Charlevoix county herald., 1911-08-26

veyors running from what known as the
dumping tables" are attachments with grooves
which separate the large envelopes from the
small ones, whereas all the while the moving
belt is conveying a steady stream Of letters to
the canceling machines which cancel the stamps
and postmark the letters by mechanical power.
Space is to limited to allow the enumeration OF
even a portion of the tasks performed by the
overhead trolleys but one timesavng service
may be cited representative of many. Under
the old system when letter carrier or rural
free delivery postman sorting his letters prior
to starting out his daily route, came across
letters that should have been assigned to some
other carrier he laid them aside and in due time
turned them to the general distributor.
Often he did not do this until the last minute
before he left the Office with the result that it
was then too late for the stray letters to get to
their proper destination on that delivery. Now
with the ever-active trolley cars passing every
minute or two above the heads of the mailmen
busy with their asserting there is no excuse for
delay in rectifying errors of distribution. let
ter which has been given to the wrong carrier
is no sooner discovered than it is on its way by
trolley back to the distributor to be started
Alright
Heretofore few Of our post Offices, even In the
largest cities, have had in more than three
different systems for fetching and carrying mail.
but in the model post office the plans for which
have just been completed there will be ten diff
ferent systems. Some of the belt conveyors will
be a yard wide and will easily carry mail bags
and pouches as well as smaller parcels of mail.
A novelty is a conveyor equipped with what is
known sweep off" basket and to indicate
how rapidly these toilers work it may be cited
that this particular conveyor will make circuit
of 500 feet through the post Office in four min
utes. Yet another innovation will be a registry
conveyor which is designed to move the pieces
Of registered mail and which will be secured by
means of a rotary lock insuring absolute safety
and a great saving Of time in the handling of
valuable mail
In point Of strength the champion Of this auto
matte post Office will be a powerful conveyor
provided for taking up the mail bags at the
wagon platform (where the city collectors report
from their collection trips to the mail boxes
located street corners all over town. and con-
veying them up an inclined plane of thirty feet
TO the main floor of the post office. This con-
veyor Is strong enough to carry truck load OF
mail. A similar conveyor will perform like
service for the bags of mail received from the
railroads from out-of-town points All these
inanimate workers electrically operated and
are almost noseless so that under the new
regime a big post office will be far quieter
place than under the old status with carriers and
clerks hurrying hither and thither
A notable Improvement in the model post Office
will be the perfected system for handling the
special delivery letters without the loss OF
minute. Special conveyors will rush" these let
ters through the various stages and special
keyboard will enable the man in charge OF the
special delivery department of the post Office to
summon by merely pressing a button, any de-
sired messenger who may be selected for the
delivery of one of these hurry letters. In the
clerical operations of the model post Office there
likewise will be revelation to what science
and invention has accomplished for the cause OF
time economy. Mechanical accountants and add
Ing machines will play their parts and will
remarkable new invention-the brain child Of a
couple OF employees of the post Office department
This electrical machine automatically prints
money order fees the amounts of the paid
money orders are recorded for auditing purposes
and cuts down greatly the time consumed over
the old method. Novel substitutes for twine will
be introduced in parceling mail at the model post
office and 1t is the hope of the officials that
chimes will ere long be perfected which will
make 1t possible to carry most sales OF
stamps and postal cards by machinery instead of
in the old-fashioned way which necesitates the
constant presence of clerk at each stamp
window.