Route Reference Computer: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 12:14, 28 June 2022

Revision as of 07:00, 2 August 2022

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{{Short description|Mail sorter system}}

[[Ferranti-Packard|Ferranti Canada]]'s '''Route Reference Computer''' was the first computerized [[mail sorter]] system, delivered to the [[Canada Post|Canadian Post Office]] in January 1957. In spite ofDespite a promising start and a great deal of international attention, spiraling costs and a change in government led to the project being canceled later that year. Technical developments pioneered for the Route Reference Computer were put to good use by Ferranti in several projects that followed over the next decade.

==History==

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===Sorting problems===

In the immediate post-war era, Canada experienced explosive growth in urban population as veterans returning from [[World War II]] moved into the cities looking for work in the [[newly industrialized country]]. This created logjams at mail routing offices that handled the mail for what used to be much smaller cities. Whereas the formerly rural population spread out the sorting and delivery of mail, now sixty percent of all the mail was being sorted at only ten processing stations,<ref name=v108>Vardalas, pg. 108</ref> leading to lengthy delays and complaints that reached all the way to the [[House of Commons of Canada|House of Commons]].

[[File:Mail sorting,1951.jpg|thumb|This image shows a typical manual sorting station, in this case in [[Los Angeles]] in 1951. Mail is separated and cleaned up on the desks closest to the camera, and then sorted in the rows of pigeon holes further away.]]