How to - Origami

Rubber Stamps have an interesting history for those who don’t know that they might have been inspired by dentures. Yes, it’s true: dental dentures!  But first, some background, as Charles Goodyear had to discover the process behind vulcanization.  This is the process of “curing” rubber such that it can be molded as desired.  Before Mr. Goodyear invented the process of vulcanization, rubber — in its natural state — was not easy to work with at all.It is sticky and does not stay set in any particular shape.    But with vulcanization, rubber, once cooled, would hold the shape in which it had been molded.

Yet unfortunately Mr. Goodyear never benefited financially from his invention, though he was publicly recognized by the Emperor of France, Napoleon himself, and prestigiously decorated with many honors.  His invention, however, soon found many applications that would change the world.  One of these was dentures.  Rubber was found to be a superior material for dentures, which in those days were often made of metal or even wood.Dentists had long been making their own dentures, and one of these many dentists had an inquisitive nephew who realized the potential of rubber and eventually wound up manufacturing rubber stamps for the U.S. Postal Service.  This nephew was a Mr. James Woodruff, is often credited with having invented the rubber stamp we recognize today.  But there are, actually, several accounts of how rubber stamps came to be, depending on exactly how a rubber stamp is defined, with one even stretching all the way back to the ancient Mayans!  This version just presented is among the most widely accepted accounts for the marking devices which we today would most immediately recognize as being a rubber stamp.

Another popular and widely acknowledged account of the invention the rubber stamp involves a Mr. L.F. Witherell, who went so far as to compose a document titled “How I Came to Discover the Rubber Stamp” wherein he claimed to have been inspired during work as a foreman at a wooden pump manufacturer.  According to Mr. Witherell, there was a problem one day that involved the paint that was used to mark the pumps.  The paint would run and create obscuring blotches over necessary information.  Mr. Witherell hit upon the idea of creating stencils out of some thin sheets of rubber packing laying around.  But as he made the stencil, he decided to simply create thick letters out of the rubber, then glue them to a backing of wood, by which repeated impressions of the necessary marks could be made.

The one account held least likely involves a Mr. Henry C. Leland, who was actually championed, ironically, during his time by none other than the “Stamp Trade News,” published by a manufacturer of rubber stamps.But whatever its actual origins, there can be no doubt that the rubber stamp itself has left quite an enduring impression on our world.

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