The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-04-06
Detection of Forgery
7rom Harper's Weeklv


Most ingenious means are NOWADAYS
employed In the detection of forgery. II
is very clever forger. indeed. who can
deceive the up-to-date expert in chir-
ography.
AS has been pointed out by sandberg.
the expert may put juror to the proof
that out of a dozen signatures of his
own name no two will be alike in gen
eral form. Then the expert may turn to
the authentic and forged signatures
in almost any case and show to the
layman that the first question of for
gerry arose from the fact that these
two signatures are at first glance iden-
tically alike almost to the 'minutest de-
tail
The forger has been too skillful
He has held to the old principle of
copying the authentic signature that he
has at hand and the consequence is
that the more nearly he can repro
duce the signature in every proportion
the more readily can the forgery be
proved.
A most significant fact upon which
the expert may base his Investigations
of possible forgery is that every one
has his pen scope This technical
term describes the average stretch of
paper that one may cover without lift
ing the pen from paper and shifting
the hand to continue the line.
In the case of signature it should
be one of the easiest and least studied
group of words that the writer should
be called upon to put upon paper. In
writing letter, for instance, the pen
scope throughout may exhibit an aver
age stretch of one inch for the text
of the letter, while in the signature
the whole length of the name, twice
as long, may be covered. But if the
writer covers the full stretch of his
name in this way the expert may prove
by the shorter pen scope of the copyist
that the studied copy is a forgery on its
face. For, however free of stroke the
forger may naturally be, his effort to
produce facsimile of another's sig
nature will render his scope shorter
than that Of the original signer
common means of reproducing a
signature is to place the original sig
nature on piece of glass, lay another
piece of glass on top OF 1T and tasten
the paper that is to receive the for
gerry on top of that Then by hold
ing the glass strips to a bright light
the original signature casts a shadow
through; and this may be traced in
pepciL From this the ink forgery is
made.
When, however. a forgery accom-
plished by this means is placed under
a strong magnifying glass it will not
pass muster. If the original has a
strong down stroke on the capital let
ters the movement will be free and
Will leave the pen lines with smooth
edges. The individual who is tracing
such letters cannot trust himself to the
same free movement of the pen and
the result shows, under the glass, hesi-
fancy and uncertainty.
A new means of detecting forgery
has been suggested A doctor has ad-
vanced the theory that the pen in the
hand of writer serves in a modified
degree the same end as the sphygmo-
graph. which traces the hearts ac-
ton, and that in persons handwrit-
ing one can see, by projecting the let
ters greatly magnified on a screen the
scarcely perceptible turns and uuiy. RS
made in the lines by the action Of
that persons peculiar pulsation.
TO demonstrate this AN experiment
was made a Charing Gross hospital.
London number of persons suffer-
ing from heart disease wrote an exer-
else in their ordinary handwriting. The
different manuscripts were then taken
and examined microscopieauy. By
throwing them highly magnffied on =
screen the jerks or Involuntary motions
due to the patients peculiar pulsation
We're distinctly visible.
The handwriting of persons in nor
NAL health does not. however always
show their pulse beats. What ono c,,,
say Is that when document purnort-
Ing to be written by certain person
contains traces of pulse beats and the
normal Handwriting of that person does
not show them then clearly the docu-
ment IL q forgery