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Autopen Guide
Identifying Autopens The Autopen machine is a mechanical device used to automatically recreate genuine-looking signatures of a given person. These machines were first developed around the beginning of the 20th century but only became widely used in the last 60 years or so.
The machine ( right) resembled a small drafting table, with a mechanical writing arm on one side and an open area beside it for stacking signed and unsigned documents. Apparently a skilled operator could turn out thousands of signed items a day if necessary using the machine, although it seems that if run at too high a speed the signatures could become a bit 'sloppy' (showing the shaky lines mentioned in section 2.3). Combined with the fact that only a limited number of fixed patterns were used by each astronaut, this allows us to spot Autopenned signatures in many cases as the following pages will attempt to explain.
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