The Invention Of The Rubber Stamp
Posted on July 7, 2009Rubber Stamps have an interesting history for those who don’t know that they might have been inspired by dentures. Yes, it’s true: dental dentures! But now, some background, because Charles Goodyear had to first discover the secret to vulcanization. This is the process of “curing” rubber so it can be molded as needed. Before Mr. Goodyear’s discovery, rubber — in its natural state — was almost impossible to work with.It is sticky and does not stay set in a particular shape. But with vulcanization, rubber, once cooled, would stay in the shape in which it had been set.
Yet unfortunately, poor Mr. Goodyear did not benefit financially from his invention, though he was publicly recognized by the Emperor of France, Napoleon himself, and prestigiously decorated with many honors. His invention, however, went on to find many applications that were to change the world. One of these was dentures. Rubber was determined to be a great substitute material for the dentures of the day, which were often made of metal or even wood.Dentists had long been producing their own dentures, and one of these had a curious nephew who realized the potential of rubber and eventually wound up manufacturing rubber stamps for the U.S. Postal Service. This nephew was a Mr. James Woodruff, is often credited with the invention of the quality rubber stamp we know today. But there are, actually, several accounts of how rubber stamps came to be, depending on exactly how a rubber stamp is defined, with one even stretching all the way back to the ancient Mayans! This version just presented is among the most widely accepted accounts for the marking devices which we today would most immediately recognize as being a rubber stamp.
Another very popular and widely acknowledged version of the invention the rubber stamp concerns a Mr. L.F. Witherell, who even composed a document titled “How I Came to Discover the Rubber Stamp,” in which he claimed to have been inspired during work as a foreman at a wooden pump manufacturing facility. According to Mr. Witherell, there was a problem one day with the paint which was used to mark the pumps. The paint would run and obscure necessary information. Mr. Witherell came upon the idea of creating stencils out of some thin sheets of rubber packing laying around. But as he was making his stencil, he decided to simply create thick letters out of the rubber, then glue them to a backing of wood, by which repeated impressions of the necessary marks could be made.
The one account held least likely concerns a Mr. Henry C. Leland, who was actually championed, ironically, during his time by none other than the “Stamp Trade News,” published by a manufacturer of rubber stamps.But whatever its origins, there is no doubt that the rubber stamp itself has left quite an impression on our lives.
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