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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. In 1952 Turnbull and Lewis started looking around the industry to find systems that 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 installed a Transorma at their new sorting office in [[Peterborough, Ontario]], as an interim measure. It started operations 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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