In 1910, the Canada post office ran trials in Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal of a new prospective machine. All other machines in use at that time were supplied by the International Postal Supply Company. It is believed that these trial machines were made by the Universal Stamping Machine Company.

Further trials were made in 1912, and then Universal machines were rented, with a few being added each year. For each town using a Universal machine, you will find links to pages showing a complete time-line of use towards the bottom of this page. For now, we document only the period prior to July 1, 1919. On that date, the contract for International machines was dropped, and Universal machines proliferated in Canada.

[Will include some historical account of the Universal company, machine models, patents, etc. here.] The Canadian patents are shown on the Patents page. There are some preliminary notes about machine models near the bottom of the current page, below the table.

On any of the postmark images below (or on subsequent pages), clicking on the postmark will reveal a list of recorded covers. If you are logged in to the site, you will be able to view the individual covers by clicking the icon at the left of each item in the table.

Please note that we have for the most part only recorded dates of postmarks that we have seen, and in most cases, have scans of. Dates from earlier references have not been used. Numbers in parentheses after the dates identify the owner by PHSC number. Further reports (with scans if possible) would be much appreciated, and can be made to the webmaster.

1910 Trials

Toronto -~- EKU: Aug 3, LKU: Sept 1

Ottawa -~- EKU: July 25 (319), LKU: Aug 19 (319)

Montreal -~- EKU: Aug 24, LKU: Aug 29

Montreal Station B -~- EKU: Aug 31 (1337), LKU: Sept 3 (1337)

Apparently, there were additional trials in 1912, in Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa. Examples from Montreal and Toronto are quite scarce, while the usage in Ottawa developed into a regular rental agreement, beginning Aug. 10.

1912 Trials

Montreal -~- EKU: May 16 (319), LKU:

Toronto -~- EKU: May 27 (1337), LKU: Jun 6

Ottawa -~- EKU: Mar 27 (319), LKU: Apr 10

Rental Machines

A few Universal machines then came into use in various cities across the country, with several being added each year. These were rented from the company. Below we list the known towns, along with links to pages with full details of the various Universal postmarks used. For now our listing ends June 30, 1919, which saw the end of the large International rental contract and the introduction of many new Universals in post offices nationwide, along with a few Columbia machines. The rental dates listed are taken from the detailed records included in the Reports of the Auditor General, which can be found in the Sessional Papers of the Parliament of Canada. An example excerpt is available here.

The listed machine types refer to specific rental rates, as follows: I - $80, II - $150, III - $300, IV - $105 (per annum, pro-rated as appropriate). Presumably these refer to specific models of machine, although there may also have been adjustments in rates. The names I have given these do not coincide with company model names. We hope to clarify this.

The early Universal machine models were as follows (this information is taken from US usage). The model B was available from 1910 and typically used 7 straight lines. This undoubtedly was the model used for the trials. An improved model B then used 7 wavy lines. Model C also used 7 wavy lines. Both of these machines were electric. Around 1917, Model D was introduced that used 6 wavy lines. Apparently, this is the machine labeled 'IV' in the table.

Bibliography