TELL-TALE BULLET

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 29, 3 August 1933, Page 13

TELL-TALE BULLET

A CLUE TO ITS GUN

POLICE AND GUNMAN

Just us the criminal's finger or thumb leaves a print which identifies its owner, so also docs his gun. leave, on the bullet it discharges, its own characteristic marking. In other words, as tho fingerprint identifies the man, the bullet identifies the barrel of the gun from which it is fired. The tell-talu bullet is to bo a new weapon in tho detective's armoury. »So it is written—on police advice—in tho "Sydney Morning Herald." ]i a high-power rifle bullet pierced two or threo bodies and flattened itself on a grnuito rock, would there still bG ail identification mark? "But that is an exceptional case." What the New South Wales police intend to do is to call in all firearms. "Before they are reissued to their owners several shots will bo fired from them into a trough of water. The bullet will not bo damaged, arid photographs of tho markings on it will bo taken. It is hoped that eventually thoro will be a record of every firearm for which a permit has been, issued in the State. "Tho marks on the photographs will enable the bullets to be indexed under types. When a bullet fired by a criminal is recovered, the police- \vill be' able to ascertain tho owner .of the firearm. Detectives will thus l>a saved weeks of .useless, work. ■ . ..'..". , 9 ':. ■ . "Tho problem of tracing thieves Who have stolen firoarms will not be overcome, but tho speedy discovery of whore the firearms wore taken from and tho circumstances in which they were stolen will materially aid th 6 police in their investigations." The New South Wales police have decided to take action because of the increasing tendency for criminals to carry firearms and to use them. Every effort will be made- to prevent'revolvers and pistols falling into the hands1' of criminals, and existing holders of licences will have to prove their need of weapons. The aid of scientists has been enlisted, and delicate apparatus will be used to photograph bullets and record every scratch or small marking on their surfaces. , . Experts in ballistics have established that bullets fired from oiie weapon can bo. distinguished with certainty from those fired by any other firearm by microscopic marks on the surface of the bullet. Tho surface of even, polished metals, under a powerful microscope become a mass Of small pits and elovatiohs. ■ - Ai remarkable instrument has been added to the apparatus at Inspector Chasoling's branch at detective headquarters. It is an. arrangcnient of two microscopes,, which enables the examination of two bullets simultaneously on tho same microscopic field. Small chucks allow tho operator to turn the bullets to any angle. When tho bul' lets have 'been arranged and brought into focus, a .camera fitted above the microscopes allots a fermaiient record of them to'bc made. It would seem that the..registration of spare barrels and old barrels will now become vital.