A closer look
If you think municipal government tech is hilariously outdated now, you should have seen it in the 1930s. Long before software could automate mass mailings, the Memphis Sanitation Department employed "Auto-Matic" typewriters. These mechanical monstrosities used perforated paper rolls, much like player pianos, to rapidly auto-type identical billing letters to citizens, pausing only for a human operator to manually insert the specific name and address. It was a steampunk mail merge that allowed bureaucrats to harass residents for trash fees at unprecedented speeds.
