Vintage US Mailbox Bates Hawley Signal Mail Box Co. Style 3A Patent June 27,1899

Description

Vintage US Mailbox Bates Hawley Signal Mail Box Co. Style 3A Patent June 27,1899. Overall the main galvanized metal body measures 11 1/2" x 18 1/4". As shown it weighs 15 pounds. Made by Signal Mail Box Co. of Joliet Illinois. The previous owner added a fine white porcelain knob, the door latches nicely. It has been repainted and restored by previous owner to their liking. The right side has 2 added bolts that had been used to hold a large name plate. The base has a threaded pipe cap that was used to screw it to a pole. There is some normal wear but overall it is quite solid and sturdy. Please see my 12 photos.
F. C. Bates and W. G. Hawley held patent number 627,635, dated June 27, 1899, for their invention of a “postal-box signal” designed for use by Rural Free Delivery customers. Bates and Hawley’s patent included a mechanism that moved the signal flag when mail was deposited in the box (by either the letter carrier or the patron). This specimen manufactured by the Signal Mailbox Company of Joliet, Illinois lacks such internal mechanisms. The Bates and Hawley original design also had two flags of different colors -- one to show the carrier that there was mail to be picked up and one to show the patron that a delivery had arrived. The signals were intended to save time for carriers on long rural routes and patrons walking to an empty mailbox. This box has 1 red flag.
In the early years of rural mail delivery, farmers could use whatever was at hand as a mailbox -- pails, cans, or wooden crates. When rural free delivery became permanent and universal in 1902, the United States Post Office required rural customers to have regulation mailboxes in order to receive their mail.
Patent held by William G. Hawley of the Bate Hawley Postal Box Signal Company in San Jose, California; this particular mailbox manufactured by the Signal Mail Box Company in Joliet, Illinois.