Page 1 - Mick Bister - The Postcode Programmes of France

THE POSTCODE PROGRAMMES OF FRANCE
THE EXPERIMENTAL YEARS: 1958-1978

DIRECT SORTING

PHASE ONE

Direct sorting was introduced in 1958 when the Hotchkiss-Brandt HB 300 D sorter was installed
in the Paris Recette Principale off ice in the rue du Louvre. Its use was later extended to two
other locations in Paris and to offices in Marseille and Lille. The machine was operated by six
sorters who, by typing a numeric code on their keyboard, signalled a command to a series of electro-
magnets which activated flaps and selector bars and directed the mail to one of 300 receptacles.
from 1959 to 1969 mail passing through the sorter could be identified by an un-inked ident
struck repeatedly in a diagonal line on the reverse of the envelope.

PARIS R.P. RUE DU LOUVRE

Operational from March 1959 to November 1970

/

/

.. /

:.:. ----·.· /

/

/

:...·.

Paris to Les Salvages
9 December 1959

with single triangle ident