Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-03-12

| BY the aid of these devices Mr.. Nc
Millin considers that a great deal of time
| will be saved. and that there will be an
| increase in the efficiency of the clerks
and great gain in accuracy. The spe-
| cidl delivery conVeyor has been in use
| in Boston and has proved success; the
apparatus for facing" letters and the
endless belt distributors have been used
! in Chicago and proved of great value 1t
is estimated that the cost of these i'm
provements in the Washington office
would be about $4,000. and an appropria-
tion for that amount has been asked. Mr..
McMillin has appeared before subcommit
| tee No. l of the committee on post offices
and post roads, and described the process
es in detail.
A Model Office.
| Mr.. McMillin told the subcommittee that
the Postmaster General directed him to
take up the matter of proposed improve
ments in the Washington Office. the idea
Of Mr.. Meyer being to make it model.
The matter of special delivery letters
was first considered. 1t appears that now
| the persons connected with the special
delivery service are all I'm the back of the
| building. When special delivery let
ter is dropped in the slot clerk has to
carry it to the rear of the office-about
| $50 feet. Mr. McMillin estimates that the
clerk travels about two and half miles
| a day performing this service. Incoming
| special delivery letters are dumped on the
opening table. where they accumulate,
! and mail coming in from tside the CITY,
in pouches, is dumped on that table. and
the special delivery letters withdrawn. II
any pass the opening table they are
caught by the city assorters at the
front of the building and sent back again
by a clerk.
What Mr. McMillin proposes is to move
the special delivery room to the front of
the building. near the head of the stairs
1 lf,,rr into hn inc nv~
! waiting room of the carriers. The special
delivery messengers would wait in the
| basement. and there would be call bell
| for them from the special delivery desk.
! An endless belt, propelled by a small
motor. would pass the special delivery
| slot. the opening table and the asserting
| cases. and any special delivery letter re-
| ceived at these points would be immedi-
| ately picked up and carried a t once to
| the special delivery desk, where a carrier
| would be summoned and the letter started
! forthwith to it's address in the city. None
! of the clerks would be obliged to cease
regular work to look after the special de-
livery letters.
| Another Time-Saver.
| 1t is proposed to install another endless
| belt from the opening table to the can
ceiling machines. SO that when a clerk
| emptes a pouch on the table the pack
ages of letters will be carried to the can
| ceiling machines. and they will be deposit
\ ed on table where a clerk can handle
them. At present, when pouches are
| opened, the packages are assorted at the
! or baskets. These are taken from time
! to time and dumped on the table at the
| canceling machines for ..back-stamping
and then go to the city assorters.
| Still another mechanical conveyor pro-
posed is endless belt over the desks of
] The letter carriers. InHer the DrpSept
| system if carrier finds letters i'm his
quota of mail that do not belong his
/ route he waits until he gets all his mail
| ready and then these letters are taken
/ in a bunch and given to the distributors
consequently losing that delivery. 1t
would be impossible for the carrier to
leave his work every time he found mis-
placed letter. for he would retard the
! whole operation.
! With the endless belt it is said, the
! carrier simply puts the misplaced letter
| in d basket over his head and the belt
| takes care of it, delivering it at once to
the distributors. who see that the proper
carrier gets II in time for that de-
/ livery. In this way. Mr.. McMillin says
| the letter will go out it's proper trip
and in an earlier dispa atch. This device
! is called the sweep-of or 'over-throw
| to the carriers desk
/ The device proposed for facing let
! ters-which means the arranging, face up
| of the mail as il is brought in all mixed
! up-consists of table provided with slots
! through which the letters slipped.
| faced properly. an endless belt below
catching the envelopes and stacking
| them in two groups, the short and the
! long. One stacker will take care of 500
letters a minute. The canceling machine
/ stacker.
Will Keep Clerks Busy.
After the mail leaves the stacker it
goes at once through the canceling ma
! chine and is then conveyed to the dis
| trbutors, an additional apparatus being
provided to render it unnecessary for
| these employees to walk after a handful of
| letters to distribute. This consists of an
other endless belt from the canceling ma
| chine running past the end of the dis
| tributors' cases. If a clerk at one of tthe
| cases wants mail to handle he pulls a
| lever which throws into action what are
called idle rollers Then when a tray
of mail comes along, 1T stops, the clerk
| reaches up, gets II. empties it and re-
places the tray on the belt. BY anot he
contrivance ii is arranged that there will
| be no congestion of mail at any one point.
d difficulty which. ii is understood has
/ been frequent recently.
! One more plain described by Mr.. McMil-
| lin provides for expeditions handling of
city mail which would result in letter
going out on the next delivery after it
/ was mailed. even III that delivery were in
: ten minutes after the letter had been
dropped in the slot.
! 1t Is announced that the position to
which Capt H. l.. Johnson has been
/ transferred as stated yesterday in The
Star. is his former one of supervisor of
( the money order division. BY this ap-
pointment the employees pomoted when
I Capt. Johnson was put in charge of the
! delivery division reduced to their
| previous rank Howard Beall again be-
! coming assistant superintendent and G. p.
/. McCurdy who has been assistant super
intendent, returning again to the senior
clerkship.