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Graphite Lined Stamp
A graphite lined stamp is a postage stamp on which vertical lines of electro-conductive graphite are printed on the reverse. Graphite lined stamps were used in the United Kingdom from 1957 to 1960 as an experiment in the automation of mail sorting."Great Britain" in ''Commonwealth & British Empire Stamps 1840-1970'', Stanley Gibbons, 2008, page GB17. Usage and appearance In the United Kingdom, graphite lines were used exclusively on five stamps of the Wilding series from December 1957. They appear as one or two black lines printed vertically under the gum. The two lined stamps were to identify ''fully paid'' mail, which eventually became ''first class'' mail, while stamps with only one line paid the ''printed matter'' rate, or ''second class'' mail as it eventually became. On the two lined stamps, the bands are usually found widely spaced so that one appears at either side of the stamp, but they may also be found close together due to printing errors on the one and a half pence s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 face or address-side of any item of mail—an envelope or other postal cover (e.g., packet, box, mailing cylinder)—that they wish to send. The item is then processed by the postal system, where a postmark or cancellation mark—in modern usage indicating date and point of origin of mailing—is applied to the stamp and its left and right sides to prevent its reuse. The item is then delivered to its addressee. Always featuring the name of the issuing nation (with the exception of the United Kingdom), a denomination of its value, and often an illustration of persons, events, institutions, or natural realities that symbolize the nation's traditions and values, every stamp is printed on a piece of usually rectangular, but sometimes triangu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Electrical Conductor
In physics and electrical engineering, a conductor is an object or type of material that allows the flow of charge (electric current) in one or more directions. Materials made of metal are common electrical conductors. Electric current is generated by the flow of negatively charged electrons, positively charged holes, and positive or negative ions in some cases. In order for current to flow within a closed electrical circuit, it is not necessary for one charged particle to travel from the component producing the current (the current source) to those consuming it (the loads). Instead, the charged particle simply needs to nudge its neighbor a finite amount, who will nudge ''its'' neighbor, and on and on until a particle is nudged into the consumer, thus powering it. Essentially what is occurring is a long chain of momentum transfer between mobile charge carriers; the Drude model of conduction describes this process more rigorously. This momentum transfer model makes metal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Graphite
Graphite () is a crystalline form of the element carbon. It consists of stacked layers of graphene. Graphite occurs naturally and is the most stable form of carbon under standard conditions. Synthetic and natural graphite are consumed on large scale (300 kton/year, in 1989) for uses in pencils, lubricants, and electrodes. Under high pressures and temperatures it converts to diamond. It is a weak conductor of heat and electricity. Types and varieties Natural graphite The principal types of natural graphite, each occurring in different types of ore deposits, are * Crystalline small flakes of graphite (or flake graphite) occurs as isolated, flat, plate-like particles with hexagonal edges if unbroken. When broken the edges can be irregular or angular; * Amorphous graphite: very fine flake graphite is sometimes called amorphous; * Lump graphite (or vein graphite) occurs in fissure veins or fractures and appears as massive platy intergrowths of fibrous or acicular cry ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, and many List of islands of the United Kingdom, smaller islands within the British Isles. Northern Ireland shares Republic of Ireland–United Kingdom border, a land border with the Republic of Ireland; otherwise, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel, the Celtic Sea and the Irish Sea. The total area of the United Kingdom is , with an estimated 2020 population of more than 67 million people. The United Kingdom has evolved from a series of annexations, unions and separations of constituent countries over several hundred years. The Treaty of Union between ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mail Sorting
Mail sorting refers to the methods by which postal systems determine how and where to route mail for delivery. Once accomplished by hand, mail sorting is now largely automated through the aid of specialized machines. The first widely adopted mail sorting machine was the Transorma, first made operational in Rotterdam in 1930. Mail sorting systems are now also used by corporations and other mailers to presort mail prior to delivery in order to earn discounts on postage. In the United States, for example, presort discounts can reduce the cost of First-Class Mail from $0.42 to as low as $0.324. Many companies also use mail sorters to handle incoming mail such as checks, orders and correspondence. History For much of the 20th century, mail was sorted by hand using what is called a " pigeon-hole messagebox" method. Addresses were read and manually slotted into specific compartments. Early forms of a mechanical mail sorter were developed and tested in the 1920s. The Transorma, ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stanley Gibbons
The Stanley Gibbons Group plc is a company quoted on the London Stock Exchange specialising in the retailing of collectable postage stamps and similar products. The group is incorporated in London. The company is a major stamp dealer and philatelic publisher. The company's philatelic subsidiary, Stanley Gibbons Limited, has a royal warrant of appointment from Queen Elizabeth II. History The company has a long corporate history, having started as a sole trader business owned by Edward Stanley Gibbons in 1856 and now being a quoted company with a number of subsidiaries. Before 1900 The business started when, employed as an assistant in his father's pharmacy shop in Plymouth, Gibbons set up a counter selling stamps. In 1863 he was fortunate enough to purchase from two sailors a sackful of rare Cape of Good Hope triangular stamps. In 1874 Gibbons moved to a house near Clapham Common in South London and in 1876 he moved again to Gower Street, London, Gower Street in Bloomsb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wilding Series
The Wildings were a series of definitive postage and revenue stamps featuring the Dorothy Wilding photographic portrait of Queen Elizabeth II that were in use between 1952 and 1971. The Wildings were the first and only British stamps to feature graphite lines on the back, and the first to feature phosphor bands on the face – both aids to automation. The stamps were also the first British pictorial high value stamps and the first to include regional emblems. Design history The stamps reproduced a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II taken during a photographic session on 26 February 1952 by Dorothy Wilding, who had been working at the Royal Court since 1937. Seventy five designs were considered to frame the portrait and five basic designs by Edmund Dulac, Enid Marx, Mary Adshead, Michael Farrar-Bell and George Knipe were selected. Four symbolic flowers of each country of the United Kingdom were also depicted, imitating one of the definitive stamp designs of King George VI's reign. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harrison & Sons
Harrison and Sons was a major worldwide engraver and printer of postage stamps and banknotes. History The company was established in 1750 by Thomas Harrison in Warwick Lane, London; in 1839 Thomas Richard Harrison entered into partnership with John William Parker, creating Harrison and Co. It went through similar names and retained Harrison family ownership until 1979 when sold to Lonrho. Harrison and Sons printed its first stamp, a 1d Inland Revenue stamp for Montserrat, in 1866. This seems to be the only stamp printed by the company during the 19th century. It obtained its first Post Office contract in 1881. In 1910, a new factory opened in Hayes.Harrison & Sons Ltd: A Timeline from King George II to King George VI Stamp Printers The company won the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Southampton
Southampton () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire, South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Portsmouth and the towns of Havant, Waterlooville, Eastleigh, Fareham and Gosport. A major port, and close to the New Forest, it lies at the northernmost point of Southampton Water, at the confluence of the River Test and River Itchen, Hampshire, Itchen, with the River Hamble joining to the south. Southampton is classified as a Medium-Port City . Southampton was the departure point for the and home to 500 of the people who perished on board. The Supermarine Spitfire, Spitfire was built in the city and Southampton has a strong association with the ''Mayflower'', being the departure point before the vessel was forced to return to Plymouth. In the past century, the city was one of Europe's mai ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phosphor Banded Stamp
{{no footnotes, date=February 2012 Phosphor bands were introduced on British stamps from 1959 as a replacement for the previous graphite lined stamps as an aid in the mechanical sorting of mail. The phosphor is applied in vertical bands, or more recently, all over the stamp, and fluoresces under ultra-violet Ultraviolet (UV) is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelength from 10 nm (with a corresponding frequency around 30 PHz) to 400 nm (750 THz), shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays. UV radiation i ... light. This enables the mail sorting machine to ''face'' the mail and sort it into types. Phosphor is now widely used on stamps around the world. It is necessary to use either a short- or long-wave ultraviolet lamp to view the phosphor, according to the type of phosphor used on the stamp. External links Phosphor and British Machin stamps. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Postage Stamps Of The United Kingdom
Postage stamps and postal history of Great Britain surveys postal history from the United Kingdom and the postage stamps issued by that country and its various historical territories until the present day. The postal history of the United Kingdom is notable in at least two respects: first, for the introduction of postage stamps in 1840, and secondly for the establishment of an efficient postal system throughout the British Empire, laying the foundation of many national systems still in existence today. As the originator of postage stamps, the UK is the only country that does not need to specify the country on its stamps, but only the denomination. Until 2022 any postage stamps since the 1971 decimalisation of British currency could be used; old "definitive" design stamps without barcodes are no longer valid from 1 February 2023, with old ones exchangeable for barcoded ones indefinitely. Special Stamps with pictures and Christmas Stamps without a barcode remain valid. Images of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Postal System Of The United Kingdom
Postal services in the United Kingdom are provided predominantly by the Royal Mail (and Post Office Limited which oversees post offices). Since 2006, the market has been fully opened to competition which has had greater success in business-to-business delivery than in ordinary letter delivery. The industry is regulated by Ofcom and consumer interests are represented by Consumer Focus. Since 1 October 2011, the main piece of legislation is the Postal Services Act 2011, although some parts of the Postal Services Act 2000 are still in force. The 2011 Act enables the government to privatise Royal Mail and to possibly mutualise Post Office Limited. History The quality of postal services in the 17th and 18th centuries improved with development of better roads and means of transportation. Anthony Trollope is credited with major contributions to the development of postal services in the years 1851-1867, described, ''e.g.'' in Chapters 8 and 13 of his autobiography.Trollope, Anthony (1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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