IMPROVEMENTS IN ADHESIVE STAMPS APPLICABLE FOR POSTAL, INTERNAL REVENUE, AND OTHER PURPOSES OR USES, & PORTION OF WHICH IMPROVEMENTS IS ALSO APPLICABLE TO RAILWAY PASSENGER TICKETS
Year: 1869

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Edward Newton at the.
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
17th February 1869.-A communication from abroad by Addison
Calvin Fletcher, of the City and State of New York, United States,
of America.
I, WILLIAM EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancary.
Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN ADHESIVE STAMPS
APPLICABLE FOR POSTAL, INTERNAL REVENUE, AND OTHER PURPOSES OR USES, &
PORTION OF WHICH IMPROVEMENTS IS ALSO APPLICABLE TO RAILWAY PASSENGER
TICKETS," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists, firstly, in constructing, the. stamps. with a
hole or holes through the body of them, and covering or backing the
same with tissue or other thin bibulous paper made to firmly adhere to
the body and the rear surface of the stamp, with its bibulous paper
covering to the hole or holes coated or backed with mucilage or other
adhesive substance; or the two pieces or layers of paper of which the

page_text: stamp is composed may be made to adhere by the method known as dry
pressing or otherwise, while the front surface or face of the stamp,
together with the bibulous paper seen through the opening therein, has
any suitable figure, vignette, or other device printed or otherwise
impressed thereon. Thus constructed the stamp cannot be removed
from the surface to which it has been stuck or attached without the
destruction or tearing of the tissue or bibulous paper portion of it.
The Invention also consists in so applying the mucilage or other
adhesive substance to the outer surface of the tissue or bibulous paper
on the back of the stamp as that a certain portion or portions of such
paper or backing is or are insulated within the area of the hole or holes
made in or through the face or stouter portion of the stamp, that is,
separated, so far as the mucilage on the back is concerned, from the
remainder of the bibulous paper by boundaries or dividing borders or
surface or surfaces of the paper having no mucilage or adhesive sub-
stance applied to it, and whereby, on any attempt to remove the stamp
from the surface to which it has been stuck, the rupture of the tissue or
bibulous paper at or around the insulated portion or portions thereof is
effectually secured.
Furthermore, the Invention consists in making the stamp or face
portion thereof having the printing, figure, vignette, or other device
upon it of tissue or other light paper, and mounting the same on the
back by means, say, of mucilage, with an independent backing or layer
preferably made of stouter paper or material, and having mucilage or
other adhesive substance applied to its back or outer surface for the pur-
pose of sticking the stamp. The face and back papers or layers have
also, previously to their being cemented together, a tape or thread inter-
posed between or across them, with one or both of its ends protruding
beyond the edge or edges of the stamp, so that in order to cancel the
stamp it is only necessary to lift and pull on the protruding tape or
thread in such manner as to rip or tear the face portion or layer of the
stamp, which is thus so effaced or destroyed as to render its use over
again without detection of the fraud impossible.
The Invention further consists in forming the stamp, whether made up
of one or more layers, with cuts or perforations through the vignette or
design portion thereof, so as to mainly break but not entirely destroy the
connection of the portion circumscribed by the cuts from the remainder

page_text: of the stamp, and whereby, on any attempt to remove the stamp from
the document or surface to which it has been applied, the same will be
unavoidably ruptured.
Likewise the Invention consists in constructing the stamp with one or
more flaps having the continuity of the vignette or design upon it or
them, but so joined to the body of the stamp that the latter may be
cancelled by tearing off from the remainder of its body this flap or flaps,
which portions may, if necessary, be preserved as evidences of the can-
cellation. This portion of the Invention is also applicable to passenger
tickets on railways.