Sir Rowland Hill invented the adhesive postage stamp in 1837. He continued to perfect the invention and released it to the public in 1840. The first place released was England. With this invention he also explained and set the rates of the postage stamp relying on the weight of the stamp rather than the size, which is how most things were being sold. He explained in letters that he wanted the stamp to not be as big, yet noticeable, and easy to apply. The goal of this invention was to make postal services easier and more practical. Once his invention got around to other countries, as well as his pricing system, many started to use his postal invention. With this new object, many started to use envelopes to mail their letters. This invention also led to the invention of an envelope folder by his brother, Edwin Hill.  This goes to show that this invention continued to inspire other inventions to come into play for people all over the world. This invention is important to the story because letters are a big part of communication during the setting of middle march, so understanding what goes into that can create a more broad knowledge of the time period. However, now that we are more evolved, his methods were changed around a bit to update and fix the problems that came about. Nonetheless, the invention of the postal stamp continues to help us today in sending letters to loved ones, documents to important places, and Christmas cards to the whole family.