Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-06-27
MACHINES HANDLE
MAIL WITH SPEED
Elaborate Labor-Saving De-
vices Installed in New
Post Office.
NEW BUILDING is RICH
IN ATTRACTIVE POINTS
Offices Are Beautiful and Well Ar.
ranged-Total Cost of Struc-
ture About 100000.

An official inspection of what is per
haps the most elaborate system of time
and labor saving devices in official use
I'm the world has been made this week at
the new city post office adjoining Union
station, when the twelve different belt,
box and locked safe eonveyor systems
were put in operation before a repre-
sentative of the mechanical department
of the office of the supervising architect
of the Treasury and ofTicils of the Post
Office Department and city post office.
Notwithstanding its -hundred-thou-
sand-dollar main corridor. the magnificent
new threem ilion-dollar post office contains
nothing quite interesting this COM
pick system which is designed to provide
for the, delivery and dispatch of the mails
and the interchange of letters and parcels
between the force in the big working
room of probably 10000 square feet of
space without the use Of trucks or re-
quiring single employe to leave his sta
ton at any time during the biggest rush
that may occur
There are twelve OF what are known as
trunk line conveyors, which are operated.
some of them simply with canvas and
rubber belts upon which the pouches or
mail pieces are laid for transportation
from one point to another, and others
with basket carriers placed upon the NOV
ing belts and locked cases with overhead
trolleys for transporting valuable mail
In safety from one employe to another.
One Interesting Feature.
Perhaps the most interesting of these
trunk lines is that operated in connec-
ton with electric underground cars that
run from the government printing Office
to the city post office. upon which all the
vast quantity of official mail matter sent
out from the big print shop is handled.
Reaching from the top story to tunnel
spiral chutes into which mail is
shot down to the electric carriers in the
tunnel These carriers run to the sub
basement of the city post office, where
they mechanically dump their loads into
a chute in which big troughs constantly
rotate to catch the mail and in turn
dump it onto the moving belt on the
working room floor. which carries it to
another dump at the east end, where it
can be separated and the portion which
requires office treatment can be sent on
another belt to its proper station while
the remainder is shot down chute to
the eectric trucks which convey it across
the bridge, facetiously being called 1.-The
bridge of sighs. to the trains in the
Union station for disptach.
This whole system of conveyerS cost
approximately $4,000. and its manufac-
turer. the Lamson company of Boston,
claims will pay for itself, due allowance
being made for interest on the purchase
money, deterioration, etc, in three years.
The life of the machinery is confidently
stated to be twenty years. 1t has all been
installed under the supervision of H. NJ.
Price. engineer. and ]. c. Plant the SUI
perintendent of construction under the
supervising architect.
Trunk Lines Numbered
The trunk lines bear numbers to indi-
cate the use to which they are applied,
No. /, being a special cable line to carry
under special locks the safes in which
registered mail is sent from the registry
division proper to the registry cage for
delivery to letter carriers; No. 9, for in
coming mail from the openers table to
the city delivery division. where it is as
sorted for delivery by letter carriers; No.
g. for conveying incoming official mail to
the departmental mail section: No 4 and
No ). both operating in connection with
common trunk line to carry outgoing
mail to the pouching section from the
separating cases: No. 6, tray conveyor for
mail from the mailing section to the de-
livery section; No {. what is known as
the "sweep-of conveyors." for special de-
livery letters. which makes the circuit of
the entire working room; Nos. s and sa.
sweep-on conveyors" operating in the
carriers section on which letters wrongly
distributed are returned to the asserting
clerk to be sent to the proper carrier;
No. 3, an ingenious inclined-plane belt
which brings bags of mail delivered at
the entrance of the office by the collec-
ton wagons to the main floor of the
working room; No. 10, special conveyor
Tor first class mail or letters from the
separating cases to the lock box section;
No. IL. another belt running from the
entrance near to the Union station into
the city distributors, for incoming mail,
and No. IL. what is known as the
bucket-lift' for the government printing
ONCE mail to the conveyors for outward
dispatch or separation in the working
room.
Building of Three Stories.
The building has three stories, a base
ment and sub-basement, as well as a
meZzanine floor extending across the
front over the Offices of the postmaster
and assistant postmaster 1t cost APP
proximately 100000 And its imposing
front derives its chief beauty from the
eighteen Ionic columns that stretch from
the west main entrance, at North Capitol
street and Massachusetts, avenue to the
east main entrance, at the corner adioin-
Ing the Union station. over these en-
frances on the handsome facade are cut
the following Inscriptions, Carrier OF
News and knowledge. Instrument OF
Trade and Industry. Promoter OF Mutual
W
Among Men and Nations: and, over the
western entrance. Messenger of Sympa-
thy and Love. Servant of Parted Friends
CONSIDER of the Lonely. Bond OF the Scat
tered Family. Enlarger of the Common
Life" The central front. back of the
pillar and reaching up nearly TO the
facade. Is of bronze.
AS a seeming afterthought, there has
been cut on one of the white square faces
of the marble at the base of the eastern
end of the front the inscription. Frank.
lin MacVeagh. Secretary of the Treasury
Oscar Wenderoth Supervising Architect
D. II. Burnham & Co., Architects
MCMXII''
Room of Postmaster.
The postmaster's room. which IS the
first room on the main corridor front, is
handsomely finished in C!rcassian walnut
Connected with il is an elaborate vault
well appointed bathroom and a part Of
Its permanent furniture is d handsom,
mirror over an deliberately carved marble
mantel, with a fireplace in which a gas
log will burn during the wintry days
The assistant postmaster's room adjoins
and beyond it. all connected by innel
doors, as well as by doors leading to ths
main corridor, are the rooms for thu
clerical force of the postmaster, the cash
ROOM with elaborate bronze cage pro
lection on an inner corridor and ths
money order division. with probably tht
v,nSt ela borafa friple time