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Background
In 1928, Recordak, a subsidiary of Eastman Kodak, developed a system for photographing
documents and reducing the negative. By 1931 Recordak cameras were capable of
automatically moving film in synchronization with documents fed over a revolving
drum. The use of this 'small format film' system for carrying mail
was proposed to the Post Office in 1932. They did not accept the idea for
various reasons, and stated their belief that the public would reject the idea due to the lack of privacy
involved.
The idea was re-floated in 1940 by Lt. Col. John Theodore
Cuthbert Moore-Brabazon, (RFC, MP, 1st Baron Brabazon of Tarato - with a
fascinating life story). He was a director of Kodak and Minister of Transport in
Churchill's government and recognised that airgraphs could help to overcome the
problems of transporting mail to the armed forces in the Middle East. Regular
mail was regarded as a vital part of sustaining the troop's morale, but the
sheer bulk of the mail being transported to and from the Middle and Far East was
a problem, especially when the Italians closed the Suez Canal and the
Mediterranean became too dangerous for sea transport. The sea route around the
Cape of Good Hope meant a detour of 12,000 miles and was delaying mail, often for many
weeks. Air transport carrying airgraphs and
air letters
was seen as a solution to this problem. The proposal was investigated by the
Army Postal Service and the GPO and finally accepted.
The Airgraph service proved to be extremely popular, despite
misgivings about its lack of privacy. This success was partly due to soldiers
serving overseas being able to send as many airgraphs as they liked, whereas
for some time during the war they were restricted to the number of airmail letters they were able to send per
month. The agreement between the British government and Kodak was for the
service to continue for one year after the cessation of hostilities with
Germany.
The process
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The first equipment and technicians, supplied by Kodak, were
sent to Cairo to set up a processing station to produce the negative films.
Airgraph forms were distributed and collected by Post Offices
and Field Post Offices. Once completed, returned and paid for, they were sent to a processing
station. They were censored and each airgraph form was given a serial number.
The forms were photographed with 1600-1700 messages on 100ft of film, 16mm wide. The machine used was a
rotary Recordak camera with a reduction scale of 1 to 17 capable
of photographing up to 122 letters per hour. The apparatus looked like a
flat-topped metal desk. As each form was fed into a slit at the top of
the apparatus, an automatic switch illuminated the form for a fraction
of a second while it was photographed by a 16 mm camera. Each reel of film weighed approximately 5 oz. giving a major reduction in
weight, (equivalent paper mail = approx 44lb) and volume.
The reels of film were sent on, then printed and despatched. The original forms were
retained until it was confirmed that the film had arrived and been printed safely.
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Negative from reel |
Payment was made by affixing postage stamps to the back of
the forms. Free postage for those on active service; 3d for other forces
personnel; 8d for civilian mail, reduced to 3d in August 1944.
For airgraphs arriving in the UK - the negatives were printed at Kodak's
Wealdstone plant. The film negatives were projected onto a moving strip of
sensitized paper. The prints were then sent to the London Postal Region where
they were cut up, folded, placed in Airgraph envelopes and despatched. John Dickinson & Co, (British envelope makers) supplied a machine that greatly
speeded up the process - their machine folded and inserted the letter, sealed
the envelope and applied a blue postmark at the rate of 8,000 per hour. The service became so highly organized that over 20,000 a day could be sent
by the GPO.
| The four main types of airgraph
envelope used in the UK :
118mm x 95mm |
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| Type 1 - AIRGRAPH with winged arrow logo |
Type 2 - No. 243 / AIRGRAPH with winged arrow logo |
Type 3 - Cloud logo |
Type 4 - Cloud logo |
| Used between 1941 and late 1943 |
Used from September 1942 |
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| Postmark :
Red, 'Universal' - single ring and 7 wavy lines
- OR -
Red, 'Pitney Bowes' - double ring |
Blue, 'Dickinson' -
single ring |
There are several variations to these main types of envelope.
Examples :-
1. Paper quality and colour.
2. Address window shapes - rectangular; oval with straight
top/bottom edges; oval with slight curve to top/bottom edges.
| 3. Flap with 'V' or curved shape |
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| 4. Opening at back, 'V', curved or straight. |
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5. Print style and quality.
First example comes from an envelope used in December
1941 with v-shaped flap at bottom. 'Clean' print for Airgraph logo.
‘
No. 243. ’ appears in a serif font with a full
stop.
Second example is from an an envelope used in February
1942 with v-shaped flap at top. Heavy printing of the logo.
‘ No. 243
’ appears in block without serif and without full stop.
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6. Postmarks. Many covers came through with no postmark at all.
At Christmas, the red Universal and Pitney Bowes
postmarks sometimes have no day date (just Dec), a red square in place
of the day, or no date at all.
At Christmas, the blue Dickinson postmark also appeared
without a date.
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Airgraphs from the UK - Airgraph forms were available at post offices. The
completed forms were either handed back at the Post Office counter or sent
postage-free directly to London, (some preferred this as then local people could not read
their messages). The forms were sent to the King Edward Building in London. The
forms were numbered by handstamp in order to be able to identify the airgraph
should it get lost or damaged in transit. Airgraphs for the armed forces went to
the Army Postal Service
where they were sorted according to which service and the destination. At the
start of the UK service, forms were sent to Kodak for processing, Kodak later
set up a processing station within the Foreign Section at the King Edward
Building.
There were three basic types (with many variations for each
type) of airgraph form used in the UK:
1. Address box at bottom
2. Address box at top, without a date stamp circle
3. Address box at top, with a date stamp circle.
The service
21 April 1941 first airgraph despatch sent from Cairo - arrived London 13
May. 50,000 (some sources say 70,000) microfilmed letters weighing just 13 pounds instead of
three-quarters of a ton. [Question - in the House of
Lords debate on 20 May, Lord Croft stated that the first dispatch took place
on 2 May. If this is correct was the distribution of forms made from the 21
April date?]
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15 August 1941 - Britain to Cairo service started. 13,500
letters reduced to 9 reels of film.
< The first airgraph to be
sent from the UK, click for larger image. The first forms had the address panel at the bottom of the form - later at the top.
Airgraphs at this time could be sent to, 'Personnel of His Majesty's
Army and Royal Air Force serving with the Middle East Force and the East
African Force and.... Personnel of His Majesty's ships operating in the
Eastern Mediterranean'. Paid for by fixing stamps to the value of
3d to the reverse of the form. Airgraph service extended during 1941 to East Africa and
Canada (processed at Toronto). |
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September 1941 - flying boat Clare with 55,000 airgraphs from India, East Africa and South Africa on film were lost. The
despatching stations were contacted by telegraph - the retained originals were
re-processed and re-sent, arriving in London on 15 October.
Christmas 1941 - first special designs on airgraph forms
produced by various units of the armed forces in the Middle East. Example shown
from RAF Middle East >
2 February 1942 - experimental airgraph service started from
India to Britain. Airgraph forms were issued free at post offices in India, they
were photographed at Bombay. Airgraphs accepted for private use - 14 annas for 1
sheet. 3 annas for members of the armed services. The first despatch arrived in
Britain on 20 February, but were not delivered to addresses until at least a
week later.
Airgraph service extended during 1942 to Burma, India (and
onwards to Ceylon) and
South Africa.
1942 airgraph service opened to public for civilian use - costing 8d for
private airgraphs, (3d for forces airgraphs).
15 November 1942 - airgraph service extended to Canadian
armed services in Great Britain. Fee of 10c for messages sent by air to Toronto.
Airgraphs also transported from Canada to GB.
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1942 61 million airgraphs in year. 135 million in 1943.
2 April 1943 - airgraphs to Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Tonga and New
Hebrides accepted. Airgraphs processed in New Zealand on 3 May. 8d civilians, 3d armed forces and merchant navy.
Early 1943 - a process developed by the Dufay-Chromex Company
allowed photographs to be printed onto Airgraphs. At 3s9d the process proved to
be far too expensive for most people.
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1943 Christmas airgraph blank form |
1944 Christmas airgraph blank form - 3d violet imprint
stamp on the back |
Airgraph service extended during 1944 to Italy.
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August 1944 airgraph charge reduced from 8d to 3d for the public.
September 1944 - processing station opened in Colombo,
Ceylon (the last station to be opened). 12 October - airgraph service to Belgian Congo. Christmas 1944 - A special airgraph form was issued in
the UK, (see above). The design of the airgraph was also show in the background of the GPO
poster - both poster and airgraph are signed 'Beaumont'. The originating
form bore a violet 3d imprint stamp whereas other forms had a space for a
stamp to be affixed. [Click on thumbnail for a larger image]. |
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9 July end of airgraph service to Canada. Forms received
after this date were stamped; 'Airgraph service not available. Forwarded by
airmail' - and most were then sent by ordinary airmail. A few were held
over, the cachet deleted by pencil and then processed and sent on 11 July.
31 July 1945 - end of the airgraph scheme, replaced by the
air letter which required no processing and allowed greater privacy.
Covers in UK dated early August. By the end of the scheme,
nearly 350 million airgraphs had been sent weighing a total of 50 tons in
comparison to 4,500 tons of ordinary letter weight.
The United States called its airgraph service - 'V-mail' or
'Victory Mail'. The British Post Office processed 500,000 of these a day by 1945
for American servicemen stationed in this country. Other countries developed
their own airgraph services.
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