V-mail

Originally based on the British "Airgraph", V-mail was an unusual system for delivering mail from United States troops to home addresses during World War II. It worked by photographing large amounts of censored mail onto reels of film, which weighed much less than the original would have. The film reels were shipped to the US, printed out on lightweight photo paper and delivered to the addressee.

This saved considerable weight and bulk in a time in which both were hard to manage in a theatre of the war. It also eliminated the threat of spies using microdots or invisible ink to send reports. Any microdot would not be photographed with enough resolution to be read.

Further reading

• Smithsonian Magazine, March, 1994, Around the Mall, vol 24:12 pg 16