Stamp Affixers

Just wondering if anyone has some good images of various Stamp Affixers that I am trying to track down. I am writing an article for my website (AntiqueOutings.com) on Stamp Affixers and would like more images. I currently own multiple Multiplex Stamp Affixers and Wizard Stamp Affixer.

I have been trying to hunt down stamp affixers on ebay an Esty, but the only ones that seem to show up are the Multiplex Stamp Affixers. I assume this is because they were the most common.

The Standard Stamp Affixer was made by the Standard Mailing Machines Company. It looks very similar to the Multipost Stamp Affixer. Instead of a squared off plunder rod, it has a twisted spiral rod. The side of the unit has an exposed area showing the inner workings of the device.

Symplex Stamp Affixer The Symplex Stamp Affixer looks something out of steampunk. There are a host of gears on the outside of the device. It has the look of the Multipost Stamp Affixer, but with exposed gears. I think this might be the coolest looking stamp affixer out of the bunch. The patent date was around October 28, 1908.

The Postamper Affixer looks like a beefier version of the Multiplex. It has thick round plunder rod and appears to be a little chunky. It was produced by Postamper Company out of Chicago.

The Kendall Stamp Affixer had a plunger lock, stamp register (number counter) that you couldn’t reverse. These were made by the Kendall Manufacturing Company out of Boston Massachusetts. The Stamp machines were first built around 1917-1918. It looks similar to the Wizard Stamp Affixer.

The Wizard Stamp Affixer chose a slightly different look. The one we have has patent dates of 1912 and 1913.

I thought a stamp affixer was the lady in the back room that made sure the stamps were properly aligned.
Perhaps you could post a picture of one?

Thanks

Sure thing.

Here is a Multipost Stamp Affixer. This one was probably made between 1920 and 1930. The way these things worked was water was filled in a reserve tank at the front of the stamper (Where that little dial is located). A roll of up to 500 stamps would be inside. Each time the plunger was pushed down a stamp was be attached to the envelope or package. No licking involved.

These were designed to make the process of putting on the stamps much faster than manually licking them. They were also designed to prevent theft. Most of these had locks on them preventing people from stealing the stamps. The Multipost ones also included a counter on the front, to count how many stamps had been used.

This has been posted in another thread, but there was a device dating back to 1890 by W. H. King of Hornellsville, NY as shown on this cover:

Thought maybe there was some new hinge applicator or something far off what you show. Never seen or heard of this unit and always thought for mass mailings a good ole wet sponge was the upgrade to spit!

Here is what the lighting looks like.



Below are what some of the test stamps looked like. The test stamps were used to calibrate the stamp affixer and make sure everything was working correctly (I guess). Instead of using real stamps, these would used.

Interesting that the second stamp states the machine licks and sticks "150 per minute" but the device ad states "100 per minute". Maybe there were different models available?

ebay currently has a listing (that's way overpriced) for some test stamps that apparently relate to the Standard Stamp Affixer mentioned in the initial post. Interesting, as I never knew they were apparently based in Everett, Massachusetts:



Here's another design:

Today I was able to track down another Stamp Affixer called the Standard Stamp Affixer by Standard Mailing Machines Company. This one was patented on August 8, 1916. Looks very similar to the Lighting above.



I wrote up an article on it.

http://antiqueoutings.com/standard-stamp-affixer