Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-01-24
THOUSAND A MINUTE
Stamp Canceling Machines
Marvellous Work
AT CITY POST OFFICE
LABORIOUS OLD METHOD CON-
TRAsTED WITH EASY NEW.
Letters Are Fed in Bundles, and Are
Moved Away With Lightning
like Rapidity.
AT CITY POST OFFICE

The postmasters of the large cities of
twenty years ago would have opened their
eyes in establishment at the work that Is
done in the postal departments of the coun-
try today. The facilities for handling mail
in the office and the manner of getting it
out have not changed materially. The let
ters and packages are still tied up in can
vas or leather sacks, fastened with catch
that is almost identical with that of former
years. and in most of the large cities are
transported from depot to post Office and
vice versa in the same manner
The facilities for collecting mail have
been improved; at least, there is now
more comprehensive method of carrying
mail from one part of city to another,
and from remote points to the post offices.
The street car has been utilized of late
years in manner that has worked vast
Improvement in the mail service and the
collectors of the various post offices have
found other means of loc0motion than their
own pedal eXtremities
Would Make Old-Timers Stare.
The change that has been wrought in
the postal service-the change that would
make the postmaster of old stare in open
mouthed wonder at the volume of bust
ness done in the office-comes almost en-
tirely through the introduction of the can
ceiling machine The work is now done in
just one-siXth the time formerly required.
Is 1t a wonder, therefore, that the old
postmaster might rub his eyes at the sight
spread before him?
1t will readily be seen that, to handle
each letter individually and to cancel the
stamp on each letter and each of the stamps
on a letter, requires an immense amount
of labor To pick up the letters In pack
ages of hundreds and feed them In bundles
to a machine that cancels the stamps fast
er than the eye can wink requires little
labor and the minimum amount of at
tention. That is the difference between the
old and the new.
By the one method an able-bodied man
must practice for years to be able to can
eel 100 stamps a minute. The ordinary
stamp machine cancels GOO letters a min
ute without the least trouble. The rate
named is that habitually used on the ma
chimes in the Washington city post office,
but 1t does not represent the maximum by
several hundred One day last week, dur
ing the eight hours between o'clock in
the afternoon and midnight, letters were
passed through one of the machines at the
rate of 10000 an hour or 1000 minute.
Slow in Development.
The development of the stamp cancella-
ton devices was one of the slowest of the
many labor-saving machines now in gen.
eraI use. 1t seemed that, try as they
might, the inventors could not devise a
scheme that would do away with the cease
less hand stamping, which was operated
on the same principle in 1890 as ii was in
the earliest stages of the postal service,
and with very little modification appre-
ciable Improvement.
The old hand stamp was simply slight
modification of the ancient seal holder for
sealing letters and packets when sealing
wax was used The only difference lay in
the Use of raised types instead of engraved
letters. This stamp was simply a piece
of cork. or piece of soft wood, that would
hold ink, inserted in the end of hard
wood handle. and was used simply to cam
eel the stamps.
There postmark or anything to
indicate where the letter came from. The
idea of having printed postmark came