Some Additional Duplex Cancels

Can anyone make out the bottom portion of this Knoxville, Tennessee duplex cancel? It looks something like "Trans. Cl." but not sure. Could it be an abbreviation for "Transit" or "Transportation" and perhaps a "Clerk" number or letter ID? Did this type of cancel mean anything special?



Also, here's another duplex cancel that is dated to 1935. It seems to be a very old looking cancel to be used on mail "so late as 1935". Maybe the small post office just didn't get around to updating their cancelling devices?

Nice Knoxville transit cancel. Unusual to see it on a stamp as it is normally backstamped.
Edit: Just realized that it was also June 30, 1919 which was the last day of the 3 cent War Emergency rate.

I thought I'd post this duplex cancel in the event someone can identify the type of device used. I find it interesting as all of the dupliex cancels in this post contain the year within the circular part of the cancel. I had thought most duplex cancels traditionally had the date between the circle and the killer bar (but not the case of the ones posted in this thread.) Are these less common varieties or were they just produced by a different manufacturer?

wt1, although most duplex markers were produced by a single company (Chambers of Lodge, VA) there are many designs. (In the early 1940's Pitney-Bowles started supplying duplex markers).

The basic design features can be broken down by killer, dial and year slug.

The killers are normally either 9 bar solid or 6 bar script (letters, numbers, station name, RMS, APO number, PTS and such). They can also be classified by shape, the 3 shown here all have the more pointed killer. Chambers also made a less eliptical killer with more rounded ends. (the Pitney-Bowles are pretty easy to distinguish as they are very pointed)

The dial constuction will vary by the slug pocket design. The top cancel is an open pocket and the bottom 2 are closed pocket. The open pocket design is where a single large cavity is used to house all the slugs. On the top cancel all 4 slugs were placed into one cavity. In the closed pocket design each slug has its own cavity.

The other classification is whether the year slug is in the dial or between the dial and the killer.

These classification are design only. Duplex cancel are also classified by purpose and dial markings.

I hope this helps.

Thanks for the lesson on cancels. I never knew there were so many minor varieties that could be categorized under the general term "duplex cancels"!

If it's a cancellation machine, Russ be da man.

I was researching this topic (duplex cancels) this morning and came up almost empty? ow can it be that there almost no information on the duplex cancellation device (Hand held version) any good articles or info on this?

Here's a nice read, although it only touches on certain duplex postmarks, the variety of other postmarks noted in this work are certainly interesting and hard to find documented all in one place:

http://content.yudu.com/Library/A1e...ources/3.htm

Thank you wt1. I'll have to check it out tonight. Thanks.

Hello,
The bottom part of the Knoxville duplex at the top of this thread is actually 'TRANS. CLK.' (as in Transfer Clerk), and is a typically considered a railway marking applied by a POD employee working in a transfer office or terminal RPO. These were typically larger towns where mail was routinely transferred between, or directed to, connecting railroads by transfer clerks, who handled other mail duties as well.

Letters or cards with these types of markings were usually either written by someone getting on or off a train, or dropped in a box at a depot, and thus were able to be quickly dispatched without having to be processed through the local post office. Most are fairly common and a catalog (published by the MPOS by McDonald / Towle) exists that lists known examples.

MikeE,

Welcome to SCF! Great info, thanks.

Steve

MikeE to S.C.F. and wonderful first post!