2. Autographic Feature

One of the things which intrigued me in the sale photos of my No.1A Autographic Kodak was the tiny metal rod clipped to the front. Before it arrived, I assumed it was some kind of tool for maintenance. It's quite tarnished and rusty so I set about cleaning it by soaking it in vinegar and rubbing with aluminium foil.

It reminds me of the stylus pens which used to come with early electronic devices. In the 1990s I had an electronic diary with something similar, though made of plastic of course and with no pattern as far as I remember.

I look around the camera to find somewhere to tap or slot the 'pen' and notice a tiny metal hole in the back, set in a narrow window slot. Sure enough, it fits!

It really does look as if you would somehow sign or write on the film, hence 'Autographic', but I can't immediately work out how you would do this without ruining the film.

After reading this section of the manual, I can see that it was a slightly long-winded process. First you had to buy special film, which came with a very thin carbon paper layer between the film and its backing paper.

Then, after taking the photo, but before winding on the film, you would write in the slot, pressing down firmly to tear the carbon paper layer. This allowed light to enter the film but only along the lines of writing. The manual suggests recording details of the subject or even better the camera settings, so that the photographer could learn from any errors!

Then you had to do a manual exposure by leaving the little window slot open to the sky (but not the sun) for between 2-15 seconds, depending on the conditions. There were different times listed for indoor lighting.

Finally, you could close the window slot, wind on your film to the next frame and relocate the stylus pen.

The system was invented by H.J. Gaisman and Kodak purchased the rights in 1914, just in time to be used with incredible effect in the first world war. But it fell out of fashion through the 1920s and was no longer offered from around 1932.

Not surprisingly, many of the Autographic cameras available now are missing the little stylus pen, so I feel lucky that mine is still intact.

A quick scour of the internet finds an original roll of Autographic 116 film to fit my camera at a cost of only £109. I'll probably pass on that...