Abstract: During the successive discharge and conveyance, along a conveying path, of items of mail from a stack by a continuously driven conveying device and an externally controllable removal member arranged to transport successive items from the stack to the region of action of the conveying device, the desired spacing between each pair of successive items is established automatically as a function of the length of that item of such pair which is the leading item on the conveying path such that for a leading item whose length exceeds a predetermined length value, the next succeeding item is transported from the stack when the distance between the trailing edge of that leading item and the leading edge of the next succeeding item reaches a given first spacing value, and for a leading item whose length is less than the predetermined length value, the next succeeding item is transported from the stack when the distance between the leading edge of that leading item and the leading edge of the next succeeding item reaches

Abstract: In apparatus for the successive discharge and conveyance, along a conveying path, of items of mail from a stack by a continuously driven conveying device and an externally controllable removal member arranged to transport successive items from the stack to the region of action of the conveying device, the desired spacing between successive items is established by the provision of a first sensing unit disposed between the stack and the conveying device to define a first measuring path extending along the conveying path and to provide an output signal indicative of the length of the portion of the first measuring path traversed by the leading edge of an item presently being conveyed by the removal device, a second sensing unit disposed downstream of the first sensing unit, along the conveying path, to define a second measuring path offset from the first measuring path, along the conveying path, by a distance corresponding to the desired spacing between successive items, and to provide an output signal indicativ