DUST, THE DETECTIVE.

Cromwell Argus, Volume LXIII, Issue 3250, 13 February 1933, Page 7

DUST, THE DETECTIVE.

Crimes Sheeted Home. Three men were recently arrested by the French police on a charge of counterfeiting. The authorities had no positive proof, but the men’s clothes were put into a vacuum cleaner, and the dust extracted was examined by scientific means. It was shown to contain pyro-antimoniate of sodium, tin, salt and lead, which are all substances used in coining. Science won the victory and the men were convicted.

Some time ago Ehrenburg, the German scientist, was called in by the police, to help them in a puzzling matter. A case sent from another country had been opened in transit, some valuables extracted, then the case had been repacked, fastened down and sent on to its destination. The only clue to the criminals was that the unpacking must have been done at one of the Custom-houses through which the case had passed.

Ehrenburg examined the case, found some grains of sand, put them under his powerful lenses, and, behold, there lay a peculiar specimen of a microscopic shell which is found in only one place in the world—that being on the borders of Prussia. The rest was easy.

An alien detained for theft from a house in Sussex was believed to have hidden his loot, but flatly refused to say where. A detective suggested that a clue might be had from his boots. The soles were examined, and it was found that there were two layers of mud with one of sand between them. The man, it was concluded, had trodden first in mud, then sand, then mud again. Obviously he had been on the banks of a stream and, sure enough, the spoil was found in a hollow tree at the edge of a shallow brook.