The Sun.
London, England, 1851-08-05 00:00:00

POSTAGE STAMPS.

At the instance of Mr. Muntz, the House of Com-
mons has ordered to be printed a copy of all the corre-
spondence that has taken place since 1847, between the
Lords of the Treasury, the General Post-office, and Mr.
Archer and the Commissioners of Inland Revenue, rela-
tive to Mr. Archer's machine for perforating sheets of
postage label stamps. The inconvenience which Mr.
Archer proposed to remedy—serious enough to persons
of voluminous correspondence, and still more so to a
postmaster during the last half-hour for receiving letters
—is the trouble occasioned by the present mode of
cutting or tearing sheets of postage stamps into single
heads. For this purpose he invented a machine, which,
it is stated, can be worked by two boys, and by the aid
of which stamp sheets may be so minutely indented
in the directions of the white lines as to allow the
stamp to be instantly detached from the sheet, with-
out the operation of cutting. The plan, it was
argued, would secure the folding of stamp. sheets with-
out creasing them, while the rough or dental edges given
to the stamps would cause them to adhere to the letters
much better than when cut by scissors. Mr. Archer,
feeling confident in the success of his plan, proposed that
his claims for compensation should be contingent upon
the unqualified approbation of the public, the Post-
master-General, and her Majesty's Commissioners of
Stamps. The superintending presidents of the inland
and London district post-offices thus referred to Mr.
Archer's machine, under date the 14th October, 1847:
" The machine appears to be a very clever and useful in-
vention. . . . . We aro thoroughly con-
vinced that postage-stamps separated by it, having
jagged edges, will adhere to letters far better than
those cut from the sheet by knives or scissors.
. • • • . We submit it is most de-
sirable that the invention be recommended to
the notice of the Commissioners of Stamps." The
machine obtained the approval of the Board of Stamps
and Taxes, and of the Lords of the Treasury, and after
one or two experiments it was found to answer the pur-
pose for which it was intended. A sum of 2001. was
proposed to be given to Mr. Archer as an adequate re-
muneration for his invention, besides a further sum of
4001. as compensation fur expenses incurred in the con-
struction of the machine. The inventor was dissatisfied
with the arrangement, urging that it was inadequate to
defray the mere outlay, end proposed (March 26, 1851)
to enter into a contract for perforating, engraving,
printing, and gumming postage label sheets for 11. 1.55. a
thousand less than was then paid for engraving, print-
ing, and gumming them. The agreement with Messrs.
Bacon and Fetch was to print postage labels at the rate
of 6d. a 1,000. Mr. Archer proposed to do so, and
to perforate them besides, at 41d. per 1,000. The
original printers reduced their charge to scl. per 1,000
in consequence, and a contract. was concluded with
Messrs. Bacon and Fetch for five years at that rate.
Mr. Archer, on the 30th of May, signified to the Inland
Revenue Office, that it was his intention " to appeal to
the honour and justice of Parliament for redress withthe least possible delay."