PURPOSE: To make high speed takeout possible by aligning the rear ends of paper sheets to feed them into a takeout position, detecting the tip positions of the fed paper sheets to measure the length of the paper sheets, and on the basis of the mea sured result, controlling the takeout speed so that a space between the tip of the paper sheet and the rear end of the paper sheet taken out before is constant.

CONSTITUTION: The foremost postal matter P is fed into a takeout position by a feeding part having the reference face 21a coming in contact with the rear end of the postal matter P so as to align the postal matter P, and moving mechanism 21b moving the postal matter P, aligned in the standing state, in the face direction, and the length is measured by a light source 41 and an area image sensor 42. According to the measured result, a CPU 29 sets the postal matter takeout speed, that is, the rotating speed of a motor 25. The takeout speed is so set that the distance between the tip of the postal matter and the rear end of the postal matter conveyed immediately before is constant. The rotating speed of the motor 25 is set and controlled by a motor controller 26. As a result, the takeout speed is controlled simultaneously with the start of takeout so as to be able to handle the postal matter at high speed.