STAMP MACHINE.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 18845, 7 April 1931, Page 13

STAMP MACHINE.

INVENTOR RETIRES. INGENIOUS CONTRIVANCE. A New Zealander with an invention to his credit that is probably used daily by more people than any other machine in the world, except the telephone, is Mr James Robert Dickie, of Devonport, inventor of the automatic stamp vendor, who has just retired from the Post and Telegraph Department after 40 years’ service. In Auckland the pennies that pass through these stamp-vending machines may be counted in millions. During the last ten years the machines in the vestibule of the Chief Post Office have collected four million and a half pennies, or £18,750. Imagine the pile these would make, 42 tons in weight, or the trail that could be laid with them, 57 miles. On Sundays and 1 holidays, and even on week days, the 1 stamp machines are continually in use. Twenty-one years have passed since the first was installed in Auckland, at the Shortland Street Post Office, on July 4, 1910. That machine is still In use, and its long service speaks well for the English manufacturers.

Trial in House of Commons. Twenty-five years ago, when Mr Dickie gave a demonstration of his invention in the House of Commons, the members used all sorts of contrivances in an effort to defeat its legitimate purpose, but the way in which it rejected foreign coins showed that it wanted a penny, and nothing but a penny. It is an ingenious and simple little" contrivance, compact in form, and easily worked by anyone. Its total weight is just over 91b, and its largest working part is only liin. in diameter. About 1904, long before the machine was in general use, some sailors from a British ship saw one when asnore in Wellington and were fascinated by it. “Try it, Bill,” said one to the other. “It's all right. You put in p blinkin brown and pull out a stamp. We haven't got anything like it in the Old Dart.” The Americans have been fascinated, too, by putting in what they call “those big brown coins, and getting stamps. Of course, they have the stamp vendors in thes?* with them it is the coin that fascinat6S A Screen Suggestion. Mr Dickie got the idea for his invention from the screen. A film in slow motion, away back in the days when movies dazzled a man and left him bewildered, showed a Chinese in changing motions. If photographs could be controlled in that way,

thought Mr Dickie, why not stamps? So he set to work to construct a machine that would deliver stamps 1 from a rotating cylinder. At the Seattle Exposition, 16 years ago, his invention won the gold medal, grand prize and diploma against all comers—because it worked alone. It needed no power, gave no trouble, took little room, and there was scarcely any possibility that it would go wrong. It depended on the force of gravity, and that alone. The slip of a penny, the click that followed the falling of the coin, and the stamp was delivered. Conservative Governments. In England, when Mi* Dickie was there In 1907-08, the Government w&s a little dubious about his invention, and Government Departments elsewhere were equally slow to see the possi bilities of the machine. It was in 1910 that eight machines were brought into use by the P. and T. Department in New Zealand. They were immediately successful and fifty were ordered. The chain has gradually grown and today even the small suburban offices often have a stamp vendor. It is available at any time of the day and night and a most convenient and welcome addition to the postal facilities.

The machine will not accept badly worn coins. If a two-shilling piece is pushed through the slot it is immediately returned. A woman once told

the authorities at the Auckland G.P.O. that she had put a penny in the machine and got back a florin. "Without knowing it she had slipped in a florin instead of a penny, and the machine had given the money back. A half-crown is too large, and anything smaller than a penny simply rolls through. Everything depends on the perfect shape and size of the coin. The merest fraction of an inch will make all the difference. Dont Choke the MachineWhen the machine has sold out the shutter promptly falls down and the fact is not only indicated, as in the earliest type, which produced a notice. “Please report me empty.” but the way is barred and bolted to further business. Sometimes a customer, in buying two or more stamps, has found that the machine did not return him the full value of his pennies. The explanation is that he did not wait for the essential “click,” but temporarily choked the machine by feeding it too fast. Although the slip of the penny is a matter of a moment it is a deliberate business and must be completed before the next is pushed in.