Welsh Newspapers

Search 15 million Welsh newspaper articles

Hide Articles List

20 articles on this Page

RED-COATED VOLUNTEERS. j

THE FUTURE RELATIONS OF RUSSIA…

[No title]

THE SUBMISSION OF THE JOWAKIS.…

REMARKABLE CASE. : " t

[No title]

THE CATTLE BILL.

THE PARIS EXHIBITION.

[No title]

A SINGULAR ROBBERY. ;--;

DEATH OF THE OLD HIPPOPOTAMUS.I

[No title]

! PROPOSED AGRICIJLTTJR^L…

THE WRECK OF THE MAIL STEAMER…

VICTOR HUGO AND PRINCE NAPOLEON.I

[No title]

AMUSING THEATRICAL CASJI.

LUIGI PATOCCHI.

LETTER FASTENINGS. ,

News
Cite
Share

LETTER FASTENINGS. A Dutch paper called the Postal Annual has beO publishing for the benefit of the learned and uni Coer a history of the different methods employed succ sively in various ages for fastening up letters intend for the post. Although the Annual does not to say who was the inventor of wax fastenings, abstains from any adequate account of the seals up*' which the Romans of the Empire impressed tb*^ splendid signets, it affirms that the use of simP^ bees' wax prevailed until beyond the end the Middle Ages. It was in fact displaced by the discovery of a new material in the New Vfo which at that time began to be explored. Seal^, wax, for the use of which fire is needed, was an tion, as it seems, of the Chinese. The imparted a knowledge of it to the Hindoos, and Hindoetan it was- brought home by some P°|St guese adventurers to their own country. The letter sealed with sealing wax of which memory is preserved is one written by a F courtier to Frederick Count Palatine in 1568..At .tf, time the wax in question was considered a great the and was sold at an enormous profit by -jj dealers who brought it to Europe. But it. be cam quite common, partly owing to the importation of so lucrative an article of and partly because it found a rival in the which came into use very soon after it. The 1* was, however, never used by any one pretending dt fashion or for important documents. The Vre^ fashion of fastening letters by means of envelopes is, of course, of quite recent date, and*^ Annual is just or generous to accord to England credit of the invention. I

[No title]