autopen

U.S. government employees operate a check-signing machine.

An Autopen is a machine for the automatic signing a signature as an autograph. The reason for employing an autopen is typically emotive, intended to form a compromise between making every signature by hand, which can take up a great deal of time for the signer, and printing a reproduction of the signature, which can be felt impersonal by the recipient.

History

The first autopens were developed by an Englishman named John Isaac Hawkins. Hawkins received a United States patent for his device in 1803.^{[citation needed]} In 1804, Thomas Jefferson began using the device extensively.^{[citation needed]} This early device was known at the time as a polygraph—an abstracted version of the pantograph—bearing little resemblance to today's autopens in design or operation.^{[citation needed]}

Autopen users

Harry Truman is believed to have been the first United States President to use the autopen as a way of responding to mail and signing checks.^{[citation needed]} Autopen devices are used today by politicians and fundraisers to sign letters to constituents written by administrative assistants and clerical staff, and by celebrities such as movie stars, music stars and astronauts to sign photographs.^{[citation needed]} A company named Studio Fanmail uses autopens to reproduce celebrity autographs onto pictures of the celebrity.

G. Gordon Liddy secretly used an autopen during his tenure at Washington DC radio station WJFK.^{[citation needed]}

Today's autopens are often used to allow someone to be in two places at once. A politician can be travelling while his staff sign letters on his behalf. Donald Rumsfeld used an autopen to sign letters to the families of people killed in action.^[1] When questioned on the subject, he stated it was inappropriate and began to sign the letters personally. Queen Elizabeth II typically signs Christmas cards by autopen.^[2]

An autopen was used for the signature of President Jimmy Carter in Naval Operations at the Bureau of Naval Personnel in 1975 and 1976. Those who used the machine called it the "Iron Hand." There were other signature templates available. Choose the proper template, slide-in the already typed letter, and smoothly and quickly, it literally wrote the signature in black ink.

Mechanism

The first step in using an autopen machine is to have a metal "matrix" of the signature made. This matrix is then loaded into the machine and signing can commence.

Types

Further developing the class of devices known as autopens, Canadian author Margaret Atwood developed a device called the Longpen, which allows audio and video conversation between the fan and author while a book is being signed remotely.

References

1. ^ News Releases
2. ^ Collecting Christmas Cards of British Royalty

External links

• A site with information on autopen signatures
• collectSPACE: Identifying Astronaut Autopens