APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR UNLOADING MAIL STACKERS

A mail sorter having a plurality of output stackers into which sorted envelopes are moved one at a time to rest in a stacker in substantially vertical disposition. A backing member is movable longitudinally of the stacker and is yieldably held from movement down the stacker by a counterweight so that incoming envelopes are held by the backing member in an increasing height stack. The backing member is swingably mounted; and, after a substantial height stack of envelopes collect in the stacker, the backing member is moved out of contact with the forward end of the stack and is moved into an intermediate place in the stack. A counterweight loaded finger originally received in a slot in the backing member holds the forward end of the stack of envelopes upright after the backing member has been so moved. The operator then moves the stack of envelopes now below the backing member downwardly over a depending lip of the stacker into a mail tray located below the stacker, so that the envelopes are then in the tray in the same order as that in which the envelopes were moved into the stacker.