Office Appliances

Hand Stamp Affixers.—Stamps provided in rolls of 50o by the post-office are locked in a stamp affixer and applied to en velopes by the downstroke of a plunger, moisture being applied in some cases to the stamp, in others to the envelope. Extra containers, allowing for quick change from one denomination to another, are furnished with some models. Some machines are spring-locked ; others are key-locked to guard against un authorized operation; still others count the stamps used.

Sealing Machines.—These are designed for the rapid sealing of large quantities of envelopes. The envelopes are fed to the machine one at a time, either by hand, semi-automatically by holding them against revolving feed rollers or automatically from a hopper—depending on the type of machine. The gummed flaps come in contact with a moistening device—a wick, a roller or a metal disk—which receives its water-supply from a reservoir or by a position feed suction. The envelopes then pass between sealing rollers and are ejected from the machine. Letter opening machines are frequently used in offices. In many mail order houses and similar establishments these are considered a necessity. Their principles of operation usually include mechanism for placing, cutting and sorting various sizes of letters.

Permit Mailing Machines.

An office having occasion to mail a thousand or more letters a day could greatly expedite their passage through the routine of mailing if the office were permitted to cancel the stamps or to print some indication that postage was paid. For this purpose, a U.S. post office regulation, passed in 192o, provides for the printing of the permit, or indicia, as it is called, directly on the envelope in the office of the mailer. Permit mail is of two kinds—metered and non-metered ; for either, the licence must be obtained from the Post Office Department through the local postmaster, the mail being delivered to the post office by the sender, as such mail is handled separately. Machines which handle non-metered mail print the indicia, seal the envelopes and count the pieces. The impression must show the postmark—city and state, month, day and year, denomination and sender's per mit number. The number shown in the counter of the machine after a mailing is completed, multiplied by the denomination, gives the amount of postage to be paid. Payment is made either with each individual mailing or by a cash balance carried at the post office. Certain machines will print the indicia without sealing,

seal without printing, or count without either sealing or printing.

The basis of the meter system is a printing and recording mechanism demountable from the machine with which it is used, so that it can be taken to the post office to be set for a given number of impressions, payment being made at that time, and the mechanism locked and sealed. Two sets of registers indicate how much postage has been used. A separate meter is used for each denomination, and any number of meters can be secured for one machine. The indicia are the same as those printed by the non-metering type, except that the sender's meter number is shown. The speed of such machines varies from i5o to 200 a minute. One type of machine is adapted for use with either the metered or the non-metered system. In 1924 the U.S. Post Office Department issued a regulation permitting first-class mail to be sent out with pre-cancelled stamps attached. The stamps, ob tained in coils from the post office, are applied by a hand stamp affixer and the envelopes are then passed through a non-metering permit machine which seals and counts them and prints the post mark and additional cancellation required. Where bulk of mail does not warrant a permit machine, the postmark and additional cancellation are applied by a rubber stamp bearing a changeable date. One sealing machine is adapted to metered, non-metered and pre-cancelled systems, without mechanical alteration.

Cash Registers (q.v.).—Motor-driven models have now be come available.

Autographic Registers.

On many occasions it is necessary to make by the carbon method several copies of pencil mem oranda. The autographic register is a device for making at one writing an original and from one to six copies of sales slips, bills of lading, requisitions and other business records on continuous forms. These, interleaved with carbon, are retained within the register and fed across a writing table or platen. Some registers use rolled forms, one roll for each copy of the record ; others use flat folded forms. Various types of registers have various methods of aligning the several copies that make up a set. As a written set is issued from the register, either by pulling out by hand or by the turn of a crank, and is torn off against a knife edge, another set, automatically leaved with carbon, is brought into a writing position.