NO TWO ALIKE.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 June 1916, Page 7

NO TWO ALIKE.

PECULIARITIES OF TYPEWRITERS. WHAT THE EXPERT SEES. In one of Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories it is explained that a typewriter is a very human machine, aiid with just as many caligraphic peculiarities as the ordinary person. Thus was the historic but mythical sleuth able to prove what particular machine had been used for typing certain letters. A typewriter, with certain alleged peculiarities, figured largely in the case heard at the Magistrate's Court tlie other day, when a young man was charged with I the illegal use of an instrument, the ] roceedings being the sequel to a young woman's recent death at the Wanganui Hospital (says the local Chronicle), Considerable time was occupied in the examination of a witness —a typewriter mechanic and expert—in,order to ascertain if several specimens of typewritten matter were produced on the one machino. The witness said that they were, and was prepared to give 40 examples. Comparing five SDecimen sheets he, said that in all cases a capital "A" disclosed a low alignment, an "c" had a slight bend at the top, the bottom arm of an "m" was faint, a "c" had a high alignment, a "w" had a slight slant, a capital "B"had a break at the bottom of it, an "i" was dotted peculiarly. The fact that typewriters have a waywardness of their own was remarked on by the witness, and the magistrate expressed surprise when the witness said a machine varied from day to day. This led the witness to give away what may be a trade secret. "A new ribbon will cover a multitude of sins," he said. He then added: "Two machines never type alike. When a series of errors occur you can be sure that the ■vork is from the same machine."