Sorting Mail with a Typewriter 



A wonderful mechanical system which 

 does away with the services of thirty men 



The endless chain conveyor which carries 

 the letters to the "buckets" for distribution 



THERE is a new mechanical sorting 

 and distributing system in the Chi- 

 cago, Illinois, post office. It is a 

 device by which letters to all. parts of the 

 globe are separated into 256 different divi- 

 sions — a sorting which at present in all 

 other post offices means two handlings of 

 each piece of mail, and the employment 

 of a small army of case clerks. Hoboken? 

 Honolulu? Zip! Zip! Two taps on the 

 typewriter keyboard, and the letters are 

 on their way! 



An endless chain conveyer travels hori- 

 zontally around two drums, at the left of 

 the operator. This endless belt carries a 

 series of metal pigeonholes below a smaller 

 number of large containers known as 

 "buckets," which are the first destinations 

 of the sorted letters. At the bottom of 



The letters are first stacked mechanically and 

 faced up so that the address is in sight. The 

 256 keys control as many combinations of rods 



each bucket arc four small rods project- 

 ing downward. Each of these rods works 

 independently of the others, and is capa- 

 ble of four different positions. Thus we 

 find 256 possible combinations. 

 The metal vane, swinging back and 

 forth, deposits the letters in the buckets, 

 where they are taken care of by the rods. 

 The letters come before the operator of 

 the keyboard after having been stacked by 

 a mechanical contrivance which faces them 

 up and presses them in with sufficient ten- 

 sion so that the address of the foremost 

 missive is in plain sight always. 



The keyboard consists of 256 different 

 keys to correspond with the 256 combina- 

 tions of the rods. The means of transmission 

 from the keys to the rods is through an 

 arrangement of horizontally placed levers 

 along which the four bucket-rods pass. 



The operator glances quickly at the ad- 

 dress on an envelope, presses the key which 

 corresponds, and the letter flashes away. 

 The one pressure sets the horizontal levers 

 at the correct combination. These act on 

 the four rods of the bucket so that when 

 the metal vane carries the letter to the 

 bucket, the rods pass it on down instantly 

 into one of the pigeonholes beneath. The 

 same pressure of the key brings the next 

 letter in position. 



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