This Day in History Class is a production of I Heart Radio. Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class, a show that believes there's no time like the present to learn about the past. I'm Gay Louzier, and in this episode, we're talking about the time when an overworked postal system got a much needed upgrade. Two somewhat mixed results. The day was October twenty six, America's first fully automated post office began service in Providence, Rhode Island. The facility featured the country's first automatic sorting and processing machines, as well as three miles of conveyor belts that moved mail through the plant and out to the loading docks for delivery. The advanced system was housed in a sprawling, one floor building that spanned thirteen acres of an industrial park. Construction began in April of nineteen fifty nine and was completed eighteen months later. When the facility opened, President Eisenhower himself came to cut the ribbon. That may seem like a lot of fuss over a post office, but the country had a lot riding on the new technology that was being tested there By the mid nineteen fifties, the post war boom was in full effect, and post offices were swamped with more mail than ever before. The traditional systems began to buckle under the strain, so in nineteen fifty eight, Postmaster General Arthur Summerfield decided it was time to try something new. He approved the plan to build the first fully automated post office of the future. The project was called Operation Turnkey, with the idea being that the new machinery would make it possible to process the mail with the turn of a key. The high speed equipment would separate and assemble each piece of mail according to its class, priority, and destination, allowing this single facility to move more than a million pieces of mail in one day. The only problem was the machines that could do this didn't exist yet. The project planners and their contractors had to create it all themselves. It was a tall order, but the team pulled it off. When completed, the system incorporated over two dozen machines and nearly sixteen thousand feet of conveyor belts, all of which was regulated by a twenty five foot tall control tower located at the heart of the building. But Operation Turnkey wasn't just a feat of engineering. It was an artistic endeavor too. About four months before the facility opened, it was proposed posed that a stamp should be issued to publicize and celebrate the milestone event. When the idea was presented to the Citizens Stamp Advisory Committee, it was unanimously rejected for being quote obviously self serving. The committee also pointed out that such a stamp might be unpopular at a time when much of the public blamed automation for increasing unemployment. Still, the committee's ruling wasn't binding, and in the end, the postmaster went ahead and issued the stamp anyway. The four cent stamp depicts in architects rendering of the new facility in dark blue ink, and says first automated post office in the United States in deep red letters. It was issued on the same day the post office opened for business, and its sales quickly proved that the postmaster had been wise to ignore the committee's objections. On the first day alone, over eight hundred and thirty three thousand of the stamps were sold, plus an additional four hundred and fifty eight thousand envelopes that came with the stamp pre applied. It was such a massive success that the US Post Office began issuing other self referential stamps, including ones with the USPS logo and a whole set of Postal Service employee stamps. Unfortunately, the stamp proved more successful than the facility it promoted. A nineteen sixty two report to Congress showed that the facility wasn't as fast or efficient as it was supposed to be. Several of the high tech machines weren't being used properly, and others hadn't been switched on at all. It came to light that employees hadn't been trained very well on how to operate the new equipment, and they weren't sure how to use it to its full potential. Postmaster General Arthur summer Yield had an eye to the future when he greenlit Operation Turnkey, but it was so dysfunctional in practice that his successor joked that the project's name quote might be rendered more appropriate by knocking out the n in turn key. Despite the initial embarrassment, the US Post Office kept experimenting with automation. Cities across the country began adopting similar technology, and after a few years of tinkering, they had the process running much more smoothly. Today, the majority of American post offices rely on automation to at least some degree, if not almost entirely. So you see, it wasn't such a turkey after all, maybe more like a goose. I'm Gabe Louisier and hopefully you now know a little more about history today than you did yesterday. If you'd like to keep up with the show, you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instant Graham at t d i h C Show, and if you're feeling inspired by today's episode, you can send me some electronic mail at this Day at i heeart media dot com. Thanks as always to Chandler Mays for producing the show, and thank you for listening. I'll see you back here again tomorrow for another Day in History class. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

This Day in History Class is a production of I Heart Radio. Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class, a show that believes there's no time like the present to learn about the past. I'm Gay Louzier, and in this episode, we're talking about the time when an overworked postal system got a much needed upgrade. Two somewhat mixed results. The day was October twenty six, America's first fully automated post office began service in Providence, Rhode Island. The facility featured the country's first automatic sorting and processing machines, as well as three miles of conveyor belts that moved mail through the plant and out to the loading docks for delivery. The advanced system was housed in a sprawling, one floor building that spanned thirteen acres of an industrial park. Construction began in April of nineteen fifty nine and was completed eighteen months later. When the facility opened, President Eisenhower himself came to cut the ribbon. That may seem like a lot of fuss over a post office, but the country had a lot riding on the new technology that was being tested there By the mid nineteen fifties, the post war boom was in full effect, and post offices were swamped with more mail than ever before. The traditional systems began to buckle under the strain, so in nineteen fifty eight, Postmaster General Arthur Summerfield decided it was time to try something new. He approved the plan to build the first fully automated post office of the future. The project was called Operation Turnkey, with the idea being that the new machinery would make it possible to process the mail with the turn of a key. The high speed equipment would separate and assemble each piece of mail according to its class, priority, and destination, allowing this single facility to move more than a million pieces of mail in one day. The only problem was the machines that could do this didn't exist yet. The project planners and their contractors had to create it all themselves. It was a tall order, but the team pulled it off. When completed, the system incorporated over two dozen machines and nearly sixteen thousand feet of conveyor belts, all of which was regulated by a twenty five foot tall control tower located at the heart of the building. But Operation Turnkey wasn't just a feat of engineering. It was an artistic endeavor too. About four months before the facility opened, it was proposed posed that a stamp should be issued to publicize and celebrate the milestone event. When the idea was presented to the Citizens Stamp Advisory Committee, it was unanimously rejected for being quote obviously self serving. The committee also pointed out that such a stamp might be unpopular at a time when much of the public blamed automation for increasing unemployment. Still, the committee's ruling wasn't binding, and in the end, the postmaster went ahead and issued the stamp anyway. The four cent stamp depicts in architects rendering of the new facility in dark blue ink, and says first automated post office in the United States in deep red letters. It was issued on the same day the post office opened for business, and its sales quickly proved that the postmaster had been wise to ignore the committee's objections. On the first day alone, over eight hundred and thirty three thousand of the stamps were sold, plus an additional four hundred and fifty eight thousand envelopes that came with the stamp pre applied. It was such a massive success that the US Post Office began issuing other self referential stamps, including ones with the USPS logo and a whole set of Postal Service employee stamps. Unfortunately, the stamp proved more successful than the facility it promoted. A nineteen sixty two report to Congress showed that the facility wasn't as fast or efficient as it was supposed to be. Several of the high tech machines weren't being used properly, and others hadn't been switched on at all. It came to light that employees hadn't been trained very well on how to operate the new equipment, and they weren't sure how to use it to its full potential. Postmaster General Arthur summer Yield had an eye to the future when he greenlit Operation Turnkey, but it was so dysfunctional in practice that his successor joked that the project's name quote might be rendered more appropriate by knocking out the n in turn key. Despite the initial embarrassment, the US Post Office kept experimenting with automation. Cities across the country began adopting similar technology, and after a few years of tinkering, they had the process running much more smoothly. Today, the majority of American post offices rely on automation to at least some degree, if not almost entirely. So you see, it wasn't such a turkey after all, maybe more like a goose. I'm Gabe Louisier and hopefully you now know a little more about history today than you did yesterday. If you'd like to keep up with the show, you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instant Graham at t d i h C Show, and if you're feeling inspired by today's episode, you can send me some electronic mail at this Day at i heeart media dot com. Thanks as always to Chandler Mays for producing the show, and thank you for listening. I'll see you back here again tomorrow for another Day in History class. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.