James Chalmers (2 February 1782 – 26 August 1853) was a Scottish inventor (buried on 1 September 1853) who it was claimed, by his son, was the inventor of the adhesive postage stamps.

History

He trained as a weaver, before he moved to Dundee in 1809 on the recommendation of his brother. He established himself as a bookseller, printer and

newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as p ...

publisher on Castle Street. He is known to have been the publisher of "The Caledonian" as early as 1822. Later he served as a Burgh Councillor and became

Convener The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the grou ...

of the Nine Incorporated Trades. As such, he was described as a slayer of the ''"dragons which retard progress"'', battling repeatedly in the cause of Burgh Reform, and fighting for the

repeal A repeal (O.F. ''rapel'', modern ''rappel'', from ''rapeler'', ''rappeler'', revoke, ''re'' and ''appeler'', appeal) is the removal or reversal of a law. There are two basic types of repeal; a repeal with a re-enactment is used to replace the law ...

tax A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, or n ...

es on newspapers and newspaper advertisements, and the removal of the

excise duty file:Lincoln Beer Stamp 1871.JPG, upright=1.2, 1871 U.S. Revenue stamp for 1/6 barrel of beer. Brewers would receive the stamp sheets, cut them into individual stamps, cancel them, and paste them over the Bunghole, bung of the beer barrel so when ...

on paper.

His most burning enthusiasm, however, was postal

reform Reform ( lat, reformo) means the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The use of the word in this way emerges in the late 18th century and is believed to originate from Christopher Wyvill's Association movement ...

, and from 1825 he campaigned the authorities to speed up the

mail The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letters, and parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid-19th century, national postal sys ...

between

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

and

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

by convincing them that this could be done without extra cost. After several years he managed to induce a time saving of nearly a day in each direction. In December 1837, he sent a letter outlining his proposals to Robert Wallace, MP for Greenock. Furthermore, he submitted an essay for a proposal for an adhesive

postage stamp A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail), who then affix the stamp to the f ...

and cancelling device which was dated 8 February 1838. This also contained illustrations of one penny and two-pence values. He did not favour the use of an envelope for a letter, as each additional sheet incurred an additional charge. Instead, he proposed that a "slip" or postage stamp could seal a letter. James Chalmers Grave

His son, Patrick Chalmers (born Dundee, 26 July 1819 – died

Wimbledon, Surrey Wimbledon () is a district and town of Southwest London, England, southwest of the centre of London at Charing Cross; it is the main commercial centre of the London Borough of Merton. Wimbledon had a population of 68,187 in 2011 which includes ...

, 3 October 1891), wrote many articles that attempted to evince his father's share in the work of postal reform and as inventor of the adhesive postage stamp. His book ''Robert Wallace MP and James Chalmers, the Scottish Postal Reformers'' was published in 1890. Patrick Chalmers daughter, Leah Chalmers, wrote a book ''How the adhesive postage stamp was born'' which was published in 1939. In 1971 a further book was published about James Chalmers ''James Chalmers Inventor of the adhesive postage stamp''. The co-author William J Smith was a director of David Winter & Sons Ltd (successor to the James Chalmers printing company). Charles Chalmers had succeeded his father James in the printing business in 1853. Charles took David Winter into partnership in 1868 and left him the business on his death in 1872. The printing company was renamed to David Winter & Son.William J Smith, 1971, p.18 All these books claim that James Chalmers first produced an essay for a stamp in August 1834 but no evidence for this is provided in any of the books.

References and sources

Notes

Footnotes

Sources

*Patrick Chalmers
''Robert Wallace MP and James Chalmers, the Scottish Postal Reformers''
published by Effingham Wilson & Co, 1890 *Leah Chalmers, ''How the adhesive postage stamp was born'', London, P S King & Son Ltd, 1939, 33pp *William J Smith & J E Metcalfe, ''James Chalmers Inventor of the adhesive postage stamp'', David Winter & Son Ltd, 1971, 148pp

External links

The first essay for adhesive postage stamps submitted by James Chalmers to the General Post Office on 17 February 1838
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chalmers, James 1782 births 1853 deaths Scottish inventors 19th-century Scottish businesspeople British publishers (people) Scottish printers People from Arbroath Postal pioneers People associated with Dundee