Fun Facts For Rubber Stamping Enthusiasts
Rubber 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 first, some background, as Charles Goodyear had to discover the secret behind vulcanization. This is the process of “curing” rubber so that it can be molded as needed. Before Mr. Goodyear’s discovery, rubber — in its natural state — was not at all easy to work with.It is sticky and does not stay set in any one particular shape. But with vulcanization, rubber, once cooled, would preserve the shape in which it had been molded.
Unhappily, poor Mr. Goodyear was not able to 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, would go on to find many applications that would soon change the world. One of these was dentures. Rubber was found to be a great replacement 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 that realized the potential of rubber and eventually wound up manufacturing rubber stamps for the U.S. Postal Service. This nephew, a Mr. James Woodruff, is often credited with having invented the rubber stamp we recognize 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 even stretching all the way back to the ancient Mayans! This version just presented is among the most widely accepted accounts for the rubber devices which we today would most immediately recognize as being a rubber stamp.
Another generally popular and widely acknowledged account of the invention the rubber stamp involves a Mr. L.F. Witherell, who went so far as to compose 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 that was used on the pumps. The paint would run and create obscuring blotches over necessary information. Mr. Witherell hit on the idea of creating stencils out of some thin sheets of rubber packing laying around. But while creating the stencil, he thought further and decided to simply create thick letters out of the rubber, then glue them to a backing of wood, with which he could make repeated impressions of the necessary marks.
The one account considered least plausible concerns a Mr. Henry C. Leland, who was even championed at the time by none other than the “Stamp Trade News,” published by a manufacturer of rubber stamps.But no mater its origins, there is no doubt that the rubber stamp itself has left quite an enduring impression on our lives.
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