Transcripts For CSPAN3 Reel America Improving Mail Processin

CSPAN3 Reel America Improving Mail Processing Through R D - 1970 July 12, 2024

Research and latest scientific techniques, and the development of operational hardware. Reduction of human effort, removal of the lifting and movement of heavy burdens from human muscle to the sinews of machine. Improvements in methods for processing, and the ever increasing volume of mail. These are some of the things in which rnd developers are finding new answers. This film will show you a few of the areas of research underway, and some of the developing hardware. The use of controlled and compressed air is getting increased attention for possible use in processing mail. Utilization of control devices could eliminate many moving parts and reduce maintenance costs. As seen in slow motion, this test device and the postal laboratory roles letters over by controlled jets of air. This device separates letters from those that will not pass Mail Processing machines. Another air jet controlled device dates letter to mail in transit. While this one diverts mail automatically. Notice the first decision location, where the stream of letters is diverted to left or right. And then, farther down the stream, other jets divert letters into two directions. In the postal test laboratory, this device uses directive air jets to edge mail on its long side as it comes over a conveyor belt. An air control device in the laboratory present an unusual idea. This prototype has been developed to separate letter mail from other collection mail. Small parcels, papers, large, flat envelopes, rolls and the like. Assorted collection mail is emptied into the device. An inclined moving belt carries the mail to a screen time conveyor. Air forced through at 1350 feet per minute floats mail light in relation to its area to the top of the chamber. Here, a second mesh type moving film carries it to a separate conveyor. Mail that is heavy in relation to its surface area remains on the lower belt and is carried to a different separator. 40,000 pieces of mail per our hour can be handled. Here in another laboratory, rnd engineers are working with industry engineers to create a machine that will operate at very high speeds. This model does not have a sensing or encapsulating equipment, but the mechanical forms can be used in post offices today. One of these functions is letter feeding. Letters are pulled over a highspeed drama one by one from the bottom of a stack. Acceleration wheels speed up the letter and they are propelled through the system, riding on a cushion of air. Slow motion has been used to film some of the process. Note that the letters passed into the model on the flat side on their flat side. Letters face up on to a tray. Letters face down are rolled over and sped directly to the stackers. Letters face down with stamps trailing bypass the section before reaching the stacker. Space up with stamps trailing are rolled over. Fixed to join the stream into the stacker tray. All letters just before stacking oriented with stamps in the same location, ready for the post marking operation. As soon as a tray is filled, it drops away for transporting to the sorting area. An empty tray automatically takes its place. Development of fluidic control techniques for processing letter mail is continuing in areas where reduction in costs and improvement in performance, maintenance, and reliability may be achieved. In an other postal contractors laboratory, research into increasing the speed of presentday counselors has evolved into this breadboard model of a highspeed transport system. It is being developed by r d engineers to process double the current rate, up to 50,000 letters an hour. Operation will differ from current equipment to achieve this highspeed. Here, near the feeding date, one detectors will be installed. All envelopes having stamps in a down position will be bypassed and sent to a second detector at the cancellation end of the machine. The remainder of the mail will be turned over so that the stamps will also be in the down position. A new type of turnover belt is seen here in slowmotion. It is designed for gentle handling of mail as well as for long life. The letters with recognizable stamps are turned over to the down position to flow past a second stamp detector. At this point, the cancellation unit will be installed. All recognizable stamps will be canceled through use of a noncontact device, now in development. Three automatic devices will be installed at the end of the system in place of the five now in use. A prototype model will be tested soon under actual working conditions. The present methods of shipping empty sacks from one area to another for reuse is either to stuff 19 into another one to create an unyielding weight of about 70 pounds. And tie five empty sacks into a bundle. This is an R D Development to facilitate the handling and shipping of empty mail sacks. Inspected, flattened sacks at fixed positions along the horizontal conveyor belt. As the belt moves slowly at six feet per minute, loaders pile up sacks so the stack arriving containsor bailer 120. Total control stops the conveyor when a stock arrives directly below the bailer. Compresses the stack to about half its height, a mental strap is inserted. It feeds the strap and around the stack. This operation is being automated. The forms and formed and strapped bale advances to the exit conveyor while another the baler. Es the accumulator system now shunts the bale to the takeaway station. At this point, our trucks handle the bale for storage or shipment. Advantage of this system include gaining a Warehouse Space and ease of inventory. Easy mechanical handling, and more sacks per cue, with flattened sacs ready for immediate reuse at receiving areas. Designed to relieve mail handlers of the laborious task mail manually, this fourlevel hamper dumper mechanizes the operation. The loaded hamper is positioned on the dumping mechanism. Raising the control lever latches the hamper securely and automatic sequencing turns it upside down to unload the contents. Pushing the control lever downwards returns the hamper to floor level, where it is automatically unlatched. The controls are simple. Start button, stop button. A warning light turns red when power is on. Each operation is registered. Placing the collector switch in low position will dump a lower hamper to floor level. When turned to the high position, a hamper with extensions will be dumped to floor level. For a standard hamper may be dumped into the hopper of a portable conveyor. The mechanism operates to the cycle of about six seconds per dumping and four seconds for returning the empty hamper to floor level. Another physical operation studied for mechanization is manual emptying of sacks. This prototype sack shakeout system developed by r d and contract engineers is in daily use on a work floor. A horizontal conveyor moves sacked mail to the shakeout table. Here, two mail handlers prepare the sacks for all automatic shakeup. One removes the sack label and spreads the sack opening wide. The other claims the bottom two corners of each sack into speciallydesigned clamps. The clamps, fixed to a conveyor, each sack at the edge of the table and the parcels drop out. Sack will beh empty, an eccentric shaker shakes the sack. The parcels fall to a conveyor belt, which transports them to the sorting section. As the emptied sack passes through the system, the sack clamps are opened automatically and the empty sack released. A prototype model of a high rate belt sack sorter is in a large truck terminal. The sorter is 225 feet long. Sorting is by keyboard control to 40 separations. 20 at each side of the conveyor belt. As many as six trucks may be unloaded at dockside at the same time. Extendable conveyors moving into the trailer bodies as they are emptied assist during unloading. The sacks move upwards into the system. And arrive singly at one of the six keyboard positions. As the label on each sack is read, a code is typed in. The spacing of the sacks, placed on the belt moving at 420 feet permits from one to six keyboards. When a sack reaches its coded separation, a pneumaticallyoperated diverter is activated by the memory system. It opens and closes within one second, sweeping the sack to secondary sorting. This new type of diverter handles the mail as gently as possible. Since only a twodigit code is required, it is easy to learn and keypunch. The number of separations which can be made on this type of high rate sack sorter is limited only by the space available. To mechanize loading and unloading of trailers and to reduce manual effort and timeconsuming movement of portable conveyors, floor level conveyors have been installed on one side of test vehicles. Power is brought from supply. Provision has been made for solenoid valves on the brake system to prevent Truck Movement unless power is disconnected. Note the use of hinged covers to prevent loss of cube space by loading directly on top of the conveyor. Use of this builtin conveyor is under study to determine efficiency and saving in manual labor. Also under test and evaluation is this vertical twin belt conveyor for transporting collection mail vertically to an upper floor. Collection mail is unloaded on a horizontal induction conveyor. Sacks and miscellaneous mail move directly to the bottom of the twin belts for automatic induction. Here, the mail is seized between the 42 inch twin belts which carry it vertically upwards, 33. 5 feet to the second floor. Moving 220 feet per minute, the unit under test can handle in excess of 4000 sacks per hour. At the top of the belts, the mail is discharged to a take away conveyor and carried to the secondfloor mezzanine for processing. The transport belt of the twin belts is pressed taut. The cover belt is loose, with pressure exerted on it by several rubber wheels to hold the items being transported securely against the transport belt. Notice the action of the pressure rollers against the cover belt as a sack moves upward. Sacks and parcels of all sizes, small, flat pieces, as well as trays filled with letter mail, may be transported vertically without damage. A prototype model with a longer vertical lift is being installed for test in another facility. This compact unit simulates actual operating conditions of the keyboard of a letter sorting machine. It may be used to test personnel for dexterity. Or to help them develop rhythm at the keyboard. The machine projects a number code or letter facsimile on the display screen. And the student responds by pressing keys corresponding to the number shown. When an error is made, virtual miniature lamps illuminate the correct key. By pressing keys which match the lamps, the student learns correct fingering. The instructors control panel provides means for method of projection of tests or training code numbers. Rate of speed of rejection. A method of recording errors. The printer provides a permanent record of student responses. The machine introduces the student to the principle of key, trains him in code numbers and helps him acquire the speed to become a qualified sorting machine operator. You have seen a few of the research and Development Projects now active in the field bureau of research and engineering. Many others are in the contracting stage in design or under prototype construction. Its periodll undergo of evaluation and testing. Those passing the stringent requirements will take their place in the system for mechanizing all operations of Mail Processing. Youre watching American History tv. Exploring our nations past every weekend on cspan three. This week we are looking back to this date in history. The 1960 four president ial campaign is officially launched as 100,000 people assembled to hear president johnsons bid for reelection. His speech is concerned with nuclear weapons. While not mentioning barry goldwater, mr. Johnson answers his opponents call for arming with nuclear weapons. He reaffirmed the need for strict president ial control. Make no mistake. There is no such thing as a conventional nuclear weapon. [applause] for 19 years no nation as loosed the atom against another. To do so now is a political ,ecision of the highest order and it will lead us down an uncertain path whose outcome none may know. Of the United States of america can divest himself of the responsibility for such a decision. [applause] as the chairs ring out, there are more in los angeles. Dodgerpeople packed stadium to greet the republican candidate as he begins his campaign. Barry goldwater arrives with misses goldwater to go to bat against the incumbent administration. This is the opening of his first swing that will take him into washington and four other states. Mr. Goldwater took the occasion to castigate the administrations tax cut as cynical, then went on to promise that reduction over five years if he is elected. Media forus on social more clips and posts. American history tv is on social media. Cspanhistory. 1969 Yell University opened its doors to women for the first time. Gardinerok, and perkins explained the challenges these women faced and their continuing struggle for equality. Here is a preview. 1969 whenurn back to those first women students arrived at yale. This is the story of those first women graduates. They arrived to a campus that had been all mail for the all male. They were outnumbered 71. Dont think that coeducation is 5050 or close to it like it is now. Yale put in place a quota that limited the number of women graduates. It wanted to continue to admit as many men as possible. Those students do not have women faculty to look out for them. Faculty members in 1969. Just three women. Of the dozens of women i interviewed, i was struck again and again by their persistence, by their courage, and i their creativity. If we think of september 1969, in some ways it has been reminding me of our time right now, when lots of individuals were speaking out against longstanding injustice. As vietnam war was raging, was the protest against it. The black Power Movement was changing how americans saw race. The stone wall riots had just happened before those students arrived. Showing people the discrimination faced by gay and transgender and and women. It is in that moment that connie and elizabeth, that those first undergraduates arrived. The Womens Movement had barely started just then. To give you that context, just 7 of u. S. Doctors in 1969 were women. Just 3 of u. S. Lawyers. Just 2 of the members of congress. Womenmination against college students, faculty, and administrators was legal. If you think yale was the only college that was turning women away, you should think again. It really is the entire top tier of american colleges and universities, with the rare exception. Ivy leagueght schools. Even public universities. Who,ads as a list of whos from amherst, dartmouth, and duke. Two west point, williams, and yale. N yale announced his announces this, it is so shocking that the New York Times plays that on the front page. Learn more about the first female students at yale, sunday at 3 00 p. M. Eastern here on American History tv. Lexie lord is the chair of the Smithsonian Museum of American History. Let me begin with this pandemic and how it has impacted the museum and your division in particular. Ms. Lord we are working remotely. We began thinking about the pandemic in january. We are a division of medical historians. We tend to follow the news

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