

Human: When did mailboxes become a thing?

Assistant: Mailboxes became a major feature of postal service during the US mail delivery redesign around the 1850s. Before that, mail was distributed by public posts located at town centers. Mailboxes make it much easier and faster for people to receive letters, and they’re now used all around the world.

Human: Public posts at town centers? Can you elaborate?

Assistant: 
Personal mail delivery didn’t really get started until the 1850s, when the United States Post Office adopted a new mail system. The new system was designed to improve on the old one, known as stagecoach mail, and make it possible for mail carriers to travel faster. The US Postmaster General, Aaron Brown, directed mail carriers to use horse-drawn wagons rather than stagecoaches and to deliver mail to houses directly instead of public posts located at town centers. These changes reduced delivery time from about 24 hours to 5 to 8 hours.
Prior to the mid-19th century in the US, mail was distributed at public posts located at town centers. In the 1840s new design reforms were introduced to standardize the delivery, packaging, sorting and route of letters being sent and distributed through the new US Postal Service. These reforms included newspapers and public mail boxes, and were implemented after Congress approved an act establishing a national postal system in 1845. America was certainly not the first country to introduce a postal system to deliver mail, and in fact were a little late to the party, with mail delivered somewhat informally throughout Europe for many decades prior to this.  