The Invention Of The Rubber Stamp
Monday, June 29th, 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, since Charles Goodyear had to discover the secret to vulcanization first. This is the process of “curing” the rubber so it can be molded as desired. Before Mr. Goodyear invented the process of vulcanization, rubber — in its natural state — was not easy to work with at all.It is sticky and cannot stay set in any particular shape. But with vulcanization, rubber, once cooled, would hold the shape in which it had been molded.
But 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 deemed 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 making their own dentures, and one of these many dentists had a curious nephew who saw the potential of rubber and eventually wound up manufacturing rubber stamps for the U.S. Postal Service. The nephew was Mr. James Woodruff, has often been credited with having invented the quality rubber stamp we know today. But there are, actually, many different versions for how rubber stamps came to be, depending on exactly how a rubber stamp is defined, with one reaching back all the way 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 widely popular and acknowledged account of the invention the rubber stamp concerns a Mr. L.F. Witherell, who went so far as to compose a document titled “How I Came to Discover the Rubber Stamp” wherein he claimed to have been inspired during work as a foreman at a wooden pump factory. According to Mr. Witherell, there was a problem one day concerning the paint that was used to mark the pumps. The paint would run and obscure necessary information with blotches. Mr. Witherell stumbled upon the notion of making stencils out of some thin sheets of rubber packing laying around. But when he made the 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 considered least plausible involves 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 no mater its actual origins, there can be no doubt that the rubber stamp itself has left quite an impression on all our lives.