Arthur Pitney

Who was Arthur Pitney?

Arthur H. Pitney was an American inventor best known as the father of the postage meter.

Postage meters are used today by millions of businesses to imprint postage on envelopes and parcels. Meter indicia serve as proof of payment, functioning as a postage stamp, a cancellation mark, and a dated postmark all in one.

Pitney filed a patent application, in Stamford, Connecticut for the world’s first postage meter on December 9, 1901. He presented, demonstrated and perfected his invention over two decades – but it was not until he partnered with English-born industrialist Walter Bowes that the postage meter was approved by the U.S. Postal Service.

He co-founded the Pitney-Bowes Postage Meter Company in 1920. Today, the company that bears his name, Pitney Bowes, is a $6.1 billion provider of software, hardware and services related to documents, packaging, mailing and shipping, collectively referred to as the mailstream.

Pitney’s invention, the Pitney Bowes Model M Postage Meter has been recognized as an International Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.