AN IMPROVED MODE OF AND APPARATUS FOR DEFACING POSTAGE STAMPS
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Ricketts, of Liverpool, in the County of
Lancaster, Insurance Broker, and Alfred Lutschaunig, of the same
Place, Analytical Chemist, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Ricketts and
Alfred Lutschaunig at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 24th June 1872.
We, JOHN RICKETTS, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster,
Insurance Broker, and ALFRED LUTSCHAUNIG, of the same Place,
Analytical Chemist, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "AN IMPROVED MODE OF AND APPARATUS FOR DEFACING POSTAGE STAMPS," to
be as follows :—
Our Invention consists essentially in placing the letters on which the
postage stamps to be defaced are affixed in a gas of such character as
shall cause a reaction in the material of or contained in each postage
stamp, and change its colour.
Under one modification we make postage stamps with acetate of lead,
in the whole or a portion of the fibre of each, and place the letters in a
bath of sulphuretted bydrogen gas.

page_text: The apparatus which we employ consists in its simplest form of a
chest provided with a door, which can be closed air-tight, and with gas
supply and exit pipes.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Ricketts and Alfred Lutschaunig in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 24th December 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, Joun
RICKETTS, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, Insurance Broker,
and ALFRED LUTSCHAUNIG, of the same Place, Analytical Chemist, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of Junc, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the thirty-
sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors give
and grant unto us, the said John Ricketts and Alfred Lutschaunig, Her
special licence that we, the said John Ricketts and Alfred Lutschaunig,
our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said
John Ricketts and Alfred Lutschaunig, our executors, administrators,
and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no 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 "AN IMPROVED MODE OF AND APPARATUS
FOR DEFACING POSTAGE STAMPS," upon the condition (amongst others) that
we, the said John Ricketts and Alfred Lutschaunig, our executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under our, or their, or one
of their, or one of our 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 immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent.
3

page_text: and the air contained in 1 exhausted through the way 6, after which the
cock 7 is closed, and the cocks 8 and 9 opened to admit gas from the
holder 10, through the ways 11, 12, and 13, into 1.
If it is desired to employ the gas or vapour above atmospheric
pressure the cock 8 is closed, the cock 14 opened, and the pump 6
operated; by this means gas is drawn from the holder through the ways
11 and 16, and forced through the way 13 into the receptacle 1. After
the stamps have been defaced, the gas can be pumped back. again into
the holder by opening the cocks 8, 9, and 14, the remaining cocks being
closed, or it can be allowed to escape through the exhaust way 17 by
opening the.cocks 14 and 19. 20 is a cock provided to admit air into
the receptacle 1 after the gas or vapour has been exhausted, or allow of
air being pumped therethrough to free it from any remaining gas; 21,
way and cock, through which the holder 10 is supplied with fresh gas or
vapour.
Having now described the nature of our said Invention and particu-
larized the same by details which answer well in practice, we would have
it understood that we not confine ourselves to the precise means of and
apparatus for defacing postage stamps herein described, but what we do
claim is,
First. The employment of a gas or vapour, singly or in combination,
as means for defacing postage stamps.
Second. The means of and apparatus for defacing postage stamps,
herein described.
In witness whercof, I, the said John Ricketts, have hereunto set
my hand and scal, the Twentieth day of December, in the year
of our Lord One thousand cight hundred and seventy-two.
In the presence of
JAMES JOHNSON.
JOHN RICKETTS. (L.S.)