In many English-speaking countries, a telegram messenger, more often known as a telegram delivery boy, telegraph boy or telegram boy was a young man employed to deliver telegrams, usually on bicycle. In the United Kingdom, they were employed by the General Post Office; in the United States, they worked for Western Union or other telegraph companies.
Telegram boys became popular in the United Kingdom after the General Post Office took over control of inland telegraphs from the railways and private telegraph companies. Many of the boys employed by these services to deliver telegrams transferred to the Post Office.
In some respects, the life of a telegram boy was not unlike that of someone in military service. They were expected to behave in a manner befitting one who wore the uniform of the Queen, and were required to complete a daily drill. Messengers, at least in London, were required to carry a blue book of instructions at all time, and produce them whenever they were ordered to. Rules included specifications on appearance, dictating that messengers must keep themselves clean and their hair short, and be courteous whenever speaking to anyone. The rulebook also sought to control their behavior, forbidding messenger boys from sliding down staircase handrails; from smoking, gambling, or playing cards while in uniform; and from entering public houses except to deliver messages. [1] From 1915 to 1921, morning exercise was added to these requirements.
During the 1930s the Post Office introduced motorcycles. This started in Leeds where boys aged 17 were allowed to volunteer for training, but only with the permission of their parents. However, following the success of this, motorcycles were soon introduced elsewhere in the country. The fleet was comprised almost exclusively of BSA B33-1 250cc motorbikes which boys were expected to ride at an average of 15 mph. Later 125cc BSA Bantams were used. These were finally replaced with smaller Raleigh and Puch models.
During its heyday in the 1930s, the service was delivering an average of 65 million telegrams per year; however, the service was running at a loss, estimated at £1 million annually.
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s the use of telegrams had dropped significantly, with around 10 million sent annually in the mid-1960s. Consequently, the Post Office took the decision in 1977 to abolish the service. The service continued for a few years and was briefly operated by British Telecom after it split from the Post Office. British Telecom announced on 19 October 1981 that the telegram would be discontinued, [2] and it was finally taken out of service on 30 September 1982 after 139 years in the United Kingdom. [3]
The telegram as such was superseded by the British Telecom Telemessage service, introduced in October 1982. [3] Messages were dictated over the telephone or sent via telex, printed, and delivered overnight by first class post in a distinctive envelope guaranteed for next day delivery, rather than by messenger. [3]
Telegraph boys were boys under the age of 18 who carried telegrams through urban streets and who were generally not union members. [4] The job came with inherent hazards. Boys were expected to "scorch" their bicycles in urban traffic by violating traffic laws in order to reach their destinations more quickly. At night, the boys might be required to enter the red light districts in connection with their job duties. [5]
As of October 2023 [update] , Israel Post still offers a domestic telegram service via its website. [6]
The Birmingham Small Arms Company Limited (BSA) was a major British industrial combine, a group of businesses manufacturing military and sporting firearms; bicycles; motorcycles; cars; buses and bodies; steel; iron castings; hand, power, and machine tools; coal cleaning and handling plants; sintered metals; and hard chrome process.
Bicycle messengers are people who work for courier companies carrying and delivering items by bicycle. Bicycle messengers are most often found in the central business districts of metropolitan areas. Courier companies use bike messengers because bicycle travel is less subject to unexpected holdups in city traffic jams, and is not deterred by parking limitations, fees or fines in high-density development that can hinder or prevent delivery by motor vehicle, thereby offering a predictable delivery time.
Royal Mail Group Limited, trading as Royal Mail, is a British postal service and courier company. It is owned by International Distributions Services. It operates the brands Royal Mail and Parcelforce Worldwide (parcels). The company used the name Consignia for a brief period in the early 2000s.
Triumph Engineering Co Ltd was a British motorcycle manufacturing company, based originally in Coventry and then in Meriden. A new company, Triumph Motorcycles Ltd, based in Hinckley, gained the name rights after the end of the company in the 1980s and is now one of the world's major motorcycle manufacturers.
A courier is a person or organization that delivers a message, package or letter from one place or person to another place or person. Typically, a courier provides their courier service on a commercial contract basis; however, some couriers are government or state agency employees.
Rockers are members of a biker subculture that originated in the United Kingdom during the late 1950s and was popular in the 1960s. It was mainly centred on motorcycles and rock 'n' roll music. By 1965, the term greaser had also been introduced to Great Britain and, since then, the terms greaser and rocker have become synonymous within the British Isles, although used differently in North America and elsewhere. Rockers were also derisively known as Coffee Bar Cowboys. Their Japanese counterpart was called the Kaminari-Zoku.
The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) was inspired by and modeled on The Boy Scouts Association, established by Robert Baden-Powell in Britain in 1908. In the early 1900s, several youth organizations were active, and many became part of the BSA.
The history of the motorcycle begins in the second half of the 19th century. Motorcycles are descended from the "safety bicycle," a bicycle with front and rear wheels of the same size and a pedal crank mechanism to drive the rear wheel. Despite some early landmarks in its development, the motorcycle lacks a rigid pedigree that can be traced back to a single idea or machine. Instead, the idea seems to have occurred to numerous engineers and inventors around Europe at around the same time.
U.S. Special Delivery was a postal service paid for with additional postage for urgent letters and postal packets which are delivered in less time than by standard or first class mail service. Its meaning is different and separate from express mail delivery service. Essentially it meant that a postal packet was delivered from a post office to the addressee immediately once it arrived at the post office responsible for delivering it, rather than waiting for the next regular delivery to the addressee.
La Poste is a postal service company in France, operating in Metropolitan France, the five French overseas departments and regions and the overseas collectivity of Saint Pierre and Miquelon. Under bilateral agreements, La Poste also has responsibility for mail services in Monaco through La Poste Monaco and in Andorra alongside the Spanish company Correos.
The Department of Posts, functioning under the brand name Sri Lanka Post, is a government operated postal system in Sri Lanka. The postal headquarters is the General Post Office which is located in Colombo. The department itself comes under the purview of the Ministry of Information and Mass Media. It was formerly known as the Ceylon Post and Telecommunications Department and is one of the oldest Government departments in existence today.
The BSA M20 is a British motorcycle formerly made by Birmingham Small Arms Company (BSA) at their factory in Small Heath, Birmingham. Although initially viewed as a near failure by the War Office in 1936, the M20 evolved into one of the longest serving motorcycles in the history of British military motorcycling, as well as becoming the most numerous type produced for World War II with 126,000 in active service. Many are still in use around the world today.
The General Post Office (GPO) was the state postal system and telecommunications carrier of the United Kingdom until 1969. Established in England in the 17th century, the GPO was a state monopoly covering the dispatch of items from a specific sender to a specific receiver ; it was overseen by a Government minister, the Postmaster General. Over time its remit was extended to Scotland and Ireland, and across parts of the British Empire.
The postal history of Hungary is strongly linked to the history of Hungary. While a messenger system was brought to the Carpathian Basin by Árpád as early as 895, modern mail delivery was first organized by the Habsburgs under the Austrian Empire.
A motorcycle ambulance is a type of emergency response vehicle which carries either a solo paramedic, emergency medical technician, or first responder to a patient; or may also be used with a trailer or sidecar for transporting patients. Because of its small size and agile performance, a motorcycle ambulance is able to respond to a medical emergency much faster than a car or conventional ambulance vehicle in heavy traffic, which can increase survival rates for critically ill patients, especially those in cardiac arrest.
The Triumph Bandit was a British motorcycle manufactured as a prototype by Triumph in 1970. Originally designed by Edward Turner as his last project it was subsequently substantially modified at Triumph by a greatly critical Bert Hopwood and Doug Hele. Despite their work, the Bandit never went into commercial production, and only five have survived, making them very rare.
A fire motorcycle is a specialist motorcycle modified for use by a fire brigade or fire department. Several countries around the world use fire vehicles based on a motorcycle, often for rapid intervention to beat traffic congestion. The equipment carried ranges from simple extinguishers to jet guns with hose rigs. Firefighters may also use fire motorcycles to offer medical first aid treatment. In the United Kingdom, fire motorcycles are used by some fire services for road safety awareness campaigns.
BSA motorcycles were made by the Birmingham Small Arms Company Limited (BSA), which was a major British industrial combine, a group of businesses manufacturing military and sporting firearms; bicycles; motorcycles; cars; buses and bodies; steel; iron castings; hand, power, and machine tools; coal cleaning and handling plants; sintered metals; and hard chrome process.
In the nineteenth century, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland had the world's first commercial telegraph company. British telegraphy dominated international telecommunications well into the twentieth. Telegraphy is the sending of textual messages by human operators using symbolic codes. Electrical telegraphy used conducting wires to send messages, often incorporating a telegram service to deliver the telegraphed communication from the telegraph office. This is distinct from optical telegraphy that preceded it and the radiotelegraphy that followed. Though Francis Ronalds first demonstrated a working telegraph over a substantial distance in 1816, he was unable to put it into practical use. Starting in 1836, William Fothergill Cooke, with the scientific assistance of Charles Wheatstone, developed the Cooke and Wheatstone telegraph. The needle telegraph instrument suggested by Wheatstone, the battery invented by John Frederic Daniell, and the relay invented by Edward Davy were important components of this system.
The Rohrpostin Berlin, was a pneumatic tube postal service, which existed from 18 November 1865 until 1963 in West Berlin and in East Berlin until 1976.
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