What is a letter? We answer the question

What is a letter? It seems that this question can be answered by any schoolboy, even junior classes, not to mention about us adults. At first glance, it seems that there is nothing special about this subject-a leaf with letters, that's all. Well, perhaps, still these paper messages can be twisted into a tube or neatly folded in half or four times.

This article is aimed at revealing the very meaning of the word "letter". In addition, the reader will receive a lot of interesting information about this already, of course, a history that goes into the history of communication.

The general definition of the concept

Let's try to decide what a letter is. According to the data from the modern explanatory dictionary, it can be concluded that this is a kind of message that, as a rule, is expressed in a very compact form and is intended for the exchange of certain types of information between institutions, companies or ordinary people.

The content can be completely different, from business to personal correspondence.

Milestones of history

Now to write a letter is not a problem. All you need, if there is such a need, is to pick up a piece of paper (in a box, in a ruler or just white) and a pen. Write - I do not want. And how did people manage when they did not have paper?

Scientists managed to find out that the very first text messages of the planet were written (or cut out) on some kind of carrier, for example, on parchment, on a piece of birch bark or on a clay pottery.

Interesting and unique clay tablets were found during excavations of archaeologists in Nineveh, which was considered the capital of the ancient and once very powerful Assyrian state. As you know, the most powerful fire destroyed this city utterly, but thanks to the material on which they were made, letters of that time were preserved to this day. Some of them can be seen in major museums in London and New York.

Demand for today

Modern writing is, as before, a message. However, in most cases it is created and / or sent not by an ordinary, but by an electronic method. Usually, using e-mail.

The content has also changed. Unlike letters of twenty or even thirty years ago, various multimedia elements can be attached to it now. For example, clips or pictures.

What is a letter? Interesting Facts

Given the long history of this type of communication, it would be surprising if the unusual facts about it were not preserved and did not reach our days.

According to the research, the longest letter can safely be considered a parchment, whose length is 10 meters, and the width exceeds 7 meters. In the distant 16th century the Persian Shah, whose name, unfortunately, did not survive, sent this message to Turkey to the local sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. Those who want to see with their own eyes this message, it is recommended to go to the National Museum of Ankara.

If there is the largest letter, then probably there is the smallest. Here it was just discovered not so long ago, in 1983 in Europe, namely in the special museum of the Post of Stockholm. This crumb was able to go through all the stages of post processing without exception. On it even there is a stamp, extinguished by a stamp of 1883. The size of this message is 23 × 36 mm. Incredible!

And, finally, what is a letter in the opinion of those who are making changes to the famous "Guinness Book of Records"? Specialists have set the goal of finding the most expensive postal message of the planet. After some effort, they managed to achieve a certain result. The real value was the message of Abraham Lincoln to General John Alexander McClernand. It was written far from us in 1863, and it was sold in 1991. By the way, at the auction held in New York, he managed to save an astronomical sum of $ 748,000. By the way, not everyone knows that another astronomical sum of $ 3.4 million was received for another letter from the American president. This message was sent to a private collection.