Stories about information transmission

Letters from Hongyan-Letters from afar

According to records, in the first year of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty (BC 100), Su Wu, the ambassador of the Han Dynasty, sent him to the North Sea (now Lake Baikal) to shepherd sheep, and was detained by Khan (the Xiongnu monarch). 19 years later, Zhao Han succeeded to the throne, and Han and Hungary reconciled and got married. The envoys of the Han Dynasty came to Hungary to ask Su Wu to return to China. Khan refused, but he couldn't say it, so he lied that Su Wu was dead. Later, Emperor Hanzhao sent envoys to the Huns, and Chang Hui, the detained deputy envoy who sent envoys to the Huns together with Su Wu, secretly met with the envoys of the Han Dynasty one night with the help of the jailer, told the envoys of the Han Dynasty about Su Wu, and came up with a plan for the envoys of the Han Dynasty to tell Khan: "When Emperor Hanzhao was hunting in Shanglinyuan, he killed a goose with a letter written on silk tied to his foot, which said that Su Wu was not dead. Han was very happy after hearing this, so he blamed Khan according to Chang Hui's words. Khan was surprised after hearing this, but he couldn't deny it, so he had to let Su Wu go back. Therefore, Su Wu is regarded as the most virtuous diplomat in the history of China, and The Biography of Hongyan was once regarded as a beautiful talk. This virtual goose has since become the embryonic form of China Post's symbol of soaring.

You may not need this, but I'll write it down and have a look.

Stories of transmitting information in ancient and modern times

beacon-fire

In ancient China, in order to transmit military information, people used to set up beacon towers to transmit information with fire and smoke. The beacon tower burns wolf dung during the day and lights firewood at night. Legend has it that when burning wolf dung, a lot of smoke goes straight into the blue sky, which is easier to be found than daytime fire, so bonfires are sometimes called wolf smoke. Found the enemy lit a bonfire, spread from Taiwan Province to Taiwan Province, spread to the barracks. More than 2,700 years ago, the bonfire early warning system in China during the Zhou Dynasty was very complete.

Running a marathon is telling.

In ancient times when transportation and communication were underdeveloped, people had to rely on two legs or ride horses to transmit information. The marathon was set up to commemorate a hero who died more than 2,000 years ago and deliver good news. In 490 BC, the Greek army repelled the invasion of Persian King Darius I in Marathon Plain. Fidel Pitts, the messenger, ran from marathon to Athens, the capital, and reported the good news in one breath. When he ran 42.6438+095 kilometers, he rushed to Athens Square to finish the good news and fell to the ground exhausted and died. In order to commemorate the heroic deeds of this soldier, the distance he ran was listed as a long-distance running event at the first Olympic Games in the world in 1896.

Send information through the post office

The invention of writing promoted people's communication, and communication began from now on. As early as the Zhou Dynasty, China set up a special post station to deliver official documents, and rode the official documents from the post station to the post station. At the same time, a relatively complete post station system was established, which realized fast and accurate communication. After the Qin dynasty unified the six countries, the information transmission system of the post station was determined as the administrative organization of the country. Postal service transmits information at a speed of about15km per hour to realize long-distance communication. It was already fast at that time.

Pigeons and monkeys

In order to transmit information, ancient people also came up with many strange methods, such as drift bottles, signal trees, homing pigeons, monkeys and so on.

In Bekasa, Nigeria, people use monkeys to deliver letters. People keep the mother monkey and the son monkey in two places respectively, and often take the mother monkey to find the son monkey to let the mother monkey know the route. When people need to communicate, they put the letter in a bamboo tube and tie it to the mother monkey, so that she can go out and look for the baby monkey. The mother monkey can always deliver the letter to her destination.

Carrier pigeons have been an effective information transmission tool since ancient times. In today's highly developed communication technology, homing pigeons still have their own place. In war, communication is crucial. However, once a nuclear war breaks out, the strong electromagnetic radiation generated by the nuclear explosion will paralyze all kinds of existing electronic communication systems, but homing pigeons can still fly freely. The Swiss army trained and bred homing pigeons that can throw books in two directions. These homing pigeons no longer deliver traditional letters, but carry computer chips in capsules, and the password information in them can only be read on special equipment, which is extremely confidential. Carrier pigeons may even become special signalmen.

The emergence of the post office

It is generally believed that the post office was established by King cyrus the great of Persia. Ju Lushi ruled a huge empire, and the delivery of letters and information by messengers could no longer meet the needs of the empire. To this end, he established a postal management department composed of many post stations, which was the earliest post office. These stations are separated by a certain distance and are responsible for taking care of the post horses that run one stop every day.

China had a postal system long ago, and it was basically perfect in the Tang Dynasty. The Yuan Dynasty also rectified the system of post stations connecting the East and the West.

In 3 1 year BC, during the reign of Augustus, the Romans modeled such institutions and established public post stations. The station is equipped with post horses that feed grass and guest rooms for past officials.

In the Middle Ages, Romanesque post offices disappeared and monasteries spread all over Europe. The communication between monasteries is carried out by using parchment scrolls called "sacrificial coffins". The first monastery wrote their rumors on the paper roll, and when they arrived at the monastery, coupled with their rumors, the paper roll became longer and longer. For example, the scroll conveying the death of the abbot of St. Hueros is 9.5 meters long and 0.25 meters wide. People call it the Monk Post Office.

Qing Post Office was founded in Tongzhi period of Qing Dynasty (1862- 1875), and it was one of the thirteen post offices in Shanghai in Qing Dynasty. It has gone through different stages, such as private letter bureau, foreign post office, newspaper office, customs post office and Daqing post office. At present, it is the only remaining post office site of Qing Dynasty in East China, and it is also the epitome of modern postal history in China.

1878 (the fourth year of Guangxu in Qing dynasty), Yantai "Huayang Letters Library" set up a branch in Zhoucun, which was the predecessor of Zibo Post Office in Qing dynasty. /kloc-at the end of 0/900, Zhoucun Daqing Post Office opened. 1902 set up Boshan second-class Daqing post office, with two agencies and five mail counters in Badou and Xiye Street, including 2 village posts, 2 Yishui and Wangzhuang posts, and 4 Laiwu and Taian posts. On 1904, postal agencies were set up in pharmacies in Guang Shun, Xiguan, Linzi and Jiankangtang. The following year, Huantai set up third-class post offices and sub-offices in Zhangdian and Suozhen. Zhangdian Daqing Post Sub-office is located in Dongsi Street, Zhangdian Street, and handles letters and remittance business for merchants. Shizhou Village, Zichuan, Xincheng (Huantai) Town, Zhangdian and other bureaus belong to Jinan General Administration, while Boshan, Linzi, Jinling and He Zi belong to Qingzhou General Administration.

After the Revolution of 1911, "Qing Post Office" was renamed "Zhonghua Post Office". The post office is divided into four levels: postman, postman, postman and bureau clerk. The original Zhangdian Daqing Post Office moved to Nanbei Street.

1919 65438+10, Linzi, where Chunghwa Post is located, was established. It started as a third-class post office and was upgraded to a second-class post office in June of the following year. In rural areas, there are four branches, namely Xindian, Zihedian, Sunlou and Xiguan. 1920 In August, Huantai County Post Office (third-level bureau), Zhangdian Post Office (third-level bureau, later promoted to second-level bureau), Zhoucun Post Office (second-level bureau) and Boshan Post Office (second-level bureau) were established. Huantai County Post Office has letter boxes in Beishiqiao and Caocun Shantou Bridge, which are handled by merchants.

192 1 year, Boshan post office added two postmen to patrol outside villages and towns, divided into north and south roads, and toured for one week on the 3rd. Xihe, Yolanda, Badou, xia zhuang and Xingjiazhuang all have envelope cabinets.

1924, Zhangdian Zhonghua Post Office was changed into a second-class second bureau, and three private houses were rented to handle bills of exchange, insured letters and ordinary letters. There is also a post office in Nanding.

1926, Zhangdian Post Office moved to the original Zhangdian No.2 Road (now West No.1 Road) and added parcel mailing services. At the same time, mailboxes have been set up in Li Fusheng and Gu Wei, and mailing offices have been set up in Ma Shang and Gu Wei to handle small remittance business.

193 1 year, Xindian branch was upgraded to Xindian post office.

1943, Tieshan, Gu Wei and Shiqiao set up postal agencies, which were later changed to post offices to handle small remittance business.

From 65438 to 0945, Zhangdian and Nanding were both secondary and secondary post offices. Zhangdian Post Office 1 Director, 2 postal clerks, 3 messengers and 4 coolies. There are also postal agencies in the Great Wall and Ma Shang.

1March, 948, the whole territory of Zibo was liberated, and "Zhonghua Post Office" was taken over by the wartime post office. Until today's network communication, e-mail.

The earliest envelope

Before the birth of envelopes, people were very nervous about the confidentiality of letters. In order to send a letter, the ancient Greeks shaved off the slave's hair, wrote a letter on his scalp, and sent the letter after the hair grew. The recipient can read the contents of the letter by shaving the slave's hair. BC 10 century, the Assyrians in Mesopotamia made writing paper out of clay tablets, carved the contents of letters, and then put them in pottery and burned them. The receiver must break the pottery to know the contents of the letter.

During the Spring and Autumn Period, Warring States Period, Qin and Han Dynasties in China, the common letters were wooden slips. Wooden slips are generally 1 foot long and about 0.33 meters long, so they are also called foot slips. The envelope is made of wood, carp-shaped, with one bottom and one cover sandwiched outside the letter. Carve three wire slots on the board, tie them with rope for three times, and then tie them through a square hole. Check the wood at the end or intersection of the line, seal it with mud, and stamp it as a letter of inspection to prevent unauthorized disassembly. This kind of wooden board can be regarded as the earliest envelope in the history of China.

After China wax was introduced into Europe, sealing paint became the magic weapon of communication secrecy. 1820, British bookseller Brewer found that many ladies and gentlemen were keen on writing letters, but they were afraid that the contents of the letters would be known, so they designed several envelopes. This is the first batch of paper commodity envelopes in the world. 1844, the first machine for pasting envelopes appeared in London. Since then, paper envelopes have become popular all over the world.

The postmark on the envelope

Now the main purpose of postmark is to stamp. However, postmarks appeared more than 400 years earlier than stamps. 1In the 1930s, the post office in Venice, Italy first used postmarks. At that time, it was just a small stamp on the mail, indicating the place name of the mail. Since then, there has been a postmark of postage paid, but there is no specific date.

16 1 year, Bishop, the director of the British General Post Office, created the world's first postmark with a date in order to check and assess whether the postman delivered the mail in time, which made the postmark perfect and has been used ever since. This postmark is earlier than the birth of the first stamp in the world 179.

1879, the Qing government in China opened a post office, using the gossip postmark. The gossip postmark only indicates the place name, not the date. Later, the postmark gradually marked the date. But the date on the postmark is quite special. After the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), the unified adoption of the AD date.

After entering the 20th century, there are more and more kinds of postmarks, including datestamps, postage prepaid stamps, commemorative stamps, free military postmarks, and commemorative stamps of tourist attractions 10.

The earliest penny stamps

Before Bishop invented the datestamp in 1365, the Paris Post Office of France, inspired by the postmark, printed a special paper to deal with the increasing backlog of letters due to refusal to pay postage. There is no pattern on the paper, only words are printed. This small piece of paper with postage prepaid stamp is the earliest stamp.

Irish James chalmers printed the world's earliest stamps in 1834, which was implemented after the British postal secretary Sir rowland hill reformed the postal service in 1838. Hill stipulated that the national postage standard charged a penny for half an ounce and issued a penny stamp.

Punch holes in stamps

1847, Englishman Henry Arthur invented the first stamp cutting equipment. At first, this equipment could only cut stamps. A year later, the inventor improved the machine and made a punching machine that could punch a row of small holes. 1854, the first stamp punching machine was born.

postbox

Around 1650, there is a post office in Paris, which is responsible for communication and postal services with other provinces and foreign countries, but residents in Paris cannot communicate with each other. Therefore, in 1653, the Frenchman de Ville hung some boxes for putting letters on the wall at the corner of the street as mailboxes for the first time, which made up for this defect. As long as the residents living in the city stick the prepaid bill on the envelope, they can drop the letter into the nearby mailbox, and the post office staff will open the box three times a day to get the letter.

1692 Paris * * *, there are six such mailboxes, 1723 has seven, 1740 has 12, 1780 has increased to more than 500.

postcard

186 1 year, American John Charlton invented postcards in Philadelphia. Later, a businessman named Harry Lipman decorated the design of the postcard, published it and applied for a patent. Postcards with prepaid postage don't need to be stamped. This postcard was first invented by Emmanuel Herman of Ishtat Military Academy in Vienna, Austria. 1 869 65438+1October1,the world's first prepaid postcard, with a light yellow surface and a stamp with a face value of 2 Cleather. Postcards can express greetings, congratulations, apologies, etc. For relatives and friends, this is irreplaceable by other means of communication. Therefore, they are still widely used today, with more and more kinds and more artistic decoration, which brings people a kind of beautiful enjoyment. For example, birthday cards, student cards, wedding cards and so on. Nowadays, postcards have become a part of people's lives.

Special colors of postal services

The special colors of postal services all over the world are set according to their own traditions and habits. For example, Britain uses red, the United States uses gray and China uses green.

After the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), at the first national postal conference held in February 1949, the issue of special colors for postal services was discussed, and it was considered that green symbolizes peace, youth and prosperity, so a resolution was made to stipulate that people's postal services should adopt green as special colors.

How to send international mail?

There are about 654,000 post offices in the world, and the number of international mails reaches 654.38+0 billion every day. There are millions of postal workers in the 169 member countries of the World Postal Union serving the delivery work. So how is the international mail delivered? For example, a person who works in Pisriver, Alberta, Canada wrote a letter to a friend who lives near Nice in southern France on Monday. The postman collected the mail that afternoon and sent it to the post office in town. Postal personnel separate local mail from mail sent to other parts of Canada, and divide international mail into two categories: west of the Pacific Ocean and east of the Pacific Ocean. In the evening, the mail was loaded on a truck and transported to Prairie City, which is 160 km away. The next morning, two kinds of international mail were loaded on trucks, transported to Edmonton, the provincial capital, 480 kilometers away, and transported from Edmonton Post Office to the airport. At the airport, westbound mail is airlifted to Vancouver and eastbound mail is transported to Toronto. After the mail arrives in Toronto, it is classified according to the destination country. This process will not be completed until Thursday. On Thursday night, the international flight flew from Toronto to Paris and arrived on Friday morning.

In Paris, mail is handled by a mechanized system. The encoder adds a bar code according to the postal code to indicate the final delivery location of the letter. Another machine sorts letters one by one by administrative district. Letters are sent to pouches along the conveyor belt, and pouches are sent to Marseille and Nice by trucks, trains and planes. The postman in Nice sorts the letters and delivers them to the post office on Saturday morning. Then the postman delivers them to his friend's house.

Global express service

Ordinary mail service is not fast enough, because postal workers have to deal with hundreds of millions of mails, and the delivery speed is slow, and it takes days or even weeks for the mails to reach their destinations. At the end of 1960s, companies all over the world encountered the big problem of fast mail delivery, and international express delivery companies came into being. Commercial organizations send planes to all parts of the world, most of which can arrive within 24 hours. Air express service companies use the latest technology to reserve cargo flights and passenger seats so as to choose the quickest route at any time. Large express companies use computers to store flight schedules around the world. Many companies also have their own planes and helicopters. All express delivery companies have special fleets, equipped with vans and motorcycles, to receive and deliver mail from door to door.

The largest express delivery company in the United States, 1989, has 4 18 planes and handles140,000 mails every day on average. European courier companies can deliver the mail to other parts of Europe the next day and to places outside Europe within two days. American express companies can deliver mail to domestic destinations on the same day or the next day.

Express mail is mostly letters or small parcels, and more and more manufacturers use express service to transport finished products. In the 1970s, the total turnover of the express delivery industry doubled every two or three years, and the annual total value of 1990 reached about $4 billion.

Rocket express mail

An American company created it with ingenuity. Its equipment is simple and its cost is much lower than that of space rockets. It uses the warhead cabin of the rocket to transmit mail with a load of 10 kg. After the rocket arrives at its destination, the rocket door automatically opens, the mail is ejected by parachute, and then the local post office is notified by radio to receive the mail. The rocket passes through the atmosphere at high speed, and it takes only 50 minutes from new york to London. This company has now officially accepted postal services.

Electronic messenger

Electronic messenger is a kind of letter with specific specifications. After being put into the e-mail, the letter is automatically opened and scanned word by word by photoelectric equipment, and the optical signal is converted into an electrical signal. In this way, text and image information can be transmitted to far places by fax machine, and the original letter can be destroyed automatically. At the same time, the fax machine converts the received electrical signal into optical signal, records the sender's handwriting on the standard letter by photography, seals it automatically, and then outputs a letter with the same address, name and content as the sent letter. No matter how far apart, the electronic messenger can complete the whole transmission process in only a few tens of seconds.

1 June 7, 980, the first letter crossed the Atlantic Ocean from London by satellite and arrived in Toronto, Canada in a short time of1minute. After receiving the mail, the local post office delivers it to the recipient by express delivery.