Coal Fired Computers, Out of the Ground, STUK, Artefact, Leuven, Belgium

bnr#9 => Coal Fired Computers, Out of the Ground, STUK, Artefact, Leuven, Belgium

Post Code

Object: 42
Date of origin: 1850s-1950s
Author/inventor/context:
Evolved from postal districts first created in the 1850s into a machine-readable code, its origins are located in the history of postal mechanisation and automation.
A series of alphanumeric characters included in a postal address to help increase the speed and reduce the cost of mail delivery. Such codes are also used for profiling of housing price and area trends and to designate destinations in route planning software, as well as being used by gangs to delineate territory and as the lowest level of aggregation in census records. In the UK, post code data is stored, maintained and periodically updated in the Post Code Address File database, along with others used for commercial purposes.

Jean Demars