Envelope feeding apparatus

An envelope feeding apparatus, comprising:

• a hopper having a support deck and a pair of vertical sides extending upwardly from said support deck, said support deck being oriented at an acute angle with respect to a horizontal plane;
• a separator roller and a separator stone situated at the lower end of the hopper for feeding envelopes seriatim from said hopper;
• a center ramp located upstream of said separator roller and said separator stone, said center ramp having a downstream and an upstream portion, said upstream portion comprising an elongated surface inclined with respect to the hopper support deck, said downstream portion having a knurled surface parallel to the hopper support deck and adjacent the elongated, inclined surface of said upstream portion, and said center ramp extending only a small portion of the distance between the vertical sides of said hopper;
• and
• a center feed roller located above said downstream portion of said center ramp and proximate said separator stone, whereby the lower corners of said envelopes are raised off said support deck when said envelopes are translated along said center ramp and under said feed roller, thereby allowing said envelopes to approach said separator roller and said separator stone unskewed.