Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-03-15
SAMPLE MAIL BOXES S
Collection of 1900 at Post
Office Department.
SENT IN BY INVENTORS
Unusual Designs Submitted in Com
petition for Contracts-Rural
Delivery Service Devices.
SENT IN BY INVENTORS

Stored away in a loft at the rear OF
the post oflce building in W aington is
unique collection OF boxes numbering
fifteen hundred or more. They are sample
mail boxes which have been presented to
the Post Office Department during the
last eight years for approval for use on
rural routes.
From the time the first rural route was
esta blished, in 1895. until August. 1901.
patrons of rural delivery were permitted
to use any mail receptacle desired. The
result was a collection of the most un-
usual contrivances that could possibly
have been adopted, such as pieces of
thing, stovepipes, powder and oil cans.
etc. AS the use of such devices reflected
iiscredit and brought ridicule upon the
service, it was decided by the department
in 1901 to require the use of sheet iron
or sheet steel boxes. galvanized to pro-
tect them from erosion, and of certain
structure and minimum dimensions.
All who desired to engage in the manu-
facture of boxes for the rural service
were advised to submit full-sized model
to the department for approval.
Ingenious Devices.
American inventors needed but the an
nouncement of the departments policy to
direct their ingenuity to the design and
perfection of mail boxes for this par
ticuiar use An examination of the large
collection of boxes which the department
has received would tend to convince one
that ingenuity in structure had been ex-
hausted Yet the department continues
to receive from time to time sample
boxes involving some new and novel fea-
ture.
The most popular styles of boxes are,
the rectangular and cylindrical. But
some shaped like a dirigible torpedo and
designed to run on trolley: compart-
ment boxes designed for use by number
of families; boxes that hinge and open
ter holders and projectors; boxes that
open and close automatically, and with
interlocking signals; boxes with electrical
annunciators and with patent indicators
to let the carrier know that the patrons
desire stamps. money orders, or to regis
ter a letter, and boxes that carriers can
pull into their wagons with a hook and
which. by gravity, resume their positions.
These are few of the many different
kinds Of boxes which have been received.
Many OF them are wholly impracticable
for use. OF the entire number submitted
the department has approved during the
last eight years but about three hundred
different makes Of boxes.
Incentive to Good Work.
When it is remembered that the de-
partment will not permit any but an ap-
proved box to be used on a rural route.
and that some four or five millions of
such boxes are required to serve twenty
million people, the anxiety of q manufac-
turer to produce a box which he can sell
at a reasonable price and have 1t ap-
proved by the department is readily ap-
parent.
sistant Postmaster General De Graw said
the department has had the matter in
hand for the past seven years. and has
at last succeeded in eliminating prac-
tically all boxes that did not conform to
the requirements
A large number Of inventors and gen.
fuses who hope to become inventors, Mr..
De Graw stated, had conceived the idea
that rural routes could as we'll be served
By mechanical contrivances as by rural
carriers. Many Of these persons have
taken out patents on devices for the pur-
pose.
Inventors Kept Busy.
Hardly week passes that two or three
letters are not received at the depart
ment in which 1t il set forth that the
writer has invented. or has in mind, a
mechanical device to be propelled by
ciockwork, electricity or gasoline motor
for delivering and collecting mail on rural
routes. Some Of the devices carry a bat
terry of boxes In which the mail is de-
posted at the post ONCE, to be dropped
at certain points on the route, and to
take up at certain points other boxes
containing mail for dispatch; while Others
consist OF compartment carriage with
an arrangement for automatically Dump