Early email proposalIn 1884, the New York Times reported that “sending mails by electricity” was to be investigated by the Post Office Committee of the U.S. House, by providing for contracts with an existing telegraph company. The proposal was that since carriage of letters by steam locomotives was already done by contract, the delivery of mails by electricity seemed analagous. Such a method would be economical, and “might speedily make the present volume of business seem infantile.” Contracting was suggested, since in 1869, an earlier report of the House Post Office Committee had been adverse to the idea of government ownership and expense of postal telegraph lines.« |
