Stamps! Stamps! Stamps and more!

History of Rubber Stamps

The old bank teller stamp with loose date sets

Early explorers to South America came across natives who played ball with a sticky bouncy substance but no one took much notice until 1736 when Charles Marie de la Condamine sent a sample of the rubber back to France. In 1770 Joseph Priestly noted that he had come across a substance that was ideally suited to rubbing out lead pencil marks. l Charles Goodyear was able to stabilize rubber in 1839 after spending considerable time on the problem with rubber he accidentally mixed sulphur which was dropped on top of his wifes stove - the heat and sulphur stabilised the rubber and Charles Goodyear termed the process "Vulcanisation" after the Roman God of Fire Vulcan.He patented the process in 1844 and rubber stamps would begin to appear some twenty years later. 

Date Stamp.Manufactured in SA by
City Rubber Stamp until early in 2000

However primitive marking stamps are recordered in the annals of history and were made of thick hide or blocks that were carved. Carved Stamps are recorded as early as 100 years A.D. in China when they carved text onto the stamps and dipped them in ink to stamp paper. This technique had travelled to Europe by the 1300's. These primitive stamps used the same technique as rubber stamps do today. With the advent of small vulcanisers which had been made predominantly for dentistry - (they were being used to make the bases to set  false teeth in) people starting using these small vulcanisers to make rubber stamps. Rubber stamps were mounted on wooden bases with handles made out of wood such as Cherry or Walnut etc. By the early 1900's the stamp industry was becoming well established and in the United States saw the formation of the first trade organisation.

Founder of City Rubber Stamp,
Harry Dinkelmann, behind the
Intertype that was the heart of any
rubber stamp shop in the early days

After the World War II companies started making a new range of rubber stamps made from plastic parts instead of wood. By the early 1970's
the mechanical or self-inking stamps were being introduced with a built in stamp pad and companies like Trodat in Austria introduced these type of self inking stampsRubber stamps are still proving popular some 150 years since the earliest versions started to be made and will probably continue to be needed untill we can truly arrive at the paperless office enviroment. With over  $850,000,000 dollars worth of rubber stamps sold worldwide last year and over £35,000,000 pounds of business rubber stamps sold per year in the UK were still along way from that point.

 

A laser engraving machine, right, 

which is computer driven and on the 

left an engraved sheet of rubber