How Paradigms Influence Society in the Information Age - Evolving Global Information Infrastructure and Information Transfer - page 36

of mail. In Europe, too, air travel was growing in popularity and mail was being de-
livered by airplane. Charles Lindbergh's successful flight from New York to Paris in
1927 helped to spur long-distance air travel.
By 1930 air travel was becoming more commonplace, and in May 1930, Boeing
Air Transport employed the first airline stewardesses on a flight from San Fran-
cisco to Chicago. A coast-to-coast flight was then possible in about twenty hours.
The jet engine was developed in Great Britain in 1937, and a prototype jet plane
was first flown in August 1939. The first jet airline service was initiated in May 1952
on the London to Johannesburg route by BOAC. On October 26, 1953, Pan Amer-
ican Airways made the first American transatlantic jet-powered commercial flight in
a Boeing 707. With the jet-propelled aircraft, transcontinental travel was reduced
to approximately five hours. Now airlines enable the delivery of mail and products
overnight from distant cities; aviation has become an important element in the in-
formation infrastructure.
Postal Services
Historical records indicate that postal services were developed as early as 2000
BCE in Egypt and during the Zhou dynasty of China in about 1000 BCE. A vast
postal system, the cursus publicus , was developed during the Roman Empire with
its excellent roads and relay system ( Encyclopedia Britannica ).
The postal system in colonial America progressed through the leadership of
Benjamin Franklin, who was Philadelphia postmaster and became the postmaster
for the American colonies in 1753. Franklin created an extensive and speedy (for
that time) mail service within the Colonies and England. He later was appointed
postmaster general for the United States in 1775 and was responsible for building
a foundation for the postal service in this country, a vital infrastructure for informa-
tion dissemination.
The postal service was a major user of all transportation systems as they deve-
loped. Trucks and airlines eventually superseded the stagecoach, Pony Express,
steamboat, canals, and railroads. The sorting of mail in transit was introduced in
1862, and railroad mail service became the dominant form of mail delivery into the
20th century.
Postal services expanded during the 19th century to include registered mail
(1855), money order service (1864), special delivery (1885), parcel post and insur-
ance services (1913), and certified mail (1955). Mail was divided into three classes
in 1863, and a fourth was added in 1879. Although mail delivery has been exped-
ited with airmail, in recent years the postal service has experienced a decline in
use because of the telephone and, most recently, electronic mail and texting.