Mail sorting apparatus and method
First Claim
1. A sorting cabinet for mail matter comprising a base, partition means defining a plurality of pigeonholes, said pigeonholes being aligned in a series of rows on said base, one indicator means associated with each of said rows of pigeonholes, said indicator means comprising multiple sets of indicia means and shiftable support means on which said sets are supported, guide means positioning said indicator means adjacent its associated row of pigeonholes and means for simultaneously shifting said indicator means between multiple given positions corresponding in number to said sets, said indicia means indicating the mail matter to be placed in said pigeonholes, each set of indicia means being in registry with said pigeonholes when its associated indicator means is in one of said given positions.
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Abstract
A sorting apparatus and method for sorting mail matter. The apparatus comprises a cabinet including a series of rows of pigeonholes, each pigeonhole having in registry therewith indicia provided on a shiftable support setting forth destination information, as well as related code information, for the mail matter to be placed therein. One indicia-bearing support is provided for each row of pigeonholes, and the indicia are arranged thereon in sets. The full complement of indicia-bearing supports are simultaneously shiftable between multiple given positions corresponding to the number of sets of indicia.
The method is carried out by first positioning the full complement of supports to display a primary set of indicia. The destination of the uncoded mail matter to be sorted is matched with the indicia of the primary set and deposited in the appropriate pigeonhole. The accumulated mail matter is removed from the pigeonholes, and the full complement of supports is shifted to display a selected one of the remaining sets of indicia, each set of which bears a species-genus relationship to one of the indicia of the primary set. Thereafter, the indicia of the primary set generic to the selected secondary set of indicia is identified. The indicia on the mail matter removed from the pigeonhole associated with the identified primary indicia is then matched with the corresponding indicia of the displayed secondary set and deposited in the appropriate pigeonhole. The mail matter may be encoded during sorting.
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Citations
19 Claims
- 1. A sorting cabinet for mail matter comprising a base, partition means defining a plurality of pigeonholes, said pigeonholes being aligned in a series of rows on said base, one indicator means associated with each of said rows of pigeonholes, said indicator means comprising multiple sets of indicia means and shiftable support means on which said sets are supported, guide means positioning said indicator means adjacent its associated row of pigeonholes and means for simultaneously shifting said indicator means between multiple given positions corresponding in number to said sets, said indicia means indicating the mail matter to be placed in said pigeonholes, each set of indicia means being in registry with said pigeonholes when its associated indicator means is in one of said given positions.
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13. A method for sorting mail matter wherein said mail matter is sorted in a cabinet comprising a base, partition means defining a plurality of rows of a predetermined number of pigeonholes, said pigeonholes being aligned in a series of rows on said base, one indicator means associated with each of said rows of pigeonholes, said indicator means comprising a primary ordered set of indicia means, a plurality of secondary ordered sets of indicia means, and shiftable support means on which said primary and said secondary indicia means are supported, the number of indicia means in said primary set being no greater than the predetermined number of pigeonholes, the number of indicia means in each of said secondary sets being no greater than the predetermined number of pigeonholes, each set of indicia means within said secondary sets being related to an indica means within said primary set in the manner of species to a genus, the indicia means in each of said sets being in registry with said pigeonholes when said indicator means are in a given position, and means for simultaneously shifting said indicator means between given positions, said method comprising the steps of:
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(a) positioning said indicator means to display said primary set of indicia means in registry with said pigeonholes; (b) matching the indicia on said mail matter with the indicia means of said primary set and depositing said mail matter in the pigeonhole in registry with the matched indicia means; (c) removing the accumulated mail matter from all of said pigeonholes; (d) shifting said indicator means to display a selected one of said secondary sets of indicia means in registry with said pigeonholes; (e) thereafter identifying indicia means of the primary set generic to said selected secondary set and the mail matter removed from the pigeonhole associated with said primary indicia means; and (f) matching the indicia on said identified mail matter with the corresponding indicia means of said displayed secondary set and depositing said identified mail matter in the pigeonhole in registry with the matched indicia means. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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Specification