Newspaper Tidbits from Rick B Monday, April 3, 2006 "The South Bend Weekly Tribune", Saturday, January 15, 1898, page 5 A CLEVER INVENTION. Mr. George Schock Has a Model Stamp Cancelling Machine. True genius often wanders [in/on?] strange paths and frequently alights unexpectedly upon the head of some person gifted with sufficient perseverence and inventive ingenuity to make it win. Mr. George Schock, a machinist whose shop is located at the foot of Washington street on the west race, is just such a man. Several months ago after frequently repairing the stamp cancelling machine now in use at the postoffice, he conceived the idea of patenting a machine remedying the defects in the old one. Accordingly he set up work on his ideal, which stands to-day, as a mute but effective testimonial in his inventive genius and his scope of mechanical conception. A Tribune reporter called upon Mr. Schock this morning and was shown the machine for which only recently a patent was granted. It is an intricate looking combination of delicate springs, tiny screws and revolving cylinders, but in the performance of its monotonous duties it is simplicity exemplified. Mr. Schock took considerable pride in pointing out to the Tribune representative the points of superiority of his machine over the stamp cancellors now in use in government offices. In the first place his machine is so perfectly constructed that there is absolutely no part of it that can cause annoyance. Instead of a continuous cancelling head such as is found on other machines Mr. Schock has provided a segment head for his model. The object of this is to give accuracy to the stamp. Letters are fed through a machine and cancelled at the rate of 200 per minute and so simple is the operation, even a child, may be assigned to the duty. The device is self-feeding and self-dumping, thus leaving little work for the operator. Mr. Schock will endeavor to get his patent before the present administration. It seems that a machine so ingeniously gotten up should merit careful consideration. Mr. Schock says his invention is far in advance of what the government is now using and a close inspection of the two machines certainly bears out his statement.