History of Envelopes Timeline

George Wilson's 1840 machine introduced mechanical cutting into envelope production. It reduced the need to cut every envelope manually from a rectangular sheet but did not yet automate folding.

In 1840, George Wilson of London received a patent for an improved paper-cutting machine. The machine could cut envelope shapes mechanically, although the resulting pieces still had to be folded by hand.

Following the British postal reforms, Rowland Hill installed his brother Edwin Hill as The Controller of Stamps. Edwin Hill later played a central role in developing machinery for mass-producing envelope blanks.

Edwin Hill and Warren De La Rue were granted a British patent in 1845 for the first envelope-folding machine. It marked a decisive advance beyond machines that only cut envelope blanks.

The machine patented by Edwin Hill and Warren De La Rue in 1845 mass-produced diamond-shaped sheets intended for conversion into envelopes. This enabled a much more efficient approach to envelope manufacture.

The 1845 steam-driven machinery integrated cutting, creasing, and folding. By performing these operations mechanically, it transformed envelope production from a primarily manual craft into an industrial process.

In 1845, Edwin Hill and Warren de la Rue obtained a patent for a steam-driven machine that cut envelope shapes and also creased and folded them. The invention combined several previously separate production steps.

Since the early 20th century, mechanical folding machines have formed the basis of envelope production. Their continued use reflects the industrialization initiated by 19th-century cutting and folding inventions.

Americus F. Callahan first designed the transparent or translucent window used in window envelopes in 1901. The window allows address information on the enclosed letter to be read without opening the envelope.

Callahan's window-envelope design was patented in 1902, following its initial design in 1901. The transparent or translucent film protects the letter while leaving selected information visible.

Japan first published the standard JIS S 5502 in 1964. The standard helped formalize envelope dimensions and specifications in the Japanese postal and stationery market.

In 1998, the U.S. Postal Service approved its first systems for printing computer-generated postage. These systems were known as information-based indicia and enabled digitally encoded postage to be printed directly.

The advent of information-based indicia in 1998 caused widespread concern in the franking-machine industry. Because digital indicia threatened to make existing machines obsolete, the change led to lawsuits involving companies including Pitney Bowes.

By 2008, letter-post operators were reporting significantly smaller volumes of letter-post, including stamped envelopes. They attributed much of the decline to the growth of email and other electronic communication.

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As of 2009, window envelopes had no international standard. The absence of a global specification meant that dimensions and window placement could vary across countries.

Although no international standard existed for window envelopes as of 2009, countries including Germany and the United Kingdom had their own national standards. These standards provided country-specific guidance for envelope formats.

By the latest edition in 2014, some traditional envelope sizes had not been retained and some sizes had been removed. The result was a series of gaps in the numeric sequence of size designations.

PWG 5101.1 lists several even-inch envelope sizes: 6 × 9, 7 × 9, 9 × 11, 9 × 12, 10 × 13, 10 × 14, and 10 × 15 inches. These specifications represent an effort to document standardized formats.