James Chalmers

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For other persons named James Chalmers, see James Chalmers (disambiguation).

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James Chalmers's tombstone

James Chalmers (February 2, 1782 Arbroath, Angus - May 26, 1853) was a Scottish inventor who introduced the adhesive postage stamp and uniform postage rate.

He trained as a weaver, before he moved to Dundee in 1809 on the recommendation of his brother. He established himself as a bookseller, printer and newspaper publisher on Castle Street. He is known to have been the publisher of "The Caledonian" as early as 1822. Later he served as a Burgh Councillor and became Convener of the Nine Incorporated Trades.

As such, he was described as a slayer of the "dragons which retard progress", battling repeatedly in the cause of Burgh Reform, and fighting for the repeal of taxes on newspapers and newspaper advertisements, and the removal of the excise duty on paper.^{[citation needed]}

His most burning enthusiasm, however, was postal reform, and from 1825 he campaigned the authorities to speed up the mail between Edinburgh and London by convincing them that this could be done without extra cost. After several years he managed to induce a time saving of nearly a day in each direction.

In December 1837, he sent a letter outlining his proposals to Robert Wallace M.P. for Greenock. Furthermore, he submitted an essay for a proposal for an adhesive postage stamp and cancelling device which appeared on February 8, 1838. This also contained illustrations of one penny and two-pence values. He did not favour the use of an envelope for a letter, as each additional sheet incurred an additional charge. Instead, he proposed that a "slip" or postage stamp could seal a letter.

That his scheme was in advance of the Penny Post adopted in 1840 is also testimony to the stamp design set up by a printer in his employment. His son, Patrick Chalmers (born Dundee, July 26, 1819 – died Wimbledon, Surrey, October 3, 1891), wrote many articles that attempted to evince his father's share in the work of postal reform and as inventor of the adhesive postage stamp.^[1] Unfortunately for posterity, his correspondence was only rediscovered in 1955 and in any case, the Stamp Office had been producing adhesive stamped labels for the payment of various taxes from as early as 1711.