The Birth of Junk Mail

April 28, 1896 - Today was the day that Joseph S. Duncan filed a patent for a groundbreaking machine called the Addressograph. Basically it was a method by which a list of addresses could be printed on letters and envelopes, thus ushering in the dawn of junk mail.

The idea came to Duncan when he was working in a grain mill and saw firsthand the tedious process of individually writing out the addresses for the company’s invoices and bids. Surely there’s a better way, right?

He spent years perfecting the idea, and once he figured it out, his Addressograph was cranking out 2000 envelopes an hour. It was like the Xerox machine of its time, and these contraptions became a ubiquitous must-have in every bustling office.

Duncan sold off the company in 1926. Various versions of the Addressograph were still in action and spamming away until the 80s when new technologies finally prevailed.