Air mail writing paper

Susan K. sent me this. She knows I'm always looking for interesting things for my blog. Who knew this about air mail writing paper? from "Margret Puts Pen to Paper" "Classic air mail paper is blue and very thin. The thinness makes sense since paper is heavy (just pick up a box of regular copy paper) so it was designed to be as light as possible, keeping down the cost of shipping a letter by plane. The blue colour came about because of a rivalry between French and Dutch paper makers. Up until the 1720s, France was the leading European paper manufacturing county and strived to make the whitest paper possible. The paper making process was traditionally powered by water but the Dutch came up with a method using wind power. They began to dominate the fine paper industry much to the consternation of the French. The method the Dutch used involved adding a salt that left the paper slightly bluish. At a time of frequently counterfeited watermarks, this bluish tinge was considered a reliable sign of quality and fashionable people started to use blue paper for their personal correspondence. This preference for blue writing stationery continued well into the 20th century when sending letters by airplane became possible." And this reminded me of being fascinated by the British postal system that could deliver mail the next day anywhere in the UK. It seemed like magic to us in our early days travelling there.