The Post Office Almost Delivered Your First E-Mail

The Post Office Almost Delivered Your First E-Mail

A few failed visionaries tried to turn the U.S. Postal Service into an Internet pioneer.

Devin Leonard | May 16, 2016

Millions of Americans had their first encounter with e-mail thanks to a little help from the U.S. Postal Service, which stuffed mailboxes with discs for America Online. Yet, as Bloomberg Businessweek’s Devin Leonard writes in his new book, Neither Snow nor Rain: A History of the United States Postal Service, if things had gone differently, your first e-mail would have been delivered by your mailman.

Source: http://www.amazon.com/Neither-Snow-nor-Rain-History/dp/0802124585/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1463497248&sr=1-1&keywords=neither+snow+nor+rain

<more at http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-usps-email/; related articles and links: http://www.wired.com/2015/12/the-us-postal-service-will-now-email-you-scans-of-your-mail/ (The US Postal Service Will Soon Email You Scans of Your Mail. December 8, 2015) and http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/03/opinion/why-the-post-office-makes-america-great.html?_r=0 (Why the Post Office Makes America Great. January 1, 2016)>