The Royal Mail has launched a set of Inventive Britain stamps to celebrate eight important inventions of the 20th century.

The subjects are: Colossus (the world’s first electronic, digital and programmable computer); the World Wide Web; cats’ eyes; fibre optics; stainless steel; carbon fibre; DNA sequencing; and the i-limb. Royal Mail worked with the Royal Academy of Engineering to select these inventions.

The academy’s director of education, Rhys Morgan, said: “This excellent collection of stamps shows British innovation and engineering at its best. The eight inventions featured on the stamps comprise only a handful of the great British inventions from the last century.”

David Gow, the mechanical engineer who developed the i-limb (a bionic hand with a rotatable thumb and articulated fingers, each powered by its own miniature motor and gearbox), said he was proud to see his invention on a stamp.

“The Royal Mail stamp is an icon in itself, so to see the i-limb featured on one is a great honour. When I first started working in prosthetics, I simply wanted to use technology to help improve the lives of people with limb loss; I never imagined that it would one day lead to this.”