Talk:Thomas Leavitt (inventor)

A fact from Thomas Leavitt (inventor) appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 14 December 2008, and was viewed approximately 274 times (disclaimer) (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that Thomas Leavitt and his brother Martin patented the first practical device in the United States to machine postmark letters?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2008/December.

Wikipedia

Photo of a Leavitt Machine Cancel

I understand that postal afficionados enjoy collecting early machine cancels (and have seen same for sale on Ebay). I wonder if some postal expert might be willing to share a photo of one of his Leavitt machine cancels with wikipedia? Many thanks in advance.MarmadukePercy (talk) 01:25, 9 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Editing done today

Lots of info here that was new to me. However, I've used my postal history sources (wide, but not universal) to modify a few points, in particular re things which were first in the U.S. only. There is, as far as I can see, no Wiki page to which I can point readers for evidence. I do, however, have a copy of Collect British Postmarks by Dr. J. T. Whitney (6th edition, 1993 - current edition is the 7th, 1997). In section 10 (beginning p. 120) he lists & illustrates cancellations by various UK machines which pre-date Leavitt's, viz: machines by Pearson Hill (from 1857), Charles Rideout (from 1858), the Azemar (or Fischer and Maas) machine of 1869–72 and the Sloper machine of 1870–75. These were all used, rather than being purely experimental. I also amended the caption to the illustration, which preferably needs replacing by one of an item cancelled by a Leavitt machine, as requested above. NinetyCharacters (talk) 19:53, 9 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for your edit and the other useful information. The Smithsonian's postal museum entry was pretty U.S.-specific, and probably overlooked developments in the postal systems of the UK and Europe. Also, completely agree on getting an image of the Leavitt machine cancel to replace the generic photo that's there now (there wasn't much on Commons).Regards,MarmadukePercy (talk) 20:09, 9 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]