Fonopost
Fonopost, or Phonopost, was an experimental postal service in Argentina to record a person's voice and deliver the resulting recording by mail.[1]
The service was demonstrated at the Postal Union Congress in Buenos Aires in 1939 and later the Argentine Post Office issued three stamps to mail the records.[1]
Special mobile recording vans were used to make the recordings which used 8 inch 78rpm acetate gramophone records.[2]
As a service approved by the Universal Postal Union, Fonopost was not restricted just to Argentina.
The approved status of Fonopost was removed at the Tokyo U.P.U. congress in 1969.[3]
References
- ^ a b Patrick, Douglas & Mary. The Hodder Stamp Dictionary, Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1973, p.89. ISBN 0340171839.
- ^ Phillips, Stanley. Stamp Collecting: A guide to modern philately, revised edition, Stanley Gibbons, London, 1983, p.27. ISBN 0852590474.
- ^ "The Evolution of the Postal Service in the Era of the UPU" by Jamie Gough in The London Philatelist, Vol.114, No. 1331, December 2005, pp.362-363.
Further reading
- Bose, Walter B.L. Phonopost service: Its Introduction and Development in the Argentine Republic. Berne: L'Union Postale, 1945.
- "Fonopost" by Harry M. Konwiser in Stamps, 6 July 1946.