PHOTO-LETTERS

Waikato Independent, Volume XLI, Issue 3891, 13 August 1941, Page 3

PHOTO-LETTERS

NEW AIR MAIL SERVICE ' THOUSANDS IN ONE PLANE The arrival in Britain of the first batch of 50,000 photo-letters, under the newly instituted Airgraph Service from the Middle East, marks a great step forward in- speeding up of air-mail service.

The “Airgraph” is a system of photographing letters on a tiny film so that one plane can carry many thousands of messages. These first film letters, flown from Cairo, weighed only 13 pounds, as compared with the three-quarters of a ton which 50,000 written letters would have weighed. Ordinary air-mail letters also, would have had to come part of the way by sea. To “airgraph” a letter the sender writes his message on a form, 11 by 8 inches, which has a space for the address at the bottom. This form is photographed on a small film and then sent by plane to its destination.

As soon as the letters arrived in London, experts began to enlarge them from the size of a man’s finger nail to a rectangle, 4 by 5 inches. These enlargements were then rushed to the Post Office and placed in special “window” envelopes, with the printed address showing through the cut.

General Sir Archibald wavell sent one of the first three Airgraph letters from the Middle East. It was written from G.H.Q., Cairo, and addressed to General Sir John Dill. It began “My Dear Jack,” and was signed “Archie.”