Thomas Leavitt (inventor)

Thomas Leavitt (1827–1899) patented, along with his brother Martin Leavitt, the first machine in the U.S. that made machine-cancelled postal letters practicable, enabling the United States Post Office to increase the volume of mail it handled, quickening the pace of delivery and allowing customers to more easily send letters of various sizes.

By the early 1870s, inventors in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, had introduced a machine which allowed the cancelling of postal cards of a standardized size, speeding their processing by eliminating the need for hand-cancelling.

In 1875 Thomas Leavitt and his brother Martin were issued United States Patent Number 175,290 for a device which would allow different sizes of letters to have their postage stamps cancelled.

[3] The two brothers tested their hand-cranked, hand-fed device at the main Boston Post Office under the watchful eye of postal workers.

In awarding Leavitt's new machine a gold medal at its 1881 exhibition, the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association noted that Leavitt's subsequent improvements on his original patent had perfected the earlier postal card cancelling machine, "allowing letters of large or small size, either thick or thin, to be operated on to perfection."

A number of improvements, including a feeder box, a system of double rollers and a movable impression shaft meant that Leavitt's new invention could be used for all manners of letters, instead of for just a standard-sized card.

[8] Following Howard's work, the machine was taken to a Boston post office in 1883, where it was used to sort letters for several hours each day, apparently successfully.