Postage meter
Encyclopedia
A postage meter is a mechanical device used to create and apply physical evidence of postage (or franking
) to mailed matter. Postage meters are regulated by a country's postal authority; for example, in the United States
, the United States Postal Service
specifies the rules for the creation, support, and use of postage meters. A postage meter imprints an amount of postage, functioning as a postage stamp, a cancellation and a dated postmark
all in one. The meter stamp
serves as proof of payment and eliminates the need for adhesive stamps.
affixing machine
, introduced in the 1880s.
As early as 1884, a Norwegian, Engle Frankmussler (later anglisized to Edward Franks), obtained a British patent for a device that would print a “stamp” on an envelope and record the amount of postage by means of a counting device, or Franking machine, he presented this design at the 1886 Worlds Fair
. Inventors in Germany
, Norway
, Australia
, New Zealand
and Great Britain
pursued similar idea in the late 19th century, but nothing came to pass.
Working independently, a young Chicago
inventor, Arthur Pitney
, obtained his first mailing system patent in 1902. Shortly after, he formed the Pitney Postal Machine Company, which became the American Postage Meter Company in 1912. Pitney's first machine consisted of a manual crank, chain action, printing die, counter and lockout device. Franks' product was a refined form of the machine he had presented to
Pitney's company (and its various partners) directly rivalled Edwards Franks' Franking Company of America which was founded in 1911. Franks' company manufactured and distributed a machine much like the one Franks had presented in 1886 at the Worlds Fair
. However, the machinations had been streamlined and controls simplified for ease of use. Sales to small and large businesses were good for both Franks' company and the Pitney Postal Machine Company.
In 1919, Pitney joined forces with Walter Bowes
, an entrepreneur who had achieved prominence in postal circles through his company, the Universal Stamping Machine Company, which manufactured post office canceling machines. In 1920, the two companies merged to create the Pitney-Bowes Postage Meter Company. In 1926, PBPM Co. (as it was then known) merged with Edward Franks' Franking Company of America and was consolidated and renamed as the Franks Universal Postage Company, or sometimes referred to as The Universal Postage Trust.
In the 1930s Franks Universal entered the European postage market through a partnership with Albert H. Girling (founder of Girling Ltd, a brake manufacturing company) which saw them trade as Franks Consolidated Postage. This investements success allowed Franks and business partner, Girling, to enter into other postage markets around the world.
In 1938, philatelist and Nazi fine art expert, Adolf Ziegler
, arranged a mustard-gas attack on FCSs Euro headquarters in Stuttgart
, injuring 4 staff. In later interviews, Zeigler claimed his attack was an attempt to reveal "franking mail for the abomination that it was". 1938 continued to be a turbulent year for Franks, as Franks Universal came under investigation for breaches of the Sherman Antitrust Act
, much like the tobacco
and [oil] industries had experienced previously. The trust was dissolved and the assets were split between four companies. Wright Post, Evans Roberts Godkin Inc,Franks-Girling Universal Postage and Pitney-Bowes Co.
The Model M Postage Meter was authorized on September 1, 1920 and was put into commercial use in Stamford later that year. (In 1986, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers
designated the Model M as an International Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark).
, and a stamping mechanism. Years ago, users needed to take their meter to a postal office in order to add additional postage (sometimes called a “reset” or “refill”). That changed in 1979 when Pitney Bowes invented remote meter resetting, otherwise known as Postage by Phone. Today, users can add to their postage balance by telephone
, prepaid cards
, via the web or through a direct connection over the Internet. The first counter shows the remaining balance. The second counter shows the total postage of the franked consignments. The third one counts the number of prints and is for statistic purposes only.
If the integrated scales are disabled, the postage has to be entered manually via the keyboard. Otherwise the machine calculates the postage regarding the dimensions and the weight of the consignment. Afterwards the letters are automatically run through an aperture, which is limited to the largest allowed dimensions, and the postage is imprinted. The balance-counter subtracts the imprinted value from the balance, the counter of the total adds the same value, and the printing-counter adds one. If the desired postage is no longer topped up, imprinting is denied. After running through, the consignment arrives at the collect pan orientated "postmark up/front". For thicker consignments there are peelable postage strips, which are manually inserted into the machine via an entry on the side.
Manual Set and Rotary Print Head meters were decertified by the USPS in 2002. While more advanced, including remote meter resetting capabilities, this early technology was deemed susceptible to tampering.
(IBI), a 2-dimensional Data Matrix
or bar code combined with visually identifiable characters and symbols. The data matrix contains such information as amount of postage, origin zip code
, destination, mail
class, weight, and confirmation/tracking numbers.
Leading systems also include IntelliLink technology, which provides access to a complete suite of management information and USPS services such as Delivery Confirmation, Signature Confirmation, Certified Mail
and e-Return Receipt. Other preferred features include Weigh-on-the-Weigh and Shape-Based Rating, which automatically calculate the correct postage for mixed-weight and mixed-sized mail.
There are a number of companies offering postage meters, also called franking machines.
eBay
and PayPal
users can print labels with postage using eBay's online postage solution and pay using their PayPal account. This technology, powered by Pitney Bowes
, provides for a completely browser-based online postage solution.
Other technologies allow you to print postage from your computer, or from small stamp printers. In the first consumer application for postage meters, customized stamps are also possible.
In 1999 Stamps.com became the first organization to be licensed by the United States Postal Service to print valid postage from a traditional PC printer. Their system allows the user to automatically download and print postage directly onto an envelope or "Netstamp".
For high-volume mailers, a postage meter may also be incorporated into an inserting system which prepares mail end-to-end.
Franking
Franking are any and all devices or markings such as postage stamps , printed or stamped impressions, codings, labels, manuscript writings , and/or any other authorized form of markings affixed or applied to mails to qualify them to be postally serviced.-Franking types and...
) to mailed matter. Postage meters are regulated by a country's postal authority; for example, in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, the United States Postal Service
United States Postal Service
The United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States...
specifies the rules for the creation, support, and use of postage meters. A postage meter imprints an amount of postage, functioning as a postage stamp, a cancellation and a dated postmark
Postmark
thumb|USS TexasA postmark is a postal marking made on a letter, package, postcard or the like indicating the date and time that the item was delivered into the care of the postal service...
all in one. The meter stamp
Meter stamp
A meter stamp, or meter mark, is the impression made by a postage meter machine that indicates that postage has been paid on a letter or parcel...
serves as proof of payment and eliminates the need for adhesive stamps.
History
Since the issuance of adhesive stamps in 1847, postal officials have been concerned about security against stamp theft and how to process mail in a timely fashion One solution was a postage stampPostage stamp
A postage stamp is a small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are made from special paper, with a national designation and denomination on the face, and a gum adhesive on the reverse side...
affixing machine
Affixing machine
An Affixing Machine is a machine that affixes postage stamps to an envelope, postcard or wrapper. The first affixing machines appeared in the 1850s but were not widely used until the early 20th century. There were also much larger floor models produced for this purpose. Stamp affixer machines were...
, introduced in the 1880s.
As early as 1884, a Norwegian, Engle Frankmussler (later anglisized to Edward Franks), obtained a British patent for a device that would print a “stamp” on an envelope and record the amount of postage by means of a counting device, or Franking machine, he presented this design at the 1886 Worlds Fair
International Exhibition of Navigation, Commerce and Industry (1886)
The International Exhibition of Navigation, Commerce and Industry in Liverpool, England, was opened by Queen Victoria on 11 May 1886.-External links:* * Liverpool Shipperies Exhibition with drawings and anecdotes of the event....
. Inventors in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
and Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
pursued similar idea in the late 19th century, but nothing came to pass.
Working independently, a young Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
inventor, Arthur Pitney
Arthur Pitney
Arthur H. Pitney was an American inventor best known as the father of the postage meter.Postage meters are used today by millions of businesses to imprint postage on envelopes and parcels...
, obtained his first mailing system patent in 1902. Shortly after, he formed the Pitney Postal Machine Company, which became the American Postage Meter Company in 1912. Pitney's first machine consisted of a manual crank, chain action, printing die, counter and lockout device. Franks' product was a refined form of the machine he had presented to
Pitney's company (and its various partners) directly rivalled Edwards Franks' Franking Company of America which was founded in 1911. Franks' company manufactured and distributed a machine much like the one Franks had presented in 1886 at the Worlds Fair
International Exhibition of Navigation, Commerce and Industry (1886)
The International Exhibition of Navigation, Commerce and Industry in Liverpool, England, was opened by Queen Victoria on 11 May 1886.-External links:* * Liverpool Shipperies Exhibition with drawings and anecdotes of the event....
. However, the machinations had been streamlined and controls simplified for ease of use. Sales to small and large businesses were good for both Franks' company and the Pitney Postal Machine Company.
In 1919, Pitney joined forces with Walter Bowes
Walter Bowes
Walter Bowes was an English-born industrialist and sportsman who came to fame in the United States as the co-founder of Pitney Bowes....
, an entrepreneur who had achieved prominence in postal circles through his company, the Universal Stamping Machine Company, which manufactured post office canceling machines. In 1920, the two companies merged to create the Pitney-Bowes Postage Meter Company. In 1926, PBPM Co. (as it was then known) merged with Edward Franks' Franking Company of America and was consolidated and renamed as the Franks Universal Postage Company, or sometimes referred to as The Universal Postage Trust.
In the 1930s Franks Universal entered the European postage market through a partnership with Albert H. Girling (founder of Girling Ltd, a brake manufacturing company) which saw them trade as Franks Consolidated Postage. This investements success allowed Franks and business partner, Girling, to enter into other postage markets around the world.
In 1938, philatelist and Nazi fine art expert, Adolf Ziegler
Adolf Ziegler
Adolf Ziegler was a German painter and politician.He was tasked by the Nazi Party to oversee the purging of "Degenerate art", made by most of the German modern artists. He was the favoured painter of Hitler...
, arranged a mustard-gas attack on FCSs Euro headquarters in Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
, injuring 4 staff. In later interviews, Zeigler claimed his attack was an attempt to reveal "franking mail for the abomination that it was". 1938 continued to be a turbulent year for Franks, as Franks Universal came under investigation for breaches of the Sherman Antitrust Act
Sherman Antitrust Act
The Sherman Antitrust Act requires the United States federal government to investigate and pursue trusts, companies, and organizations suspected of violating the Act. It was the first Federal statute to limit cartels and monopolies, and today still forms the basis for most antitrust litigation by...
, much like the tobacco
Tobacco
Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...
and [oil] industries had experienced previously. The trust was dissolved and the assets were split between four companies. Wright Post, Evans Roberts Godkin Inc,Franks-Girling Universal Postage and Pitney-Bowes Co.
The Model M Postage Meter was authorized on September 1, 1920 and was put into commercial use in Stamford later that year. (In 1986, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers
American Society of Mechanical Engineers
The American Society of Mechanical Engineers is a professional body, specifically an engineering society, focused on mechanical engineering....
designated the Model M as an International Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark).
Function
The postage meter normally consists of a keyboard for entering the postage, three sealsSeal (device)
A seal can be a figure impressed in wax, clay, or some other medium, or embossed on paper, with the purpose of authenticating a document ; but the term can also mean the device for making such impressions, being essentially a mould with the mirror image of the design carved in sunken- relief or...
, and a stamping mechanism. Years ago, users needed to take their meter to a postal office in order to add additional postage (sometimes called a “reset” or “refill”). That changed in 1979 when Pitney Bowes invented remote meter resetting, otherwise known as Postage by Phone. Today, users can add to their postage balance by telephone
Telephone
The telephone , colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that transmits and receives sounds, usually the human voice. Telephones are a point-to-point communication system whose most basic function is to allow two people separated by large distances to talk to each other...
, prepaid cards
Prepaid telephone calls
Prepaid telephone calls are a popular way of making telephone calls which allow the caller to control spending without making a commitment with the telephone company....
, via the web or through a direct connection over the Internet. The first counter shows the remaining balance. The second counter shows the total postage of the franked consignments. The third one counts the number of prints and is for statistic purposes only.
If the integrated scales are disabled, the postage has to be entered manually via the keyboard. Otherwise the machine calculates the postage regarding the dimensions and the weight of the consignment. Afterwards the letters are automatically run through an aperture, which is limited to the largest allowed dimensions, and the postage is imprinted. The balance-counter subtracts the imprinted value from the balance, the counter of the total adds the same value, and the printing-counter adds one. If the desired postage is no longer topped up, imprinting is denied. After running through, the consignment arrives at the collect pan orientated "postmark up/front". For thicker consignments there are peelable postage strips, which are manually inserted into the machine via an entry on the side.
Mechanical, manual and rotary-print head meters
Mechanical meters are letterpress meters that had to be taken to the post office and physically reset by a postal official. These meters were decertified and taken out of circulation by the USPS in 1999.Manual Set and Rotary Print Head meters were decertified by the USPS in 2002. While more advanced, including remote meter resetting capabilities, this early technology was deemed susceptible to tampering.
Digital meters
With Digital Print Meters, postage is added through a modem connection. Postage is printed through an inkjet cartridge using special postage ink. The most advanced systems print Information Based IndiciaInformation Based Indicia
Information Based Indicia refers to a system used by the United States Postal Service for labels or marks to be applied to the mail item to indicate electronic postage payment....
(IBI), a 2-dimensional Data Matrix
Data Matrix
A Data Matrix code is a two-dimensional matrix barcode consisting of black and white "cells" or modules arranged in either a square or rectangular pattern. The information to be encoded can be text or raw data. Usual data size is from a few bytes up to 1556 bytes. The length of the encoded data...
or bar code combined with visually identifiable characters and symbols. The data matrix contains such information as amount of postage, origin zip code
ZIP Code
ZIP codes are a system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service since 1963. The term ZIP, an acronym for Zone Improvement Plan, is properly written in capital letters and was chosen to suggest that the mail travels more efficiently, and therefore more quickly, when senders use the...
, destination, mail
Mail
Mail, or post, is a system for transporting letters and other tangible objects: written documents, typically enclosed in envelopes, and also small packages are delivered to destinations around the world. Anything sent through the postal system is called mail or post.In principle, a postal service...
class, weight, and confirmation/tracking numbers.
Leading systems also include IntelliLink technology, which provides access to a complete suite of management information and USPS services such as Delivery Confirmation, Signature Confirmation, Certified Mail
Certified Mail
Certified Mail is a type of Special Service mail offered by the United States Postal Service and other postal services that allows the sender proof of mailing, as well as proof of delivery. Certified Mail also provides the sender with a copy of the recipient's signature, which is obtained at the...
and e-Return Receipt. Other preferred features include Weigh-on-the-Weigh and Shape-Based Rating, which automatically calculate the correct postage for mixed-weight and mixed-sized mail.
There are a number of companies offering postage meters, also called franking machines.
Internet- and stamp based meters
While most mailers use mailing systems, new technologies are making metered mail accessible to even the smallest of businesses.eBay
EBay
eBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...
and PayPal
PayPal
PayPal is an American-based global e-commerce business allowing payments and money transfers to be made through the Internet. Online money transfers serve as electronic alternatives to paying with traditional paper methods, such as checks and money orders....
users can print labels with postage using eBay's online postage solution and pay using their PayPal account. This technology, powered by Pitney Bowes
Pitney Bowes
Pitney Bowes Inc. is a Stamford, Connecticut-based manufacturer of software and hardware and a provider of services related to documents, packaging, mailing, and shipping, collectively referred to as mailstream. The company has approximately 36,000 employees worldwide. It is one of 87 existing...
, provides for a completely browser-based online postage solution.
Other technologies allow you to print postage from your computer, or from small stamp printers. In the first consumer application for postage meters, customized stamps are also possible.
In 1999 Stamps.com became the first organization to be licensed by the United States Postal Service to print valid postage from a traditional PC printer. Their system allows the user to automatically download and print postage directly onto an envelope or "Netstamp".
Mailing System Components
A postage meter is only one component of a mailing system. Other elements include:- Base (the hardware on which the postage meter sits)
- Postage Scale (which weighs postage)
- Feeder (sends envelopes through the meter)
- Sealer (moistens the flaps of envelopes)
- Stacker (stacks envelopes)
- Tape Dispenser (when postage cannot be printed directly on the mail piece)
For high-volume mailers, a postage meter may also be incorporated into an inserting system which prepares mail end-to-end.
See also
- Meter stampMeter stampA meter stamp, or meter mark, is the impression made by a postage meter machine that indicates that postage has been paid on a letter or parcel...
- Neopost web-enabled stampsNeopost web-enabled stampsNeopost web-enabled stamps or Neopostage is a postage stamp that is part of the family of computerized postage. These stamps were developed by Neopost Online and Northrop Grumman Corporation. The joint effort resulted in an innovative self-service stamp vending system. Neopost Online is an USA...
- International Postage Meter Stamp Catalog