The post office research station, Dollis Hill, London, N.W.2 open days 22–23 September 1960

Abstract

When Oliver Cromwell's decision to place the Post Office under the control of Parliament was ratified by Charles II in 1660, the main business of the Post Office was communication—transmission of the written word by letter. Since these days the Post Office has become responsible for many other services, either on its own account, or as an agent for other Government Departments; communication, however, is still its main business, although many new forms of it have been added during the last hundred years. The first new form was that of the transmission of the written word in coded form by the electric telegraph; this was followed by transmission of the spoken word by telephone. Transmission of pictorial information came next: first in the slow-speed form of picture telegraphy, then in the high-speed form of television. The latest form is data transmission, the data being mostly numerical, which is associated with the growth of electronic computers over the last decade or so; the administrative and technical arrangements for data transmission by the Post Office are still in the very early stages, but this service will undoubtedly grow.