James Chalmers (inventor)

James Chalmers ( born February 2, 1782 Arbroath; † August 26, 1853 in Dundee) was owner of a printing and newspaper publisher in Dundee, Scotland. He is, as well as Rowland Hill and Lovrenška Košir, credited with the invention of the postage stamp.

James Chalmers reached on the proposals of the London publisher Charls Knight in June 1834, which proposed to establish closure strips for newspapers with a value stamp impression to 1 penny. This should speed up the delivery of newspapers by post clearly. James Chalmers, who was enthusiastic about this idea, began in August 1834 with the production of small stick- slip of paper with a value stamp impression, which are known to us as stamps today. However, the newspaper publisher submitted his proposal to introduce its Stamps only in February 1838. Impetus of publication was that Rowland Hill first appeared with his postal reform in a memorandum to the public.

Submitted by James Chalmers stamp designs were five related pieces in red print, 've been testing it devalues ​​and even had a rubber coating. The basis for his test prints were probably stick- tax stamps from Great Britain that existed at that time for a variety of purposes.

On May 6, 1840, came finally to the output of the first stamps in the world in the UK. James Chalmers, however, was mentioned in this context by Rowland Hill in any way. This has long been the basis of disputes between the Descendancy Hills and Chalmers on the question of the true inventor of the postage stamp.

James Chalmers received a 1846 Honorary Prize of the city of Dundee for his work to reform the postal system.