Since I’m doing Failed Inventions, one of the Post Office films from around 1961 discusses the many projects of the Post Office’s research lab. Real research was widespread before 1980, active in most industries and governments. Now it’s all gone, replaced by stock manipulation and fast-moving hi tech genocide.
Along with zip codes and internal automation, the PO was working on OCR, which reached maturity by 1970.
They were also working on a dubious idea called SpeedMail. Like the liquid pencil, it tried to mix two goals in a way that couldn’t satisfy either one. It evolved from the WW2 technique of V-mail, which maximized storage space on military aircraft reaching battle lines. V-mail opened up standard size letters and photographed them on microfilm, then shipped the little rolls of microfilm containing hundreds of letters aboard military aircraft. At the end the letters could be read with microfilm readers.
SpeedMail took V-mail into the electronic realm, similar to fax. Instead of microfilm, it scanned the standard-size forms with a TV camera, then sent the TV picture via the existing network of microwave towers to destinations where the picture was printed out on standard-size forms again. The researchers developed fancy machines to handle and open the standard forms at the source end, then seal and deliver the printed forms at the destination end, without any human intervention.
SpeedMail would have been too much like Western Union, which already read standard forms, transmitted them by teletype, printed them out and delivered them. Western Union was mature and fast and trusted in 1960, and didn’t need to be supplemented by a postal version.
When JFK took over in 1961, his new postmaster realized SpeedMail wasn’t likely to be worth the expense, and stopped the project.
Polistra's Mill 