Mail chute

A company founded by Cutler would become the principal manufacturer of such systems for new hotels, apartment buildings, and offices, defending the original patent and modifications.

On September 11, 1883, James Goold Cutler received U.S. patent 284,951, for a system connecting deposit boxes on multiple floors to a single ground-floor receptacle; the chute had to have a front of at least three-fourths glass to allow for the identification of mail clogs, and, if installed at a height of greater than two stories, an elastic cushion was to be fitted in the receptacle to "prevent injury to the mail".

[2]: 20 [3] In 1884, a year after Cutler obtained his patent, the first such system was installed in the Cutler-designed Elwood Building in Rochester, with the goal of saving tenants the hassle of depositing mail in a box on the street.

It was well received, winning awards at 1884's World Cotton Centennial in New Orleans and an exhibition the same year in Cincinnati,[4]: 20  but federal law of the time only permitted the placement of mailboxes in public buildings, such as government offices, hotels, theatres, and rail stations; thus, postmen refused to mail the collected letters.

[8] In 1905, the Automatic Mail Delivery Company of New York City started making chutes; Cutler sued for patent infringement and won the case.

[13] By 1920, Cutler mail chutes had been installed in buildings in countries including Mexico, Cuba, Japan, South Africa, India, and Australia.

[3] In 1997, the National Fire Protection Association banned the construction of new mail chutes because smoke could spread among floors through their vertical shafts, much as with chimneys.