The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1909-04-30


poor guess few years ago when he
built postoffice for Chicago, for
the city is now his biggest mail hop
per and the postoffice long since was
outgrown. Daily 500 tons OF mail
from every part of the globe pours
through the hopper and the total
grows amazingly.
Mails crossing the continent in trans
fer in the mails of all the converging
railways make tremendous problem
in handling. The daily average mail
matter handled, excluding Sunday, is
about 100000 pieces of all kinds.
Several times within the last three
years the cancelling machines passed
the 100000 mark on letters alone.
Incoming pouches and sacks are be-
inc received at the rate of $500 a day,
while nearly double that number is
distributed Stated in another way.
nearly 100000 incoming sacks will
be handled in 1909 at the present
rate, and prabably 100000 will be
distributed. More than 10000 tons of
newspapers and periodicals will be
weighed handled and distributed this
year.
To handle this matter the post
office department has on its Chicago
pay roll nearly 5000 men, about half
| of whom work in or travel from
the main office, the remaining being
4 ha III
or stations" scattered through the
city. The postoffice, though outgrown
! is not exactly tiny either, for it oc-
cupies the greater part of ID acres OF
floor space in building 300 by $40
feet and $50 feet high
Letter mail dropped into the thou.
sands of letter boxes of the city is
collected by carriers and delivered to
wagons or trolley mail cars. When
, it reaches the office it is thrown into
one of the thirteen steel chutes in
Dearborn street.
| When the contents of the car OF
wagon are delivered to the chute the
receiving mouth is closed and the
load is weighed and then dropped upon
moving belt thirty six inches wide
which conveys the load of hundreds OF
bags to second belt that moves ur
an incline at the rate of 600 feet
per minute. The inclined belt throws
, the sacks to third belt moving at
right angles and tine third belt de
livers the mail to one of seven lifts
or bucket elevators, that dump the
bags onto platform on the second
floor, sixty feet above.
A force of men here empties the
/ bags into one of two compartment
hopper cars that the arranged so that
they dump into any one of twenty.
one hoppers over series of eight
tables. Scores of men at these tables
stack" the mail-in other words, face
the pieces. feeding them into an au
tomato stacker-a moving belt de
vice that stacks letters and conveys
them on edge to the cancelling ma
chimes.
There are thirteen of these cancel
ling machines. which the government
| ltdStS HUN the bdtcHbcc.
chine handles an average of 500 to
600 pieces per minute, canceling the
stamps and printing the postmark
the hour and minute being changed au
tomaticallv.
After the mail is Cancelled and post
marked it falls into baskets which are
carried to the primary distribution
tables. Here the mail is sorted by
states, or by groups of states, and pack
ed into steel trays or cars, seven anC
one-half inches wide, thirty incnes lone
and six inches deep. These little ear.
when filled are set onto moving
belt convevor that circles around tire,
sides of the second floor, carrying tn,
mail to cases, where it is distributed
into railway postoffice routes, cit,
routes, etc.
L These little cars have an ingenious
arrangement by which they switcl
themselves off at the proper station
|, They are emptied by the clerks a
the table, who sort the mail into rail
way postal routes and place it, tie,
in packages, on belt carrier whicl
takes it to the receiving station
The pneumatic tube service is use,
in part to send the mail to severa
of the important railroad stations, blu