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, sorting them into stacks of first and second class, long and short envelopes.” British Rail engine...
Source: readingchronicle.co.uk