James Chalmers (publisher)
James Chalmers (born February 2, 1782 in Arbroath , † August 26, 1853 in Dundee ) was a print shop owner and newspaper publisher in Dundee, Scotland. Like Rowland Hill and Lovrenc Košir , he is credited with inventing the postage stamp .
James Chalmers took up the suggestions of the London publisher Charls Knight from June 1834, who suggested the production of sealing strips for newspapers with a stamp imprint of 1 penny. This should significantly speed up the dispatch of newspapers through the post office . James Chalmers, who was enthusiastic about this idea, began as early as August 1834 with the production of small stick-on notes with a value stamp, which we now know as postage stamps. However, the newspaper publisher did not submit his proposal to introduce his postage stamps until February 1838. The impetus for the publication was that Rowland Hill went public for the first time in a memorandum with his postal reform.
The postage stamp designs submitted by James Chalmers were each five contiguous pieces in red print , which had already been canceled on a trial basis and even had a gum coating . The basis for his test prints were probably stick-on tax stamps from Great Britain , which were then available for a wide variety of purposes.
On May 6, 1840, the world's first postage stamps were finally issued in the United Kingdom. However, Rowland Hill made no mention of James Chalmers in this context. For a long time this was the basis between the disputes of the descendants of Hills and Chalmers over the question of who was the real inventor of the postage stamp.
James Chalmers received an Honorary Gift from the City of Dundee in 1846 for contributions to reforming the postal system.
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| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Chalmers, James |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Print shop owner and newspaper publisher in Dundee, Scotland |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 2, 1782 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Arbroath |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 26, 1853 |
| Place of death | Dundee |