Electronics in Automatic Mail Cancelling and Facing

An automatic mail cancelling and facing machine has been developed which processes 500 letters per minute in a single pass. Letters are introduced into the complex, five-module machine system in random postage stamp orientations, high or low, leading or trailing. Stamp locations are individually detected by flying spot scanners. These scanners generate command signals for the selective actuation of the appropriate one of twelve cancelling heads and for the subsequent direction of the letter to one of four terminal letter collection stackers in which all letters are uniformly faced, that is, with-stamps, and therefore addresses, oriented in the same manner.