In 1902, the Canada post office had become disenchanted with the Bickerdike machines then in use in a number of offices. They were about to be replaced by International machines, which were first tested in Toronto in early February. The Bickerdikes continued in use in Hamilton until October and in Ottawa and Montreal until November. In the intervening period other machines were tested in the Montreal post office. Very little is known about these machines, but there were two main types of dater hubs used. The webmaster has for some time kept a record of uses of these experimental machines, which you will find below. Further reports (with scans if possible) would be much appreciated, and can be made to the webmaster.

The first to appear was a rimless dater, as shown in the first figure at right. We have confirmed use from January 6 to February 15. It is the appearance of this dater hub that has led some to speculate that this machine was manufactured by Geary, as the hub resembles one used by Geary in Bradford PA around that time. This conclusion should be taken with some skepticism however. Reference [7] in particular considered all known American machine makers of that period and settled on Geary as the likely supplier. Geary did in fact possess an 1897 Canadian patent (CA 55409) for a feeding mechanism for a mail marking machine. If this did not in fact offer patent protection for a Geary machine, it is perhaps unlikely that a machine would be tested in Montreal under those circumstances. Nor is there evidence that Geary spent any time at all in Montreal; given the many changes in the postMARks throughout 1902, the maker would certainly have had to spend considerable time there. The contract with the International Postal Supply Co. was drafted in April of 1902 (with the International testing having taken place in Toronto) and it seems rather odd that another machine would be tested for so long in Montreal before and after this event. It should be noted that the rimless dater in fact resembles a rimless dater used in Boston and Philadelphia in American Postal Machines Co. machines. It may be that these experimental machines were simply surplus Imperial machines (close relatives of the American machines) held in the Montreal post office. There is also some indication that a postal employee A.E. Morin may have experimented on machines during this period. He did in fact hold a patent (CA 67543) for a feeding mechanism for a postal cancelling machine.

A second dater hub replaced the rimless dater starting in mid February. It may not be immediately clear whether or not this was used in the same machine. However, the record of uses seems compelling in this regard. This second hub resembles that used in the International machines, in that it has the year at the bottom, but it also has some differences. The diameter seems to match that of the International hubs, but all International hubs used by the Canada Post Office had provincial (or country) designation, apart of course from the Type A dater used in an International machine in Toronto in 1902. A number of different obliterators consisting of rough straight lines were used with this dater hub as time went on, and none resemble those used in International machines.

Below, we give a time-line of the experimental machine use. The EKU and LKU dates given should be understood to be those that we have been able to confirm. In some cases, earlier or later dates have been reported to other sources. Such instances are noted below. By clicking on each item, you can reveal a table of confirmed sightings. The type designations are those established in [6].

X2(a) (EKU: JAN 6, LKU: JAN 28)

X2(b) (EKU: FEB 5, LKU: FEB 13)

X2(rec) (EKU: JAN 12, LKU: FEB 15) hub used alone as a receiving or transit MARk

X1 (EKU: FEB 18, LKU: MAY 1)

X1 undated (3rd class)

X3 (EKU: MAY 1)

X5(a) (similar to X5 but with 9 bars) (EKU: MAY 2)

X4 (6 bars from 50mm to 65mm in length) (EKU: MAY 3, LKU: JUN 2)

X4(a) (possible variant of X4, bars set slightly lower relative to hub than X4) (EKU: JUN 3, LKU: JUN 6)

X5 (EKU: JUN 9, LKU: AUG 14)

X1(rec) (EKU: FEB 17, LKU: AUG 14) hub used alone as a receiving or transit MARk

Bibliography