Great British innovations celebrated on new stamps

The eight special stamps are on sale now Credit: PA

Groundbreaking British inventions ranging from fibre optics to the internet are being celebrated on a new set of stamps.

The eight new stamps mark the country's "long and proud history" of innovation and developments which have changed the way the world works, Royal Mail said.

On sale now, they feature photographs and computer-generated images of carbon fibre, the i-Limb, the world wide web, catseyes, fibre optics, stainless steel, DNA sequencing and the Colossus computer.

Rhys Morgan, director of education at The Royal Academy of Engineering which helped select the items to be featured, welcomed the tribute.

The carbon fibre stamp Credit: PA
The i-Limb stamp Credit: PA

Royal Mail has also announced it will be running special 'Inventive Britain' postmarks across the country for the week beginning February 20.

Royal Mail vans will be emblazoned with an image from the new stamps in areas with strong links to the inventors in question, with people in Halifax, Epsom, Sheffield, Edinburgh, Cirencester, Dumfries, Docklands and Mortlake most likely to see one of the special vans on the streets.

The world wide web and Colossus computer stamps Credit: PA
The fibre optics and catseyes stamps Credit: PA
The stainless steel and DNA sequencing stamps Credit: PA