All About Rubber Stamps

The Amazon, a French explorer, tattoo-loving Antipas, and Charles Goodyear have one thing in common:  all were key to the invention of rubber stamps.  From personalized rubber stamps in the office to fun Christmas rubber stamps for little kids, this common tool has some interesting foundations.

Early beginnings

Nobody is sure how long South American Indians had been using rubber, but it was definitely woven into their culture and rituals.  Here are a few common uses for the unique plant product:

Get it together:  The sticky qualities made great glue for sticking feathers on their persons for ceremonies. 

Sports:  Left to harden, rubber became a somewhat bouncy ball for sports competition. 

Lasting cosmetics:  Flattened out and carved, the first rubber stamps held etchings of tattoo patterns.  First rolled in ink, then across the body, South American Indians came up with templates for trying out less permanent tattoo designs.

The age of exploration

The first European to see rubber stamps and balls was a Frenchman named Charles Marie de la Condamine.  Curious of the sticky resin, he sent a sample back to France where it was seemingly forgotten. 

Thirty four years later, British theologian and scientist Sir Joseph Priestly came up with a wonderful use for this strange substance.  After playing with the compound, he discovered that it could easily wipe away marks on paper left by pencil lead.  In 1770s England, his new "rubber" was not a hit.  Expensive to produce, erasers were very sensitive to changes in temperature.  The rise of common rubber stamps would have to wait.

Along came Charley

Charles Goodyear eventually came up with an economical way to keep rubber stable.  Like all great leaps in scientific innovation, this milestone for rubber stamps was stumbled upon by accident.

In 1839, Goodyear found mixing rubber with sulphur and curing it with heat, the end product remained stable and flexible in a wide range of temperatures.  He dubbed the process "vulcanization", and it heralded in the age of rubber products.

Here come rubber stamps

Although stamps had been around for years, rubber stamps became more affordable to produce.  What started out as an efficient gadget in industry soon hit into various corners of everyday life.  Craft rubber stamps to replicate patterns became popular in the early twentieth century.  Personalized rubber stamps became quite vogue with bosses and are still used to a large extent today.  Nowadays, custom made rubber stamps feature more than signatures.  Emblems, crests, and logos all find their ways onto private and wholesale rubber stamps.

From libraries to your own home, the once obscure jungle compound has had one wild trip.  Thanks to diligent work and remarkable insight, the rubber stamp has achieved an indispensable foothold in our modern lives.

More information on rubber stamps