Huberman Electronic mail

  • Issue: September 1990
  • Designer: N. & M. Eshel
  • Stamp size: 25.7 x 40 mm
  • Plate no.: 122
  • Sheet of 15 stamps Tabs: 5
  • Printers: Government Printers
  • Method of printing: Photogravure

Electronic Mail is a term which denotes the electronic transference of messages from sender to receiver. One may regard the Morse transmitter as the first electronic postal system. The letters of the messages were first turned into Morse Code - a system of dots and dashes - and then sent along telegraph lines. On receipt they were decoded and passed on to the receiver.

In the course of time the telex machine took the place of the Morse transmitter. This machine was able to code letters automatically, punching holes in ticker-tape, and creating electric impulses.

A further development of electronic mail came with the appearance of the facsimile machine. This machine is capable of transferring images from sender to sendee, using telephone lines, by translating the images into electronic impulses, which can be done at the speed of a photocopier. Today there are also facsimile machines that use radio waves to transfer their pictures.

Parallel to this is the development of computer - to -computer communications, which enable written material, programmes and complete files of data to be transferred directly from one computer to another.

The postal service constitutes an important link between those seeking to send or receive messages but who do not possess the necessary equipment (telex and fax machines or computer terminals).

This stamp is issued on the occasion of the "Paris Group" Conference in Israel. The "Paris Group" is an association of some 40 postal authorities, which are concerned with promoting electronic mailing systems among postal authorities around the world.

Each year the group meets in a different country. At the Conference which was held in Canada in 1989, Israel presented a report on its postal activities, and especially on developments in its telegraphic system. Following this report it was decided to hold the 1990 Conference in Israel.

The stamp depicts the development of the means of postal and other communications from ancient times until the present. At the very bottom of the stamp can be seen an inscription on clay, called "Calev". This inscription, which, it would seem, is from the 17th century BCE, is in one of the oldest of alphabets, called Proto- Cananite.

Above this inscription is a piece of Egyptian hieroglyphic writing, engraved on a monument. Hieroglyphics is made up of pictures, that is to say, everything is depicted by means of a schematic drawing.

Above the Egyptian writing can be seen a short passage from the inscription of Mishah, King of Moav, from the 9th Century BCE The language of the inscription is Moabite, which is similar to Hebrew, and the script is Hebrew script, so this well represents the beginning of the written tradition in Hebrew.

The rider in the sketch above the inscription of Mishah, is a Jewish postman from Prague, blowing his post-horn. The sketch was taken from a copper engraving from the year 1741.

Then, above the postman, one after another, can be seen the means of communication used in our own day: the envelope; radio waves; a computer terminal; binary coding (0, 1) and a satellite aerial.

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Electronic mail