The chronicle=news., 1913-03-06
new METHODS TO
TRAP FORCERS

London. March G--Mu.t Ingenious
means are nowadays employed Ia the
detection OF forgery. I; i a very
clever .org.r indeed who can dcc.iv.
the up-to-datc expert iu chiroGraply
As has been pointed GU; by Sand
berg. III. expert may put Juror to
the proof that out OF - dozen sigma
lures OF his own name no two Will be-
alih. IN general form. Then the .N-
pert may turn to the authentic und
forged signatures In almost any case
and show TO the iayman that the
first question OF forgery arose from
the fact that these two signatures
are ut i!Tsi glance idcnticaiiy alike
almost To til. msnuiest detail.
The forgcr has been too skiii;u!. lie
has held to tn. old principle OF copy.
Ing the authentic signature. that he
has n; hand. aud the consequence IL
that the more nearly he can repro.
duce the signature In every propor-
tion the more readily can the for
gerry be proved.
A most significant fact upon which
, the expert may base his invcstiga-
;ions OF possible forgery is that every
one has his pen scope" This tech
nical term describes the average
without lifting the pcn from the pa
per and shifting the hand to continue
the line.
In the case OF signature II should
be one OF the easiest and least stu
died group of words that the writer
should be called upon to pu, upon
paper. In writing q letter. for in
stance. the pen scope throughout
ma t.t
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 " the writer
| covers the full stretch OF his name In
| this way the expert may prove by tile
shorter pen scope Of the copyist that
the studied copy is forgery ON its
face. For. however free. Of stroke tho
, forgcr may naturally be. his effort
to produce "A facsimile Of anothcr's
signature VIII render his scopc
shorter than that Of the original
! siEncr
| common means of reproducing
signature is to placc the original
signature on piece OF glass. Law
another piece of glass on top OF IL
and fas'cn the pacpr that is to re-
ceive the forgery on top of that. Then
by holding the glass strips to bright
| light the original signature casts a
shadow through: and this may be
traced In pencil. From this the ink
, forgery IL made.
| When. however, n forgery accom-
plishcd by this means is placed un-
her strong maSnifying glass It will
not apss muster. II the original has
strong down stroke ON the cap.taI
lot s.Va . h.. = \
and Will leave the pen lines with
smooth edges. The Individual who is
tracing such letters cannot trust him
self TO the same tree movement of
the pen and the result shows. under
the glass, hcsItancy and uncertain
Ity.
A new means of detecting forgery
has been suggested 4 doctor has ad.
Nanccd the theory that the pen in
| me hand OF writer serves in "a modi
iied degree thesame end as the sphy-
Snograph. which traces the hearts
action. and that in a persons hand
| writing one can see. by projecting
the letters greatly magnified on II
screen. the scarcely perceptible turns
and duivers made in the lines by the
action OF that persons peculiar pull
sation.
10 demonstrate this an experiment
was made a; Charing Cross hosiptal
number of persons suffering from
hehrt disease wrote an exercise In
| their ordinary handwriting. Tho diff
ferent manuscripts were then taken
hhd examined microscopically. BY
throwing them highly magnified on
screen the jerks or involuntary
motions due to the patients pccul-
lar pulsation were distinctly visible.
The handwriting OF persons in
normal health does not. however.
always show their pulse beats. What
Que can say is that when u document
purporftng to be written by GER
tain person contained traces of pulse
heats and the normal handwriting Of
mat person does not show them. then
clearly the document is a forgery.