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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 17, 1911)
THE OMAHA SCKDAT TOT: TB0BMM3t 1 1011 Revolutionizing The Gigantic Mail System of the United States ALBERT HUPP. Inventor. What the System Is Today and How E the Postmaster-General Is to Make the Best in the World Cffect of the Hupp System Upon the Present Service ALBEBT HUPP, inventor of the automatic mail exchange system, paid Omaha a fly ing visit recently. The inventor resides in Kansas City and is returning from Washington, where he has about completed arrangements with the government and the Chesapeake railroad to make daily demonstra tion of his device before members of congress and government offioials during the present session. The inventor is an exceedingly interesting conversationalist. He is unassuming and gives force to his remarks by employing the simplest expressions and by using apt and practical illus trations. In describing his device and its ultimate in fluence upon the physical and mechanical opera tion of the governmental mail system of the coun try, one is impressed with the magnitude of the inventor's claim, and of the absolute certainty that he is establishing it. r Who the Hupps Are. The Hupps are best known in Missouri, and it is there that the inventor chose to make his first demonstrations of his device. It was there thut he began first to receive substantial recognition of its wonderful merit. In the offices of his brother, Irvin Hupp, 918 City National Bank Building, Wednesday, the in ventor spent most of the day. He had not slept well the night before and did not. meet many of his acquaintances in Omaha. "I shall not be satisfied," he said, referring to the demonstrations at Washington jnst about to begin, "until we are able to show those people that we can catch and deliver mail on trains run ning as fast as 80 miles an hour." An Easy Thing to Do. When he was asked if he could really do that, he broiled and without replying said, "On the rail road where we are demonstrating, the rail is light and trains do not make 80 miles an hour. I am informed, though, that provision will soon be made whereby on parts of the track heavier rails will be laid so that we may show the possibilities of the device. It it as easy for this system to take a dozen sacks of mail into the car running at a high rate of speed as it is to take a single sack into a slow moving train. It is all done auto matically and the same way. There can be no mistake about it. It oan work only when the train moves and the revolution of the wheel is part of its performance, and necessary to its oper a tion. Possible With Automatic Machines. To be successful it must be automatic and looking around the room he said, "If it was not for these automatic devices we would not have this table, that chair, desk or anything mado today which is mado well. Think of the parts of the engine being made any other way. Think how impossible it would bo to make the same piece of iron the same way twice. No mechanic on earth could do it. When I first began to think ubout the mail stem of the country, I learned that the present invention, that is, the mail cranes such as are employed on fast trains today, were adopted as early as 1869, and that this system was then con sidered inadequate. When I thought of the won derful strides made in every branch of commerce, and of the country' 's remarkable development iu every respect, it occured to me that the most im portant requisite, demanded by our country's vast growth, has been overlooked. That the sys tem of forty years ago, when the population of this country was 39,000,000, is made to serve to day, when the population is 92,000,000. Passenger Service Increased Annually. Passenger service is increased every year; wo have not lost sight of the comfort of travels. We have provided faster trains, for their accommoda tions, we have added from year to year what wc have believed would heighten their pleasure; in fact, it is a short trip and a pleasant one across th ecountry, but how few people travel, after all, compared with the millions who are at home re ceiving mail every minute of the day. It is al most ridiculous to contra, t the facilities for travel in 1869 with those of 1911. People would not be satisfied with it today, and yet they have made no advances in the exchanging of mails on the fast trains. Ten pound sacks of mail, from inter- I mediate stations along tho linos axe receiv ed on fast trains and delivered on fast trains juBt as they were forty yoars ago. If there are 300 pounds of mail at these stations to go; if 300 pounds are just as im portant as the ten pounds which is taken up, it must be held for another train a level train, and a slow train; the clerk cannot receive it; the crane cannot take it in. And often even, with this small pouch it is hurled under the moving train and ground up, and iu instances, evory year, the industrious clerk who makes efforts to protect the pouch, is drawn from the car himself, to death. Newspapers the Most Important Mail. Again, admitting the eJaiiu that letters filled with money and with urgent appeals for help of the sick, with the notices of death even, are im portant and should be crowded into tho ten pound sacks first, in event that tho postmaster and the clerk knew what tho purport was, lam constrained to believe that the newspaper tho daily news paper is the most important piece of mail carriod on our trains today. Ten persons in a small town of 200 people may constitute the number of those receiving letters daily, but in all likelihood 150 get the daily newspaper. And say only fifty get it, in all probability tho newt that it contains is before the other 100 in a few hours. I look on the newspaper as our greatest civilizer our greatest educator. ' Now thiol; of this being delivered on only maiu lines by fast trains. And where trans fers have to be made on fast trains, which cross each other's tracks, local trains must be resorted to in the delivery of these papers. In tho east, this is a serious hindrance; ultimately it will be here, as new lines are projected. Deliveries Without Aid of Clerks. Down in Washington we expect to demon strate every day when wo get started that the mail exchange system will operate on cars without clerks. We will pluce pouches on the cars to be delivered, and the others on platforms at stations to be taken on, and the doors will be locked. The car will not have an occupant, and the device will transact the business of receiving and depositing mail at the proper station automatically and cor rectly. I expect to see the time come, in the large cities, when the great rush incident to the loading of mail cars at the hour of departure of fast trains will be eliminated entirely by this system. I think the plan will be to erect a platform, say 100 yards from the station, with as many cranes as are necessary for the delivery of mail for the out going trains. The pouches will be placed on them cranes during tho day, and up until the hour when the mail closes, and the train will pick them up, taking each sack and depositing it in tho car as it moves away from its depot without bustle or noise or without the labor of a half dozen men. In this service there is no room for mistake either. By adoption and use of the mail exchange system, newspapers, money pouches, important matter of every class and character up to 1,200 pounds, will be carried on fast trains. Local Mail Trains May Be Abandoned, There will bo no further use of the local train for the railway mail system; the small interme diate station which uses the local train now, will use the fast train then. This service will be as adequate as the service of the fast train is adequate; this sorvico will be at) satisfactory as tho present satisfactory service of tho big cities. Tho merchant in tho large cities will rcceivo the im portant mail of his country customers on fast truins instead of slow ones. The entire system of delivery of mails and the receiving of mails in cars will be changed. A quick service will bo inauguarted for all classes of mail, and as I under stand it, Postmaster General Hitchcock and the department is eager for whatever is an important improvement. Invention Based on Natural Laws. Mr. Hupp went on to say that he considered the introduction of the Hupp Mail System and its effect upon the mail service valuable, but that tho principle of it was not wonderful at all. Only the simple, practical, ordinary laws with which all are familiar are drawn on to complete the inven- j tion. And much of it was sugge ted by the devices employed today in jobbing houWM, and with which he was at that time familiar .and iu which he be came interested. Mr. Hupp left Friday for Kansas C ity aud from then will proceed to Washington to overlook the daily demonstrations before govern ment officials.