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Thomas Leavitt (inventor)
Encyclopedia
Machine postmark
A machine postmark or machine cancellation is a postmark or cancellation on mail that is applied by a mechanical device rather than with the use of a handstamp. Nearly all machine-cancellation devices apply both postmark and cancellation simultaneously...
postal letters practicable, enabling the United States Post Office
United States Postal Service
The United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States...
to increase the volume of mail it handled, quickening the pace of delivery and allowing customers to more easily send letters of various sizes.
Biography
Leavitt, a resident of Malden, MassachusettsMalden, Massachusetts
Malden is a suburban city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 59,450 at the 2010 census. In 2009 Malden was ranked as the "Best Place to Raise Your Kids" in Massachusetts by Bloomberg Businessweek Magazine.-History:...
, was born in 1827 at Hingham, Massachusetts
Hingham, Massachusetts
Hingham is a town in northern Plymouth County on the South Shore of the U.S. state of Massachusetts and suburb in Greater Boston. The United States Census Bureau 2008 estimated population was 22,561...
, the son of Martin Lincoln Leavitt, and began working in the early 1870s on a continuous cancelling machine – one that could mechanically sort and stamp envelopes. The postage stamp
Postage stamp
A postage stamp is a small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are made from special paper, with a national designation and denomination on the face, and a gum adhesive on the reverse side...
itself was a relatively new invention, introduced in the U.S. in 1847, and within a couple of decades the volume of U.S. mail began overwhelming hand cancelling, the only practical method of cancelling each stamp so it could not be reused.
By the early 1870s, inventors in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
, had introduced a machine which allowed the cancelling of postal cards of a standardized size, speeding their processing by eliminating the need for hand-cancelling. But a mechanism which would allow letters of various sizes, shapes and thicknesses to pass through a sorter proved a stumbling block.
In 1875 Thomas Leavitt and his brother Martin were issued United States Patent
United States Patent and Trademark Office
The United States Patent and Trademark Office is an agency in the United States Department of Commerce that issues patents to inventors and businesses for their inventions, and trademark registration for product and intellectual property identification.The USPTO is based in Alexandria, Virginia,...
Number 175,290 for a device which would allow different sizes of letters to have their postage stamps cancelled. The two brothers tested their hand-cranked, hand-fed device at the main Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
Post Office under the watchful eye of postal workers. The device was largely a failure. But after more tinkering, Leavitt and his brother got a second patent (Number 192,519). The Leavitt brothers' second device is considered the first practical device in the U.S. for mechanized cancelling
Machine postmark
A machine postmark or machine cancellation is a postmark or cancellation on mail that is applied by a mechanical device rather than with the use of a handstamp. Nearly all machine-cancellation devices apply both postmark and cancellation simultaneously...
.
Backing Leavitt financially was Henry E. Waite, who advanced Leavitt money for construction of the initial model. Following the death of Martin Leavitt in 1877, Thomas Leavitt continued to work on the brothers' initial invention, eventually enlisting his cousin Elijah Leavitt Howard to help in his machine shop and perfect the device. Leavitt eventually received five patents for his mechanical sorting devices. Most of Leavitt's subsequent improvements were designed to improve the feeder mechanism for sorting envelopes of various sizes and shapes, as well as pulling each envelope through the rollers for cancelling.
In awarding Leavitt's new machine a gold medal at its 1881 exhibition, the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association
Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association
The Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association of Boston, Massachusetts, was "formed for the sole purposes of promoting the mechanic arts and extending the practice of benevolence." Founding members included Paul Revere, Benjamin Russell, and others...
noted that Leavitt's subsequent improvements on his original patent had perfected the earlier postal card cancelling machine, "allowing letters of large or small size, either thick or thin, to be operated on to perfection." A number of improvements, including a feeder box, a system of double rollers and a movable impression shaft meant that Leavitt's new invention could be used for all manners of letters, instead of for just a standard-sized card. "The machine works to perfection," the judges noted, "and saves a great deal of labor."
The Leavitt machines, first produced in 1875, saw wide usage in Boston, and subsequently in New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
through the end of the 1870s, the 1880s and the 1890s. During the decades following introduction of the revolutionary machine, Leavitt refined the design, garnering new patents and introducing new models. By 1880 Leavitt machines were used in 20 American cities. The cancellations produced by Leavitt machines bore distinctive signatures – sometimes horizontal or diagonal lines, or even football shapes.
By 1882, Leavitt's cousin Elijah Leavitt Howard, formerly a machinist in Leavitt's shop, had made a series of modifications to Leavitt's original design, work which was also financed by Henry Waite.
Leavitt's initial models "had serious defects which rendered its use impracticable", noted a later U.S. Patent Court
United States Court of Customs and Patent Appeals
The United States Court of Customs and Patent Appeals is a former United States federal court which existed from 1909 to 1982 and had jurisdiction over certain types of civil disputes.-History:...
decision of 1901. Following Howard's work, the machine was taken to a Boston post office in 1883, where it was used to sort letters for several hours each day, apparently successfully. Howard's improvements on Leavitt's initial machine – including triggers which prevented the deposit of ink on the machine's pressure roll when no envelope was engaged – worked successfully. But Howard's model was shelved and never introduced commercially.
The field was opening to a slew of new developers. The next decade brought new competitors to the postal cancelling machine business, with the American Postal Machine Company introducing a line of devices in the 1890s noted for their speed. Soon there were scores of competitors hungry for business from the exploding volumes of United States mail.
Thomas Leavitt, who set off the stampede with his first design, was married to Martha Elizabeth Whittier of Cornville, Maine
Cornville, Maine
Cornville is a town in Somerset County, Maine, United States. The population was 1,208 at the 2000 census.-History:Settled in 1794, Cornville was incorporated on 24 February 1798 as the 116th town in Maine.-Geography:...
, in 1851. The inventor died in 1899 and his wife Martha died in 1910. The couple had four children.
Further reading
- Thomas Leavitt: His History and Postal Markings, 1875–1892, Robert J. Payne, United Postal Stationery Society, Thousand Oaks, Ca., 1999.
- Descriptive Catalog of the Leavitt Cancellations, Frank B. Stratton, United Postal Stationery Society, 1972.
