Penny Post much needed reforms in the current postal system. On 10 January 1840, the Uniform Penny Post was established throughout the UK, facilitating the safe, speedy and cheap conveyance of letters, and from 6 May could be prepaid with the first postage stamp, known as the Penny Black. Elihu Burritt proposed that a fixed rate of one penny be established for all mail throughout the entire British Empire as a means of facilitating international interaction and international unity. This was known as the Ocean Penny Post. On Christmas Day, 1898, the Imperial Penny Post extended the rate throughout the British Empire
Penny dreadful killed the penny dreadful by the simple process of producing the 'ha'penny dreadfuller'". The quality of the Harmsworth/Amalgamated Press papers began to improve throughout the early 20th century, however. By the time of the First World War, papers such as "Union Jack" dominated the market in the UK. Two popular characters to come out of the penny dreadfuls were Jack Harkaway, introduced in the "Boys of England" in 1871, and Sexton Blake, who began in "the Half-penny Marvel" in 1893. In 1904, the "Union Jack" became "Sexton Blake's own paper", and he appeared in every issue thereafter, up until the