Vintage The Wombat Envelope / Letter Opening Machine

If you love old office related tech then you'll love this mechanical Vintage The Wombat Envelope / Letter Opening Machine, manufactured by GA Robinson (Stoke-on-Trent) Ltd, Staffs, UK.

Approximate Size and Weight:

• Weight: 3.1kg unpacked
• WHD: 38cm ( 15") x 10.3 cm  (4"0) x 10.3 cm

It's portable and operated manually i.e. the mechanism is not automated nor electric. In pretty good used working condition with surface scuffs and blemishes commensurate with age and use.

These devices are becoming very difficult to find. I'm not quite sure why it was called a 'Wombat' unless it's referring to its 'pouch' like mechanism?

Made from hammered finished grey metal, it's very heavy and beautifully engineered with an enclosed mechanism similar to that of a rotary guillotine. There was a label on the side of the machine (mainly rubbed off) and a metal label underneath with the following information. 

• The Wombat Envelope Opening Machine
• Serial No. AMC 6466
• British Patent No. 621186 (published on 5th April 1949). Registered no. 853086 (dates to 1948)
• Canadian Patent No. 470292. Foreign Patents applied for.
• Manufactured by G.A. Robinson (Stoke-On-Trent) Ltd, Hartshill, Stoke -on -Trent, Staffs, England

A real 'slice' of history, this large desk device was a piece of late 1940s / 1950s time saving, hand operated, technology for opening the small pile of business letters you may have received instead of using a letter opener knife.

You insert an envelope into the chrome slot feed, pull the chrome handle down and it clips off /slices a small portion of the envelope to create an open end. The waste strip, if any, is dropped underneath the machine. The last two photos shows a closed envelope and the envelope opened after it has been in the machine.

I've never seen another. What a statement piece as a desk ornament!

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