IMPROVEMENTS IN INSTRUMENTS FOR AFFIXING POSTAGE AND OTHER ADHESIVE STAMPS AND LABELS."
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Sidney Grafton, 26, Regent Place, in the
Borough of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Engineer, for
the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN INSTRUMENTS FOR AFFIXING POSTAGE
AND OTHER ADHESIVE STAMPS AND LABELS."
AND OTHER ADHESIVE STAMps and LabelS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Sidney Grafton at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 1st March 1875.
I, SIDNEY GRAFTON, 26, Regent Place, in the Borough of Birming-
ham, in the County of Warwick, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN INSTRUMENTS FOR AFFIXING
POSTAGE AND OTHER ADHESIVE STAMPS AND LABELS," to be as follows:-
My Invention relates to an instrument to be used in the hand for
picking up postage and other adhesive stamps, to be conveyed to a
damper, and thence to the envelope or paper and there affixed, and the
action of the said instrument depends entirely upon certain points or
pickers coming in contact with a resisting body at first.

page_text: Fig. 1 is a sectional elevation of the instrument when at rest; Fig. 2,
an external elevation of the same.
Fig. 3, a sectional elevation of the instrument when under pressure of
the hand.
Figs. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 show the parts detached, which I describe as
follows (a, a,) is a disc having two small holes (c, c,) pierced therein;
(b, b,) is a rod affixed to its centre and terminating in a screw; (d, d,)
is a disc having a tube (e, e,) and pointed wires (f, f,) affixed thereto;
(9, 9,) is a spiral spring; (h) is a screwed nut; (1, 1,) is a turned wood
handle; and (n) is a cone-shaped screwed nut.
The postage stamps are placed with the adhesive side downwards, and
with a sharp jerk of the instrument the stamp becomes attached; in this
stage it is borne to a damp cloth and thence to the envelope and pressed.
A reciprocating motion is produced by means of the spiral spring.
I construct a modification by dispensing with the parts (d, d,) (e, e,)
and (9,9,) by shortening the wires (f, f.) and fixing them into the
holes (c. c.)
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Sidney Grafton in the Great Seal Patent Office ?
on the 1st September 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME I, SIDNEY
GRAFTON, 26, Regent Place, in the Borough of Birmingham, in the
County of Warwick, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her 2
Letters Patent, bearing date the First day of March, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the thirty-
eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Sidney Grafton, Her special licence
that I, the said Sidney Grafton, my executors, administrators, and 3
assigns, or such others as I, the said Sidney Grafton, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no

page_text: others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
INSTRUMENTS FOR AFFIXING POSTAGE AND OTHER ADHESIVE STAMPS AND LABELS,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Sidney Grafton,
my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my,
or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe
and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the
Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Sidney Grafton, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement, reference being had to the accom-
panying Sheet of Drawings, and to the letters and figures marked
thereon (that is to say) :-
My Invention relates to an improved instrument for use in affixing
postage stamps or labels to envelopes, and for other similar purposes.
The instrument resembles a hand stamp in form, and consists of a plate
on the end of a rod or stem fixed in a suitable handle, through which plate
two or more pins pass and project slightly from the face thereof. These
pins which serve to take up the stamps or labels are fixed to a movable
plate fitted to slide on the stem at the back of the fixed plate and
sustained by a spring which allows the movable plate to yield under
pressure and withdraw the pins into the fixed plate in order to detach
the stamp or label.
The instrument is used in the following manner :-The stamps,
previously separated from the sheet as commonly sold, are laid face
upwards and are taken one at a time by the instrument. By slight
sudden pressure the pins are caused to transfix the stamp and retain it
whilst the gummed side is first moistened on a damping pad and then
transferred to the envelope, upon which it must be pressed sufficiently
to force back the pins and disengage them from the stamp which is left
adhering to the envelope. By the use of this instrument the stamps or
labels may be affixed very rapidly, much time being saved in preparing
a large correspondence for posting.

page_text: In the accompanying Drawing I have represented at Figure 1 an
elevation, and at Figure 2, a face view of the instrument.
a is the fixed plate attached to the end of a stem 6 whose other end is
secured by screwing or otherwise into a wood handle c; d is the movable
plate attached to a collar e sliding on stem 6 and maintained by spiral
spring f; 9, 9, are the pins (two or more), fixed in plate d and passing
through holes in plate a, as shown. These pins are of steel, slightly
tapered, and roughened or jagged on their surfaces and sharpened at the
point. I prefer to fix them in the following way :-The plate d is made
in two parts, consisting of a plate of lead or other soft metal through
which the pins are driven, said plate being encased in a thin sheet of
brass attached to collar e, but this plate may be otherwise made.
Having described the nature of the Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I declare that what I claim as the Invention to be
protected by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is, an
instrument, substantially as shown and described, consisting of a movable
plate acted on by a spring and provided with pins working through a
plate fixed on a stem and handle, the whole operating as and for the
purpose set forth.