The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-01-23

hat within another "a hours,
Itness in his own defense, may
face the jury and tell his
strange version Of how he ac-
quired the ransom money
through which he was
trapped.
The Intersection ladder. standing
against the wall of the courtroom,
a mute witness against the prisoner,
was found on the Lindbergh estate
shortly after the kidnapping.
Police officers today matched
wooden pieces from it, in their evil
dence, against a board that had
been removed from the attic floor
of Bruno Hauptmann's home in the
Bronx-and declared the pieces
fitted perfectly"
Thus, the last piece Of the jig-saw
puzzle the state is trying 10 put
together as a portrait Of the man it
accuses of numbering Charles A.
Lindbergh Jr., was set in place.
Expert Is rOss-Examined
Wien the noon recess was ordered,
Arthur Koehler, the governments
expert on woods, was on the stand,
being cross examined as to his
qualifications as an expert, by Fred
erick A. Pope Of the defense counsel.
Mr.. Pope fought to keep Mr..
Koehler's evidence from the jury, on
the grounds that "there is no such
animal known to mankind as an
expert on woods"
Mr.. Koehler's hobby and vocation
is probing the secrets that lie at
the heart of trees. Forty-nine years
old, a native of Manitowoc, Wis, a
graduate of Lawrence College and
the University of Wisconsin and
Michigan, the technologist has been
employed by the forestry service for
20 years.
He has testified in numerous
criminal trials, although none was
so widely noticed as this one
Months of Work Involved
Baf1ed by the lack of clews to the
identity Of the Lindbergh kidnaper,
the New Jersey State Police turned
the ladder over to Mr.. Koehler as q
last resort. 1t had revealed no fin
gerprints. 1t was built Of yellow
pine, perhaps the commonest,
cheapest wood in the country. 1t
was a needle in a thousand hay
stacks.
Mr.. Koehler took the ladder to a
laboratory in Washington. He
sawed a notch in a rung and saved
the sawdust that dropped on
sheet. The process was repeated
with an upright. The little chips of
wood were handled as carefully as
diamond dust. 1t was weighed, its
specific gravity measured and final
ly it was bathed in different acids,
stained with various dyes and then
burned so the ash could be studied.
Outside the laboratory walls the
case had almost been for
gotten. Within its clustered pre-
cincts the bushy-browed Mr.. Koch
Ter kept on with his research. Few
men in the world know as much
about wood as he does.
Analyses Type of Wood
He studied the ladder, took it
apart piece by piece and reckoned
its tensile strength, its density.
X-rays and enlarging cameras were
utilized. So, too, were machines
hat have no names, many of them
perfected by the chief wood tech
1ologist himself in the forestry lab
1ratory at Madison, Wis.
He learned finally that certain
planning mill had
trimmed the lumber, finishing the
surfaces with grain peculiarly its
own, unique among the one-incll
by four-inch boards planed
the United States. Mr..
Koehler circularized some 10000
mills to learn where such a planer
had been used. 1t was firing work
md during the year and half he
an down many false leads.
There were trips to the pine and
spruce forests of oregon, journeys
% the lumber mills of the Great
Lakes region and finally, on the
slopes Of the Appalachians in South
Carolina, Mr.. Koehler TO md
mill with G high
speed cutter.
Reaches Goal in Year
The character of the surfacing
lone by this plane served the wood
expert as well as whorls and loops
serve the flngerprint expert. True,
he lumber mill Of State Senator
J. J. Dorm Of South Carolina shipped
Tellow pine to many lumber yards,
put Mr. Koehler was on the way.
Mr.. Koehler's travels took him
rom the Atlantic to the Pacific I'M
il the day when he walked into the
Tards of the National Millwork &c
Lumber Co., in the Bronx.
1t was more than a year after Mr..
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