Garton Street, Leicester, where The Moya Typewriter Company could develop, manufacture and market their new machine. The main aim was to produce a workable typewriter that would sell for five guineas. This he achieved but the machine was uneconomical to produce and not very successful. An improved second model was also unsuccessful. By 1908 Moya needed more financial assistance for the company to survive. Two local businessmen stepped in to back a successful third design which became the Imperial Model A, thus the Imperial Typewriter Company came into existence to become one of the world's leading typewriter manufacturers. Different models of the imperial typewriter were manufactured.

In 1902, Arthur Pitney patented his first "double-locking" hand-cranked postage-stamping machine, and, with patent attorney Eugene A. Rummler, founded the Pitney Postal Machine Company. In 1908, English emigrant and founder of the Universal Stamping Machine Company Walter Bowes began providing stamp-cancelling machines to the United States Postal Service.

Wax seals have been applied to official and other documents for over a thousand years. The seal-die that is pressed into the sealing wax is called a matrix. Modern discussions of medieval wax seals make references to seal presses. The earliest seal press designed (apparently) to emboss a seal onto paper rather than wax that we have identified was made in 1782.

This is commonly found in office supply stores and post offices. They consist of a thick felt base covered with fabric -black, blue, green, red, and purple. The basic supply for any die-hard stamp artist is the stamp and ink. In 1880, B.G. Volger pioneered stamp pads when he poured the gelatin into boxes and covered them with felt. By 1908 he perfected a formula for quick drying, non-smear ink and eliminated the odour. Today there are many different kinds of inks and stamp pads sold in the market among which is the Felt Stamp Pad -- commonly found in office supply stores.

Before fire extinguishers were invented by George Manby in 1813, fire blankets were used for over 100 years before 1813 to put out small fires. Fire blanket is a safety device designed to extinguish small incipient (starting) fires. It consists of a sheet of fire retardant material which is placed over a fire in order to smother it. Various types of fire blanket are given below;Small fire blankets: such as for use in kitchens and around the home, are usually made of fibreglass and sometimes Kevlar, and are folded in to a quick-release container for ease of storage.Larger fire blankets are for use in laboratory and industrial situations are often made of wool. These blankets are usually mounted in vertical quick-release cabinets so that they can be easily pulled out and wrapped round a person whose clothes are on fire.

These are addressing machines used to print names and addresses on newspapers, mailing labels, envelopes, form letters, and other items. The earliest addressing machines appear to have been used by publishers of periodicals, among others. These machines eventually led to a considerable savings in clerical labour for other companies with large mailing lists, such as insurance companies and companies that used direct mail advertising. The earliest known patent for an addressing machine was awarded to a Canadian, Robert Dick, in 1859.

This is a desktop electronic mail scanner for mail and parcels up to 2.5 (6cm) thick (about the size of a standard telephone directory). This model by the company: SCANNA SECURITY SYSTEMS LTD, LONDON, ENGLAND was made in 1977.