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[[Image: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.]]
At the time, a mail sorter could be expected to sort mail into one of about two dozen "[[Pigeon-hole messagebox|pigeon holes]]", small bins that collected all of the mail being delivered to a particular mail route. The sorter had to memorize addresses and the routes that served them, reading the address off a letter and placing it into the correct pigeon hole. Runners would collect the messages from the same route's pigeon hole at each sorting station and hand off to the deliveryman. In a small town each pigeon hole could represent the mail carried by a single deliveryman, and each sorter could remember the streets and sort mail for any routeof these routes. IdeallyBut thefor sortersmail atthat was being delivered across larger areas, the "city"sorting levelhad shouldto be ablebroken into a hierarchy. A receiving station in Alberta routing a letter to routeOntario would sort it into the Ontario stack. The mail directlywould asthen well,be butreceived within soOntario manyand routessorted at a distribution center to servicestacks for city or towns. If the sorterscity simplywas couldn'tlarge rememberenough, it might have to be sorted several more times before it reached an themindividual allcarrier.
This problem demanded the use of a hierarchy of sorters, with letters first being sorted by general area ("northwest"), then sent to sorters for that area for sorting down to the individual carrier level. During the 1940s the Post Office Department had introduced "postal zones" in certain cities to help spread out sorting into regional offices. For instance, as of 1943 [[Toronto]] was divided into 14 zones. Letters with zones could be routed directly to the regional sorting office, skipping one sorting step and speeding the delivery of the mail. Using the zones for addressing was not mandatory and was up to the sender to include this if they knew it, and the Post Office urged users to add the new codes to their mail.<ref>"Urge citizens include zones in addresses Would Speed Delivery of Mail, Postoffice Department Contends", ''The Globe and Mail'', 26 August 1943, p. 4</ref>
Since the primary limit for the number of pigeon holes a sorter could serve was limited by the length of the human arm, a number of companies sold sorting equipment that eliminating this limit by moving the mail to a large array of bins and removed this limit. One of the most widely used at that time was the [[Transorma]], which supported up 5 sorters and 300 destination bins. In practice the Transorma simply moved the problem; there was no way the sorters could be expected to remember so many routes, so the limitation moved from the limited length of the human arm to the limited capacity of human memory.<ref name=v108/> ▼
====Automation====
▲SinceAt the time, the primary limitconstraint for the number of pigeon holes a sorter could serve was limited by the length of the human arm, which limited the stack of holes to a cabinet about 4 feet on a side. A number of companies sold sorting equipment that eliminatingovercame this limit by moving the mail on a conveyor to a large array of bins and removed this limit. One of the most widely used at that time was the [[Transorma]], which supported up 5 sorters at a time and sorted to as many as 300 destination bins. In practice , the Transorma simply movedchanged the limiting problem; while the number of bins was now essentially unlimited, there was no way the sorters could be expected to remember so many routes ,. so theThe limitation movedchanged from the limited length of the human armphysical to the limited capacity of human memorymental.<ref name=v108/>
Convinced that automation was the proper solution to the routing problem, O.D. Lewis at Post Office headquarters in [[Ottawa]] started looking for ways to solve the memory issue in 1951. Although Lewis did not have a technical background, he was aware of the [[IBM]] systems being used for tallying pencil-marked [[punch card]]s. He suggested that a similar system could be used for sorting mail, but a better solution for printing the routing information would be to use "a code of vertical bars on the back of the letter. Or, if a virtually colourless conductive marking fluid could be developed, then the front cover could be used."<ref name=v107>Vardalas, pg. 107</ref> Lewis noted that such a system would replace sorters with typists, which could be hired in great numbers from existing talent pools.<ref name=v107/> ▼
▲Convinced that automation was the proper solution to the routing problem, in 1951 O.D. Lewis at Post Office headquarters in [[Ottawa]] started looking for ways to solve the memory issue in 1951limitation. Although Lewis did not have a technical background, he was aware of the [[IBM]] systems being used for tallying pencil-marked [[punch card]]s. He suggested that a similar system could be used for sorting mail, but a better solution for printing the routing information would be to use "a code of vertical bars on the back of the letter. Or, if a virtually colourless conductive marking fluid could be developed, then the front cover could be used."<ref name=v107>Vardalas, pg. 107</ref > Lewis noted that such a system would replace sorters with typists, which could be hired in great numbers from existing talent pools.<ref name=v107/>
He imagined a system where the address would simply be typed into the system and converted to barcode with no attempt by the operator to do any routing. A machine, with practically unlimited memory, would then read the route and sort it to the proper bin. Only the machine would have to know the routes, and with enough memory, any one of them could sort mail directly to its destination. Lewis noted that such a system would replace sorters with typists, which could be hired in great numbers from existing [[typing pool]]s.<ref name=v107/>
Deputy Postmaster General William Turnbull, under pressure from the seated government to improve postal service, turned to Lewis' ideas. WhenIn 1952 Turnbull and Lewis started looking around the industry in 1952 to find existing systems theythat might fill their needs, but came up empty handed. Although there were a wide variety of patents that had been filed for such systems, none had been turned into working machinery. They approached the [[National Research Council (Canada)|National Research Council]] (NRC) for help, but found a similar lack of ideas there.<ref name=v107/> Failing to find a machine that was immediately available, they decided to installinstalled a Transorma at their new sorting office in [[Peterborough, Ontario]] as an interim measure,. whichIt becamestarted operationaloperations in 1955 and ran until 1963.<ref>Charlie Livermore, [http://www.charleslivermore.com/transorma/index.htm "Transorma Sorting Marks"]</ref><ref>[http://machinecancel.org/forum/2007_10/facer_cancellers.pdf "The Facer-Canceller Revolution"], Machine Cancel Forum 222, October 2007</ref>
Maurice Moise Levy had recently left the [[Defence Research Board]] to set up a Canadian subsidiary of [[ITT]] known as FEMCO, short for "Federal Electric Manufacturing Co." Turnbull met with Levy in April 1952 and asked him if a sorting machine was possible, Levy immediately answered "yes." Levy followed this up with a proposal for a $100,000 contract for detailed engineering development. After the NRC examined the proposal and passed judgement that it seemed possible, Turnbull pressed for development of the system. Under further pressure from the opposition and problems staffing the Toronto office, Postmaster General [[Alcide Côté]] announced the project in July 1952.<ref name=v110>Vardalas, pg. 110</ref>
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