قراءة كتاب The Adhesive Postage Stamp
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href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@39569@[email protected]#FNanchor_2_2" class="pginternal" tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">[2] Since publishing my evidence specifically proving what is here stated, I have been favoured with the following letter:—
"Brechin,
9th October, 1883
"Dear Sir,
"When I penned my anonymous note to the Dundee Advertiser in August, 1879, expressing the hope that there might be still living some who could corroborate my statement that the late Mr. Chalmers was the inventor of the 'Adhesive Stamp,' I hardly expected it would be followed by such an amount of corroboration.
"With regard to the date of the invention, you appear to have received ample proof, and I am able to add thereto. It was in the autumn of 1834 that I left Dundee to reside here, and the Stamp was in existence in Mr. Chalmers' premises before I left.
"I may add that when I wrote in 1879, I was not aware of the existence of a son of Mr. C. My sole object in writing was that Dundee might claim and receive the honour of being the place of birth of the 'Adhesive Stamp.'
"I am, &c.,
"(Signed) DAVID PRAIN.
"P. Chalmers, Esq.,
"Wimbledon."
A Portrait of Mr. Prain, by the talented Scottish artist, Mr. Irvine, subscribed for by Mr. Prain's fellow-townsmen and former pupils, has just been presented in his honour to the Mechanic's Institute of Brechin. The proceedings upon this occasion, including the able speeches of Provost Lamb and of Mr. Prain, will be found in the Brechin Advertiser of 16th June, 1885. On a former occasion Mr. Prain was presented with a Service of Plate and Testimonial to the value of several hundred pounds, subscribed for by former pupils at home and abroad. It is at the testimony of such men as this, including the late Mr. William Thorns, of Dundee, that my opponents sneer as being "the mere wandering fancies of a few old men!" The general testimony is that of an entire locality.
[3] An interesting obituary of Mr. Roberts, lately deceased, will be found in the "Times" of 30th September, 1885. Mr. Roberts is there recognised as the pioneer of postal reform and originator of the proposal of a low and uniform postage.
SIR HENRY COLE'S PAPERS
AND THE
ADHESIVE STAMP OF MR. CHALMERS.
In his "Fifty Years of Public Life," lately published, Sir Henry Cole gives much information with respect to the Penny Postage reform, a boon with the obtaining and carrying out of which he was intimately associated—first as secretary to the Mercantile Committee of the City of London, and afterwards as coadjutor to Mr. Rowland Hill at the Treasury. "A General Collection of Postage Papers," having reference to this reform, elucidating the efforts made by this Committee of London Merchants and Bankers during the year 1838-39, to obtain for the scheme the sanction of the Legislature, has been bequeathed by Sir Henry Cole, "to be given to the British Museum after my death."[4] "The Mercantile Committee," he states, "was formed chiefly by the exertions of Mr. George Moffat in the spring of 1838. Mr. Ashurst conducted the Parliamentary Inquiry, and upon myself, as Secretary, devolved the business of communicating with the public." This Committee formed the source and focus of the agitation which brought about the ultimate enactment of uniform Penny Postage. Money was freely subscribed, meetings were held, public bodies in the provinces were urged to petition, Members of Parliament and Ministers were waited upon, and a special paper advocating the scheme, termed the "Post Circular," was issued and circulated gratis. Of these proceedings Mr. Cole was the guiding genius; and, amongst other successes, over two thousand petitions to Parliament were obtained—labours which were ultimately crowned with success.
To Mr. Cole, then, it now turns out that Mr. Chalmers, in February, 1838, sent a copy of his plan of the adhesive stamp. Mr. Wallace and the House of Commons Committee had already got it, but it is only now that the particulars of the plan have been brought to light—and in this "Collection of Postage Papers," Sir Henry Cole has indeed left a valuable legacy to me, and to all prepared to recognise the true originator of the adhesive postage stamp. These papers include a printed statement of Mr. Chalmers' plan, dated "4 Castle Street, Dundee, 8th February, 1838." and which runs as follows:—
"Remarks on various modes proposed for franking letters, under Mr. Rowland Hill's Plan of Post Office Reform.
"In suggesting any method of improvement, it is only reasonable to expect that what are supposed to be its advantages over any existing system, or in opposition to others that have been or may be proposed, will be explicitly stated.
"Therefore, if Mr. Hill's plan of a uniform rate of postage, and that all postages are to be paid by those sending letters before they are deposited in the respective post offices, become the law of the land, I conceive that the most simple and economical mode of carrying out such an arrangement would be by slips (postage stamps) prepared somewhat similar to the specimens herewith shown.
"With this view, and in the hope that Mr. Hill's plan may soon be carried into operation, I would suggest that sheets of stamped slips should be prepared at the Stamp Office (on a paper made expressly for the purpose) with a device on each for a die or cut resembling that on newspapers; that the sheets so printed or stamped should then be rubbed over with a strong solution of gum or other adhesive substance, and (when thoroughly dry) issued by the Stamp Office to town and country distributors, to stationers and others, for sale in sheets or singly, under the same laws and restrictions now applicable to those selling bill or receipt stamps, so as to prevent, as far as practicable, any fraud on the revenue.
"Merchants and others whose correspondence is extensive, could purchase these slips in quantities, cut them singly, and affix one to a letter by means of wetting the back of the slip with a sponge or brush, just with as much facility as applying a wafer."—Adding that in some cases, such as for circulars, the stamp might answer both for stamp and wafer; a suggestion which those who may recollect the mode of folding universally practised before the days of envelopes, will appreciate. Mr. Chalmers goes on—"Others, requiring only one or two slips at a time, could purchase them along with sheets of paper at stationers' shops, the weight only regulating the rate of postage in all cases, so as a stamp may be affixed according so the scale determined on.
"Again, to prevent the possibility of these being used a second time, it should be made imperative on postmasters to put the post office town stamp (as represented in one of the specimens), across the slip or postage stamp."
Mr. Chalmers then goes on to point out the advantages to be
