A Latent Past

It's been nearly twelve hours now since I first saw the images on my 1941 Agfa film, I'll be honest I haven't slept much, so many things going on in my mind.
I have 5 images that I'm guessing date from the period 1938-1941, I've scanned them but haven't really worked on them.
here are those images straight from the scanner:

I call this image "Sons of the Desert"


This one: Gentlemen, There will be no war with Germany

Those are so far my favourite images, if you want to see more then I have a gallery here
One thing is for sure the original photographer was very good at catching the moment, I'd love to know who he was!
Edit:
I've e-mailed the guy who sold me the film to find out how he acquired it, to find out what City or town it was from. I'll then try to contact family history people in that City to find out who the people are.
Its a long shot I know but one I feel I have to take, who are these ghosts?
Further Edit:
According to the seller it was from Reading PA, so if you live in Reading Pennsylvania they might be your ancestors!

All images and text © Mark Antony Smith 2007

Agfa Update

Well, I opened up the tin in order to do a clip-test.

Inside was the film, a corrugated card insert and these instructions on a pamphlet:
Click on the image for a larger view, to make texts readable, here is the other side:

I hope some of the info above will be useful to someone:

I cut off a length of film about 6" and loaded it into my spiral no problem the film felt OK and travelled into the spiral very easily.
I then prepared the developer and fixer. I used Rodinal at 1:25, pre-wet for 1 min at 20 degrees C then developed for 5 mins with gentle agitaion for first 30 sec then every min thereafter.
It was then fixed for 3 mins in fresh Ilford Fix.
No stop bath was used just a small rinse in water.

After a small final rinse about 5 mins, I opened the tank...
At first I was disappointed as the film looked completely fogged, but as I held it to the light I saw to my surprise there are IMAGES.
Badly fogged either by age or light at sometime (who knows when in the last 60+ years) but there are images of people.
The film is drying as I'm typing this and I'll try to scan and post them later....
But for now here is a copy from DSLR and a Macro lens:

and closer crop:

Ghosts...
All images and text © Mark Antony Smith 2007

Agfa Ultra-Speed

If you read this blog regularly you'll know that recently I found a roll of Agfa-Speed Ultra on Ebay. The film is a little out of date.... well it actually expired in 1941 which makes it ancient history film-wise.
It was made by Agfa-Ansco in America, Binghamton N.Y to be exact, and according to my google seaches had a Weston speed of around 80.

Here are a few photos:

Above is the Warranty and Warning
Next a rear view of the tin showing the Agfa logo

Lastly a side view.

I shall atempt to use the film in my Leica with vintage Elmars both 50 & 90 mm, I doubt anthything will come out as the film will probably be fogged, but it will be fun (and it's a lovely old tin even if the film is Kaput).

If anyone has any more information about this film, such as a confirmation of film speed or even development time suggestions for Rodinal, it would be most welcome.