7 Sir Rowland Hill 7

payments on delivery—was easily avoidable. Hill’s solution

was a uniform rate of postage, regardless of distance, and

prepayment of postage by means of adhesive stamps sold

by the post office. Hill proposed a basic rate of one penny

for each half ounce, calculating the “natural cost of distri-

bution” to be slightly less than this. The cheapest current

rate of postage was fourpence, and the average charge 6 1/4

pence (11.56 cents).

Not surprisingly, Hill’s proposals rapidly gained strong

support: popular agitation for the “penny post” overcame

initial political disinterest—and bureaucratic hostility—

and the uniform rate and a system of prepayment by stamps

were introduced in 1840. The originality of Hill’s proposal

for an adhesive postage stamp has been questioned but is

irrelevant in considering the overall merits of his work.

The significance of his reforms lies not only in the fact

that they brought the post within the means of the mass

of the people but also in the less obvious way in which they

gave the postal system the technical capacity to deal with

the vastly increased demand for postal service that ensued.

The radical simplification of postal organization and

methods characterizing Hill’s reforms are the key to the

speed and economy with which modern postal systems in

many countries handle tens of millions of letters daily.

The chief features of Hill’s system were gradually

adopted in varying degrees by other countries throughout

the world, first among which were Switzerland and Brazil

in 1843.

Charles Goodyear

(b. Dec. 29, 1800, New Haven, Conn., U.S.—d. July 1, 1860, New

York City)

C

harles Goodyear was an American inventor whose

vulcanization process made possible the commercial