Scots inventors featured on stamps

Published on Wednesday 28 February 2007 13:18

SOME of Scotland's greatest minds are receiving the royal treatment with a stamp of approval from Royal Mail.

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Royal MailJohn Logie Baird and Alexander Graham Bell will be featured in a new series of stamps. They will form part of a series of six illustrated stamps that celebrate engineers and inventors who helped shape the modern world.

The issue was inspired by this year's 250th anniversary of the birth of Scots engineer Thomas Telford, who is to be depicted on the first-class stamp.

The new World of Invention stamps will be issued from Thursday. The series features three pairs of self-adhesive stamps bearing the quirky illustrations of Guardian cartoonist Peter Till. His drawings cover the creation of magnificent bridges to the evolution of the world wide web.

Bell, born in Edinburgh in 1847 and inventor of the telephone, and Baird, born in Argyllshire in 1888 and a television pioneer, will be featured on 64p stamps.

Royal Mail's director of Scottish affairs, Ian McKay, said: "Scots are renowned for the contribution they made to inventing the technology upon which today's world is built and it is fitting that Scots dominate this World of Invention stamp issue.

"Thomas Telford, Alexander Graham Bell and John Logie Baird, were all fundamental in shaping the infrastructure and communications of the modern world," McKay said.

"It is very fitting that their accomplishments will be seen on millions of letters thanks to another great invention, the postage stamp."