SCIENCE AS A DETECTIVE OF CRIME

...paid per diem while actually engaged upon a case...

...Professor Mathews urges the value of a state board of experts who can be called upon by district attorneys and other authorities throughout the state when they need this kind of expert service...

...J. H. Mathews of the University of Wisconsin is being called upon increasingly by authorities over the State to assist in the solution of crimes...

...A rifle has lands and grooves which leave their impression on each bullet, and no matter how carefully the workman may operate or how precise the machinery may be, no two rifles are ever exactly alike...

...he complimented the officials on the thorough job they did in cleaning out that workshop...

...Our fingerprints and handwriting are our own, and the real expert cannot be fooled...

...A farmer's cow died, end post-mortem examination showed small pieces of steel wire in the stomachs...

...Although they are supposed to, it is found that no two dies cut exactly alike, and the internal diameter of the couplings will depend upon the operator and upon the die...

...It was pure luck that the bullet under examination went into the loamy soil and thus was caught in good condition for the expert...

...Not only that, but bullets made by the .same machine in the same identical manner differ in weight and measure when examined with the infinitesimal care of the expert...

...For several days they searched for the shells because, as Professor Mathews says, "Every firing-pin makes its own autograph on the primer...

...The first bullet was recovered, and with that and the defendant's old Winchester, Professor Mathews set to work...

...Metallographic analysis was made by Professor Chamot of Cornell University both of the wire found in the cattle's stomachs and of that lying along the railroad right-of-way, and absolute lack of identity was shown...

...In the etched portions the crystals are clearly of the same type...

...Further evidence was brought out by measuring and weighing the bullet in compari-sen with other bullets fired by Professor Mathews through the defendant's rifle, which procedure left no doubt in the minds of the experts concerning the calibre of that bullet...

...Chapman was the chairman of the County Board which was constructing a drainage project in the district, a project which was bitterly opposed by Magnuson...

...Some New Methods Employed BY ISABEL B. LA FOLLETTE A NEW ERA in the detection of crime being developed today which bids fair to put out business the oldfashioned chameleon-like sleuth of the lightning changes from be- whiskered street-tough to dapper 'I man-of-the-world or spectacled professor...

...Indeed, the progressing work of Professor Mathews and other experts tends further to convince us of the eventful truth of the old axiom that "Murder will out...

...We are told that usually the more one attempts to conceal one's writing the plainer it is to the experts...

...He is an expert on physical measurements and his keen interest in the subject has opened the door to a new field of...

...Prof...

...Professor Mathews then took a plaster cast of the inside of the rifle, and microscopic examination of the cast showed the grooves and lands to be almost worn away...

...An ink expert was called in and reported that apparently the ink used was a mixture of two inks, and in fact it developed that Magnuson's daughter, whose pen had been used, had filled her fountain pen at home with one ink and then again refilled it at school, and analysis of these two inks showed them to be like the mixture contained in the pen...

...He has found that no two guns are exactly alike and that every gun leaves its own individual impression upon bullets fired from its barrel...

...Professor Mathews tells us that Professor Fahlberg had examined ten or fifteen thousand specimens without finding anything like it before, so that they were pretty well convinced that both pieces of steel had the same parent...

...Sitting at the kitchen table, his wife bending over him in anticipation, Mr...

...For a metallographic analysis the piece of steel is polished very perfectly and subjected to a high-powered microscope which reveals the individual characteristics of the steel...

...Professor Mathews was called in for consultation and the ensuing scientific developments are of unusual interest...

...Chapman received a package through the mail which he thought was a belated Christmas gift...

...Chapman and killed Mrs...

...For several reasons suspicion at once pointed to a certain John Magnuson...

...But would all this evidence be...

...Minute measuring showed the two to be the same to a very elose degree, which seemed to indicate that one had been used as a pattern for the other...

...Even the botanist is useful to the authorities, as was exhibited in a case during the war, when some prisoners were captured and their origin located by an examination of the mud on their boots in which was discovered a tiny organism found only in one part of the world over near the border between Russia and Germany...

...There was an immediate explosion which severely injured Mr...

...A witness for the State testified that the defendant had stood in a certain position at the scene of the crime, while the accused testified that he had fired from another position...

...The bewildering cleverness of Sherlock 'Holmes is thrilling reading, but here comes a new application of science to the discovery of crime, science which more successfully stands the test of the witness-stand and the jury...

...The farmer accused the railroad company which had recently used wire in an electrical connection on some rail crossing his land...

...Next Professor Mathews and Professor Fahl* berg proceeded with what he calls a metallc-graphic analysis of the steel, A chemical analysis is not satisfactory, not only in that several pieces of steel could have the same chemical analysis, but because if the triggers were used for analysis there would be nothing left to show the court...

...Having gone into the sandy loam it was very little defaced and showed distinctive scratches which were unusual...

...The chances of escaping detection should appear discouraging„to one contemplating a life of crime...

...Mathews gave important evidence in another murder case...

...The difference in these markings left on bullets can be measured in ten-thousandths of an inch...

...Chapman's name and address appeared...

...Handwriting experts testified to the similarity of the handwriting (although obviously concealment was attempted), to some examples which Magnuson wrote for the court...

...The experts also found a collar evidently made by cutting off the threaded end of a three-quarter inch wrought-iron pipe...

...One of the most interesting criminal cases known was solved by Professor Mathews when his evidence put John Magnuson behind the bars for life...

...Magnuson was arrested and the officials proceeded with the case...

...Analysis demonstrated that the steel was of the same quality as that used in barrel, hoops, although, of course, that did not prove that the mechanism came from a barrel hoop...

...It turned out to be of tremendous importance to the case...

...Fortunately, we cannot wish or think bodily harm to other persons, and every physical act must leave its trace...

...and the same heat treatment...

...Chapman took out his knife and cut the string...

...Discover Pipe Covering IN SEARCH for more evidence they discovered in the material taken from Magnuson'3 workshop a piece of pipe-coupling which strikingly resembled the pipe-coupling used in the— bomb...

...The great assistance of such a group of experts to the authorities prosecuting perplexing cases is obvious...

...The scientific evidence of t^ie experts convicted Magnuson...

...Bullets were found in the plaster of the wall, and by taking careful measurements following the angle of a rod thrust in the holes made by the bullets, the line of march of the bullets proved them to have been fired from the position testified to by the State's witness...

...The members of this board would be unsalaried and'would be...

...It has been demonstrated many times that every bullet shot from a certain gun has the individual characteristics of that firing-pin, which fact has convicted a good many criminals...

...A metallographic analysis was made and appearance of both, to the metallographer, fclentical...

...Agencies of Science KNOWLEDGE of the efficacy of scientific methods should act as a deterrent from crime...

...A valuable exhibit of the State was the piece of wrapping paper which had covered the bomb and upon which Mr...

...He deduced that some of the wire had been thrown over into his corn field and had been chopped up with the corn stalks in the corn cutter...

...If the steel is etched it will be found that the acid has acted unevenly on different parts of the surface (since steel is an alloy), and some of the surface will be resistant to the action of thai acid while some will be eaten away, the result being likened by Professor Mathews to a sort of low relief map showing the crystalline structure of the specimen...

...In the present case, however, the rifle was so old and rusty that such measurements were of no assistance, but Professor Mathews found by firing several bullet* through the rifle that each bullet received the same scratching as the one found in the river bank...

...Professor Mathews has experimented with innumerable bullets by firing them into oiled sawdust which seems to be the best material for catching them without deformation...

...Chapman...

...Had Farm Workshop MAGNUSON had a very well-equipped workshop on his farm, and the authorities gathered everything in the shop together and took it to the Court House...

...The first shot grazed the victim's cheek and buried itself in the silty loam of the river bank, the second caught the victim in the back, deforming in its progress, and the third supposedly went wild...

...poison must have a chemical action on its object...

...There" were exactly the same number of pin-pricks per square inch in each, showing that the average size of the crystals was the same for the two specimens...

...We cannot even lie with safety any more or the psychiatrist will submit us to tests which will expose us...

...convincing to a jury ? The experts took pictures of their exhibits, accurately marked off similar areas on each, and pricked through every crystal in the given area, then turned the picture over and counted the number of pin-pricks...

...Even the typewriter has its own individuality (or soon develops it, as Professor Mathews remarks) and an expert can tell you not only the make, but approximately the year and serial number of the machine producing a certain script...

...V Experiments With Guns THE ACTION of guns and bullets is another of Professor Mathews' specialties...

...bombs must be made up of physical parts...

...A search through the material of Magnuson's shop brought forth a piece of pipe with the same threading and metallographic analysis...

...In the third place, the State had a release mechanism from the bomb and there was found in the material taken from Magnuson's farm a similar release mechanism from a gas engine...

...Both the triggers in evidence were submitted to this analysis and photographs made with a camera...

...Metallographic analysis was responsible itt acquittal in another case...

...Another case was helped by an analysis of pollen found on a man's trouser-legs, proving that he had passed through a field of certain plant blooms, forming a link in the chain of evidence...

...One solution of the problem of education in American universities would be in the imposition of tasks that would completely fill the time of students with hard work, according to President Angell of Yale...

...So long as we have crimes and criminals to deal with, we should encourage the stride of scientific methods of detecting and bringing them to justice, links forming a chain of scientific evidence to place before a jury, instead of prejudiced theories and the emotional oratory of competing attorneys...

...The threading in the pipe-couplings ' m measured and proved to be the same, and internal diameter was found to be the same • thousandth of an inch...

...A few months previous the dredge had been blown Up while approaching Magnuson's property, Magnuson was a man of considerable mechanical ability, and often boasted of his experience with explosives, and of the part he took in the Boer War as a spy first on the Boer side and then on the British...

...If you have two pieces of the same crystalline structure you know definitely that you have the same chemical composition, the same mechanical treatment (hammered, rolled, etc...

...Prof...

...It is obvious to anyone examining the steel under the microscope or observing those photographs that the two pieces of steel show the same general characteristics...

...Since the shells could not be found, they started to work on the bullet...

...Wo make doubly sure, they went to various rdware stores and bought different three-quainter inch pipe-couplings and found that no two were alike...

...About Christmas time, 1922, a Mr...

...Professor Mathews' work in this field was valuable in a case where a man in his dying statement implicated another, and said that he had fired three bullets from a certain point across the river...

...Although Professor Mathews emphasizes, "The proper procedure in the handling of evidence is, generally, don't handle it at all until experts get there...

...To shoot a man there must be a gun and a bullet...

...scientific evidence of undoubted value...