LABOR SAVING SYSTEMS. 371 



that in form resembles somewhat an ordinary jol) printing 

 press. Its principal features consist of two long hollow cylin- 

 ders, each about ten inches long and eight in diameter, re- 

 volving on the same axis. One of the cylinders is grooved 

 lengthwise, the grooves being about as far apart as the lines 

 of typewritten matter. The other cylinder contains metal 

 type with shoulders upon it to permit of its being run into 

 the grooves of the type cylinder. The t}^e is set up in this 

 cjdinder in the form of a letter \vithout address or signature. 

 The rest of the process is simpUcity. 



An office boy, or an electric motor, furnishes the motive 

 power that revolves the cylinders. Paper is fed into the 

 machine automatically, and the letters, written so perfectly 

 as to convince each recipient that he has been the object of a 

 personal letter, are reeled of at the rate of 1,000 an hour. 



The letters are addressed, each differently, as they are 

 printed. The addresses, stencilled on cards, are mounted 

 upon an endless chain that is fed across the printing machine 

 and as each letter is printed it is addressed. The addresses 

 upon the envelopes are printed in the same way, the latter 

 being fed into a machine across which the endless chain of 

 addresses runs. The signature to the letters may be made 

 by hand, or, there is still another machine that will do that, 

 even writing the signature in different colored ink from the 

 letter. 



After the letters have been written they are taken to a 

 machine that folds them. Here, as at the other machine, an 

 office boy to turn a crank, or an electric motor, is all the at- 

 tention that the machine requires. The machine is a Httle 

 larger than a typewriter. Letters are piled in front of it 

 and the machine starts. A metal arm picks up each sheet 

 separately, places it in the machine and it is turned out 

 neatly folded, ready for the envelope. The machine folds 

 5,000 letters in an hour. 



After the letters have been written and placed in their 

 addressed envelopes — and this is done by hand, no machine 

 having been invented to do the work satisfactorily — the 

 envelopes must be sealed. The machine for sealing letters 

 is a small contrivance of brass, steel, and rubber into which 



