The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-09-14

present and, the afternoon being pleas
ant and bright had induced the class
to stand ON the front steps of the
church and pose for picture. He was
sure of the date because upon the back
of a copy OF the photograph which was
given him he had written the date,
MAY 90, 1910"
The lawyer borrowed the photograph
and for days he pored over it, seeking
some clew
Clearly defined in the picture made
in front of the church was a shadow of
the steeple of the building, said Col
onel. Yeiser. THAT point had a fascip-
alton for me and hundred times my
eyes rested upon it,
so took the picture to Father Will
liam Rigge, astronomer at Creighton uni
versity, and explained my dilemma. Make
it talk, Father I said.
That's very easy" said the scientist.
The next day the lawyer returned to
the university for his answer.
THAT picture was made within one
minute of 3:211s, afternoon May %, 1910,''
stated Father Rigge.
Here, then was the albi-more perfect
than the evidence. The two girls, the
witnesses against Erdman were in the
church at 250, when the Internal ma
chine was discovered. They had not left
the church until about $3.50 instead of
2:30 as they were to testify They, the
pastor and the other three witnesses
We're one hour behind time. The Internal
machine had been discovered and was at
the police station long before the girls
left the church.
The state decided to drop the case, Erd-
man had been saved by the shadow of
church steeple.
Shadow Gives Lawyer Idea
an internal machine upon Dennison's 8
porch before 2:5O o'clock Sunday after
noon, May %, 1910. The principal wit
nesses, two girls, testified that they saw
the accused near the Dennison home just
before that time. These two girls had
been to chuch mile away After the
services they posed for a photographed.
A prominent shadow In the picture gave
the attorney the idea of consulting an
astronomer in the hope of finding from
the position of the shadow the exact time
at which the plate had been exposed.
Should this prove to be after 2:50 o'clock
the testimony of the witness would be
invalid. Said Colonel Yeiser:
with the help of a surveyor we meas
ured the distances the shadow had fallen
down, eastward and northward. The data
ods of compuetation. The principle is a
very simple one to those who understand
trigonometry and astronomy.
THE close agreement of the four meth
DDS which ] employed showed that no
appreciable error had been made in any
of them.
"In the fourth method the latitude.
which had been taken as unknown. diff
fered only 2-3 miles from the truth. If
the time had been given the longitude
would have been found within about the
same range.
THE data used in the problem were
that the shadow had fallen 14.22 feet
down, 1910 feet eastward and 3.43 feet
northward. The horizontal distance
was found to be 1882 by measurement
and 1854 by computation. An error
of one-tenth of foot in the shortest
horizontal side would have changed
the time l minute 54 seconds. The
same error in the altitude would have
caused a difference of 1 minute Is sec
onds. The omission of the correction
for refraction would have produced a
difference of 2 or 3 seconds. The lat
itude was Al degrees minutes AZ Sec
onds ~ and the longitude hours 23
minutes 4S seconds w. The sun was 3
minutes 33 seconds fast. and the time
used central time.
Allowed for Errors
TN order not to claim too great an
accuracy for the result / thought
would leave reasonable margin of
uncertainty by maintaining the time
3.21 u to be within minute OF the
truth.
Two years later, on the anniversary,
Navy 22, 1912. with a photographer I
visited the scene with the intention of
taking new pictures and comparing
them with the original. Three ex-
posures We're made. The first was at
". minute before the computed
time; the second at 2:21A, exactly on
time, and the third at 3:22H. a min
ute after the computed moment. How
closely the middle picture reproduced
the exact position of the shadow as
1t appears on the original photograph
of two years before can be seen by ac-
tual comparison. In both the lower
left-hand corner of the shadow is ex-
actly in the middle of the same wealth
erboard. 1t is somewhat below this
point in the picture taken minute be-
fore. and as much above It in the one
taken minute later. The computed
time was therefore certainly correct