Bygones: 18,000 letters an hour now sorted
READING’S postal system got a new automatic letter sorting machine nicknamed “Alf” in 1969, which could deal with 18,000 items an hour. The four-and-a-half ton ‘monster’ had to be hoisted into the sorting office in Friar Street by crane and gently lowered onto a cushion of air which resembled the ‘skirts’ of a hovercraft. A GPO (General Post Office) spokesperson told the Chronicle:” The machine will be in use by this weekend in conjunction with the automatic segregator, so...
Source: readingchronicle.co.uk