Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-08-11

"The future scientific detective will have q
number of advantages over his predecessor, the
detective of today 1t he knows his business.
his photographs of the grooves and the mark
ings on the bullets will give definite and de-
pendable evidence. Furthermore. his conclu-
sions will be available for everybody concerned
to see hear and consider. He will do his Work
at his leisure in the privacy of his laboratory,
and therefore. his conclusions will not be
colcred by anything he has seen, as witness
testimony SO often is.
THE Bureau of Standards is also attempting
to draw up minimum standards with which
handwriting and typewriter experts ought to be
able to comply before they are permitted to
testify in court Dr. Albert S. Osborn of New
York City has already done such excellent work
in devising designs and special types of in
struments for comparing typswritten docu-
ments that the bureau has had little original
work to do in this field.
Typewriter messages are very deceptive 10
those who are not familiar with the methods
Of differentiating between work done on differ
ent makes of machines and individual machines
of the same make. The reaction of the average
juryman IS that all typewriters are the same,
because they are intended to be alike. But
each machine has pecu!iarities OF its own,
which can be detected by an expert using
microscope and studying the shape OF letters,
defects In type and the alignment OF the letters
when they are superimposed on scale for
detecting Irregularities in spacing.
Persons familiar with type styles and char
acterstics can distinguish one make Of ma
chine from another from few typewriter
words" DR.. Souder said. The dimenSional
proportions of individual letters of similar styles
of type usually differ For example. the 4 Is
given the same space as the w in type
written document. 1t is the problem of the
artist to design these and other letters In such
manner as to minimize what could easily ap-
pear to be excessive crowding or isolation OF
letters in the typewriter work. The modifica-
tionS which the artist makes to avoid these
defects gives the first opportunity for precision
measurements.
UEOR type made from the same model Or
formed against the same die, as In the
case of machines put out by any one manu-
facturer we may look for defects or lack Ut
all details Of perfection over the lines Of the
letter face. The process of plating and polish
ing the letters may add defects. The more sure
source of Identification however lies in the
adjustments OF the type on the bars after the
machine has been completely assembled. Some
letters will be placed high and some low In the
line, some will be rotated and some will make
contact on one portion of the face before the
other portion hits the paper. Adjustments for
minimizing these discrepancies are made by IN
spectors, who usually reduce these to apparent
uniformity in so far as the unaided eye is able
to Judge.
These variations are all susceptible to pre-
cision measurements, and when these are made
and compared with measurements from other
machines, 1t will usually be found that five to
ten characteristics are sufficient to establish
the identity of the machine which produced
the document.
Experts on handwriting, however, must. as
q rule. develop an art of their own. There are,
however, quite number of experts who have
worked out methods of procedure which have
produced excellent results. They study the
style of the script, the slope, size and the re-
lations of parts of letters, the methods Of
handling the pen or pencil. They have learned
that attempts to disguise handwriting usually
show lack of consistency, and these discrepan-
cies furnish the clues to the true handwriting
characteristics Of the forger.'