https://peertube.dngr.us/videos/watch/5ee45d5c-14c7-4e84-ac97-8c0c2905a644 Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCddem5RlB3bQe99wyY49g0g/join Help us preserve, scan and post more rare and endangered films! Join us on Patreon. Visit https://www.patreon.com/PeriscopeFilm Visit our website www.PeriscopeFilm.com Dating to 1957, "Men Mail and Machines" is a film presentation of the new electronic and automatic devices being installed in some of the major post offices of the nation in that era. This film shows the U.S. Postal Service and its efforts to handle the massive volume of mail efficiently. It highlights the challenges faced by the Postal Service due to the high volume of mail and the outdated methods previously used. Postmaster General, Arthur E. Summerfield explains the introduction of modern technologies and systems to improve mail handling, such as automated sorting machines and new vehicles for mail carriers. The film also discusses the need for better working conditions for postal workers and the financial challenges in implementing these improvements. Overall, it emphasizes the importance of modernization to provide better mail service to the public. • 0:26 - 0:44: Introduction by the Postmaster General, Arthur E. Summerfield, about the U.S. Postal Service. Visuals: stacks of letters being dropped onto a countertop. • 0:50 - 1:25: Explanation of the high volume of mail handled by the U.S., which is two-thirds of the world's mail. • 1:30 - 1:41: Introduction to the film's purpose: showing the problems and solutions of the Postal Service. Visuals: Girl Scout writes a letter, Registered mail is stamped, a woman checks her post office box. • 1:43 - 2:19: Description of the types of mail sent and received, including personal and business letters, and Social Security checks. • 2:22 - 2:42: Overview of the mail handling process, including the number of times mail is handled. Visuals: mail being put on a conveyor belt, white and African American employees moving large boxes in a USPS warehouse, mail going into a mail slot, Ford Vanette in a post office garage, mail sorted by hand by dozens of female workers. • 2:45 - 3:00: Explanation of the stamp cancellation process, from manual to machine. • 3:03 - 3:09: Sorting of mail by region, state, city, and route. • 3:13 - 3:40: Description of the poor working conditions for postal workers. • 3:46 - 4:01: Comparison with modern industrial plants with their assembly lines and the potential for applying these principles to mail handling. • 4:04 - 4:20: Introduction to the modern mail flow system in Detroit. This is the Mail-Flo Letter Processing System or Mail-Flo for short. The first Mail-Flo system was installed in the Detroit post office, and utilized conveyors that would operate automatically to move the mail within the post office. The Detroit post office started operating the Mail-Flo system on December 4, 1956. • 4:23 - 5:12: Description of the new mail handling system using machines in Detroit. African American and white employees are shown sorting mail. • 5:16 - 6:15: Introduction to the Greller system in Baltimore for handling parcel post. • 6:18 - 7:26: Description of the Transorma letter sorting machine in Silver Spring, Maryland. The Transorma Letter Sorting Machine could sort 15,000 letters per hour, double the amount that the same number of clerks could do by hand. The Transorma was manufactured by the Dutch company Werkspoor and distributed in the United States by Pitney-Bowes. • 7:29 - 8:02: Mechanization of the mailman's job with the Mailster vehicle. • 8:05 - 8:46: Description of the new post offices, such as the one in McLean, Virginia, with modern amenities. Visuals: Mailster three wheeled delivery vehicle in action. • 8:49 - 9:51: Overview of the new, always-open post offices and their features. Visuals: McLean, Virginia post office with its automatic stamp • 9:54 - 10:27: Summary of the modern advancements in the Postal Service to handle increasing mail volume. • 10:30 - 11:36: Conclusion by the Postmaster General on the need for modern buildings and equipment, and the financial challenges faced by the Postal Service. Motion picture films don't last forever; many have already been lost or destroyed. For almost two decades, we've worked to collect, scan and preserve the world as it was captured on 35mm, 16mm and 8mm movies -- including home movies, industrial films, and other non-fiction. If you have endangered films you'd like to have scanned, or wish to donate celluloid to Periscope Film so that we can share them with the world, we'd love to hear from you. Contact us via the weblink below. This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aF6KzQarpxs Mirrored from Periscope Film (https://www.youtube.com/@PeriscopeFilm) Sat, 13 Jun 2026 13:29:51 GMT https://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/rss2.html PeerTube - https://peertube.dngr.us https://peertube.dngr.us/lazy-static/avatars/41a6fee9-7f57-42d0-a5fc-5db4f1af2e31.png https://peertube.dngr.us/videos/watch/5ee45d5c-14c7-4e84-ac97-8c0c2905a644 All rights reserved, unless otherwise specified in the terms specified at https://peertube.dngr.us/about and potential licenses granted by each content's rightholder.