Stamp.
1. An engraved block by which a mark may be delivered by pressure. The stamps and seals of ancient Egypt were cameo and intaglio. They generally had a royal name, and were of the shape of a cartouche. Dr. Abbott's collection in New York has old Egyptian stamps in porcelain, wood, gold, and stone. The Romans used stamps, and the Babylonian signet-rings and brick show that the impressional art is very ancient. A Roman signet-ring, now in a British collection, is 2 inches long by 1 inch broad, is made of bronze, and covered with the orugo, or peculiar oxidation, which gives the character to the antique medals. It has the inscription in raised letters:— The letters rise flush to the level of the border, and at the back is a ring for the finger. It was evidently inked on the face, and then impressed on the letter or document. [2302] Hand-stamps are made of several kinds for various purposes:—| Canceling. | Address. | Embroidering. |
| Dating. | Official. | Eyeleting. |
| Post-office. | Embossing. | Monograms. |
2. (Bookbinding.) A brass tool for embossing or gilding. Some are hand-stamps, others are arranged on a foundation plate and used in a press. 3. An instrument for cutting out objects, such as wads, planchets, blanks for making various objects.
4. (Metal-working.) A tool or machine by which sheet-metal is molded into form by a blow or simple pressure. See stamping-machine; stamping-press. Deep vessels are stamped by a series of successive molds, from sheets of metal, whose width is equal to that of the width and depth of the finished article. The first mold is comparatively shallow, the succeeding ones are deeper and narrower. The metal is forced into the molds by corresponding dies, and burnished after each stamping upon a revolving tool with a frustoconical head. Only three molds are shown, but a larger number is frequently employed, the object being to gradually bring the metal to the required shape without rupturing or wrinkling it.
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| Sections showing progression. |
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| Stamp. |
5. (Mining.) a. One of the pestles or vertically moving bars in an ore-stamping mill (which see). b. A mark cut in the roof or side of the mine, as a point of reference to show the amount of work done.
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| Stamping-machine for treating hides, skins, and leather. |
6. (Leather.) A machine for softening hides, etc., by pounding them in a vat. 7. A label to attach to a letter to prepay postage, signify the payment of a duty, or for other purposes. Postage-stamps, after being printed under the hydraulic press, in sheets each containing 200, are gummed by placing each sheet separately, back upward, on a flat board, its edges being protected by a metallic frame, and a paste composed of dextrine is applied with a whitewash-brush. They are again pressed, and each sheet cut in half. The perforation is effected by passing the sheets between two cylinders, one above the other, and provided with a series of raised bands, which are adjusted to a distance apart equal to that required between the rows of perforations. Each ring on the upper cylinder has a series of cylindrical projections, which fit corresponding depressions in the bands of the lower cylinder; by these the perforations are punched out, and by a simple contrivance the sheet is detached from the cylinders to which it has been conducted by an endless band; the rows running longitudinally of the paper are first made and then, by a similar machine, the transverse rows. The sheets are then pressed to remove the roughness caused by the punching operation.
