Transorma letter sorting machine

The Transorma letter sorting machine (TranSorMA) was the first large system for sorting mail , which was built by Werkspoor , a Dutch railway construction company, and sold by Pitney Bowes , among others . The name is an acronym for "TRANsport and SORting, Marchand and Andriessen", the latter are the names of the two inventors. The system was first presented in 1927 in the Netherlands , and it was first put into operation in the "production facility" in 1930 in Rotterdam . Additional systems were installed in other Dutch cities, in Brighton ( Great Britain ) and Rio de Janeiro . Further development was interrupted by the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II, the two machines set up in Berlin-Steglitz and Mönchengladbach in 1942 are machines from the Netherlands, i.e. spoils of war.

After the Second World War, some specimens were placed in Belgium , Argentina and Venezuela , as well as further specimens in Brazil . A longer experiment took place in Linköping and Norrköping in Sweden in 1949/1950 , one machine was set up in Petersborough ( Canada ) and another in Silver Spring , Maryland (USA). The Museum voor Communicatie in The Hague has been showing one of the Dutch examples of this letter sorting machine since 1981.

Sources & web links

• Allison Marsh: Transorma Letter Sorting Machine on the Smithsonian National Postal Museum website
• The TranSorMa letter sorting machine. Based on the English language Wikipedia and shows letters and postcards from several countries sorted with the Transorma.
• The website of the Letter Post Automation Working Group in the Association of German Philatelists shows a photo of the Transorma, but otherwise offers little specific information.