Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 November 1897 — An Electrical Letter Carrier. [ARTICLE]

An Electrical Letter Carrier.

A very clever mail delivery box has been placed in a number of the larger buildings at Geneva, Switzerland, by an enterprising electrician. This mail box has a compartment for each of the stories of the building, and when the letters arc deposited on the ground door the carrier delivers them as required. The deposit of a single letter makes an electric contact, which starts a bell going on the respective floor, which does not cease ringing until the letter is taken out. At the same time it opens the faucet of a tank on the roof of the house, which causes water to flow into the cylinder forming the counterweight of the mail box elevator until the weight is heavier than the box, when the box ascends and the flow of water ceases simultaneoulsy. As the box passes each story the mail intended for it—letters, papers and small packages—falls into boxes In the corridor on that floor. This is performed very reliably by a little spring at the bottom of each compartment in the elevator mail box, which causes the bottom of the compartment to catch for a moment, and the release throws out even a single piece of paper thinner than a postal card into the stationary box provided for its reception. By its own weight the box descends to its place on the ground floor. Should by any mischance a single piece of paper have remained in the elevator, upon striking the bottom it will at once go through the same series of movements as before.—New York Evening Journal.