IMPROVEMENTS IN POSTAL, REVENUE, AND OTHER STAMPS OR LABELS
Year: 1876

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Robert Lake at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 13th April 1876. A communication
from abroad by Addison Calvin Fletcher, of the City and State of New York,
United States of America, Mechanical Engineer.
WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake, & Co., Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings, London. "IMPROVEMENTS IN POSTAL, REVENUE, AND
OTHER STAMPS OR LABELS." A communication.
The object of this Invention is to provide a stamp for postal, revenue, or other
purposes, and a label for bottles, boxes, and other packages, which when once
applied or used cannot be detached from the surface to which it is affixed without
leaving a portion of itself, thereby giving evidence by its mutilation of such reinoval
and which even in those exceptional instances where its removal 'complete may be
effected will, from its structure, render ordinarily impossible the washing off or
removal of the cancelling mark upon it, so that in any case the subsequent or illicit
use of the stamp is effectually guarded against.
The said Invention consists in a stamp or label cut or sectioned in such manner
that while all parts of the said stamp or label, or any desired proportion of the
same, may be as readily attached to the surface as a common stamp, any attempt to
remove my stamp will cause the strain of removal upon certain weak or non-
resisting portions of the same to yield or give way, causing certain parts of the
stamp to remain attached or adherent to the surface, while the other or remaining
portions are removed, and the consequent mutilation of the stamp or label gives
evidence of its removal and prevents its subsequent illicit use.
This structure of the stamp or label by presenting a number of cut edges and
certain weak or flangible portions, renders the same peculiarly susceptible to the
abraiding action exerted upon the stamp or label by any attempt to erase by
chemicals, washing, or otherwise the cancelling mark upon the stamp or label, so
that in any case the perpetration of fraud by the second subsequent or illicit use
of the stamp or label is effectually guarded against.
The said Invention further comprises novel arrangements of the cut portions or
sections of the stamp or label aforesaid, whereby according to the circumstances
under which the stamp or label is used the most effective use and working of the
Invention is secured.
The said Invention further comprises a modification of the aforesaid cut or
sectioned stamp or label, whereby portions of the same may be used in preserving
Price 1

page_text: a record of the use and cancellation of the stamp or label at the same time that the
safe guards against fraud herein-before specifically referred to are also provided.
The form which I prefer in most cases for an ordinary postal or revenue stamp
is that in which there is a series of slits extending outward from an imaginary circle
the centre of which is at or near the centre of the stamp. The sides of each of
these slits are parallel, said sides having semi-circular outer ends continuing the slit
and forming the lips or flaps.
When the stamp is affixed to the surface upon which it is to be used, either by
the mucilage ordinarily provided on the back of such stamps or by means of paste
mucilage or other cementing material first applied to the surface aforesaid, the flaps
or lips together with the body or main portion of the stamp are made to firmly
adhere to such surface, when, however, it is attempted to remove the stamp, which
is necessarily done by turning up one edge thereof and drawing upon the same,
the slits permit the body or main portion of the stamp to move or be drawn off
independently of the said flaps or lips until the strain is brought to bear upon the
inner ends of said lips or flaps, whereupon the same strain being exerted upon the
narrow width of material constituting said inner ends of the flap or lips that was
previously exerted upon a greater portion, or the entire width of, the body of the
stamp the material gives away at this point and consequently the flap or lips remain
attached to the surface while the body of the stamp is removed; the latter being
consequently mutilated and defaced, and showing by its condition that it has been
tampered with for illicit purposes.
In the manufacture and production of these stamps, the sheet of stamps is to be
printed and gummed previous to the cutting, sectioning, or perforation of the stamps
as especially with the smaller sizes the printing, gumming, and other operations
would impair the flaps or lips and the adjacent edges of the other portions of the
stamp. But in the manufacture of large stamps or labels the printing and gumming
may be effected after the cutting and sectioning.
In some instances the slits are so made as to give the general form of a star to
the collective lips or flaps. Or the slits are so arranged that the flaps are connected
to the body of the stamp at their outer ends while their inner ends are free. Or
the lips may be free at their inner ends, and the flaps or lips be of triangular form
instead of having parallel sides. Or a second flap or lip may be provided within
each of the larger flaps or lips first above described.
In another modification of this Invention supplemental flaps, or as they may be
more properly termed, leaves are formed in the stamp in a manner analogous to that
in which the aforesaid flaps or lips are formed, that is to say, by cutting around a
portion of the stamp but leaving the portion cut around still attached or connected
by a neck or connecting part with the body of the stamp.
The stamp may have one or more of these leaves, and it may be imprinted with
any required device, words, or symbol, and when the stamp is applied to any
surface the leaf or leaves must be left unattached or uncemented to the said surface.
When the stamp is cancelled by the proper official or officials the leaf or leaves must
be torn off and preserved as a voucher of the cancellation of the stamp, at the same
time the absence of the leaf or leaves from the stamp is evidence upon the face
of the latter of such cancellation.
Any attempt to remove the stamp even previous to its cancellation by the
attachment of the leaf or leaves will result in leaving the flaps or lips still attached
to the surface from which the stamp itself is removed, thereby preventing any illicit
use of the stamp after it has been once fixed for use upon a bottle, box, or other
package, the perpetration of any fraud or improper use of the stamp being by the
means herein-before set forth effectually guarded against.