British Postal Mechanisation: From Transorma to the Modern Era
Introduction
British Postal Mechanisation:
From TRANSORMA to the Modern Era
The story of the postal automation in the UK
From TRANSORMA to the Modern Era
The story of the postal automation in the UK
Purpose: To present the story of the co-dependent development of four mechanisation threads that enabled post office mail handling to become automated. These threads are:
A. Machine-readable stamp identity
B. Letter facing + service class + cancel integration
C. Letter destination sorting
D. Postcode structure + Implementation
Organization
1: Early Mechanised Sorting 1935-55
2: The Search for Stamp Identity 1945-59
3: Production Phosphor Compounds 1960-93
4: Automatic Letter Facing (ALF) & Sorting (ALS) 1939-74 and Postcode Structure & Implementation
5: The Modern Letter Processing Era 1975-Present
Presentation Approach: This exhibit uses elements of Postal History, Marcophily, Display and Traditional categories to tell the story. A minimum number of philatelic items are included for important event markers.
Exhibit Scope
Royal Mail commenced automated mail sorting operations at its Brighton office in 1935, using a Dutch TRANSORMA machine, thus beginning a decades long development program to automate and integrate letter facing and sorting processes. This effort is on-going today with the principal elements of development over this time span representing the scope of the exhibit.
This exhibit is about the story, told through the philatelic trails of the advancements in materials science, engineering and address data structure, that has enabled this remarkable advance in automation.