FAKED LETTERS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17572, 24 June 1925, Page 6

FAKED LETTERS.

SCIENCE AND THE FORGER. DETECTING SECRET INKS. The scientific investigations carried out bv Mr ('. Ainsworth Mitchell of. cerning documents and letters relating to the trial of Mary Queen of Scots shows to some extent how the modern criminologist works in tracking down forgeries. To-day it is almost an impossibility for any forger to carry on operations for any length ol time without escaping detection. Mr Mitchell first came into prornin- \ cnee at the time of the trial of Wood, a man who was arrested in connection with a murder at Camden 1 own, a North London suburb. At that trial he gave evidence that the writing on a charred piece of paper found in the fireplace and a letter discovered in a drawer in the room where the body was found was made by a pencil similar to the pencil found on the accused man. In spite of this evidence. Woods was found to be not guilty of the crime. The admission of this evidence at the trial created a sensation at the time. Since then Mr Mitchell has given evidence on many important cases, and has written a text book on inks, papers and forgeries which is recognised as*a standard work. CRIMINOLOGISTS WEAPON. A knowledge of the various inks in use at different periods, the progress in the art of paper making, and the examination of handwriting under powerful microscopes aid the modern criminologist in his work in discovering forgeries. Apart from tamerping with cheques, the forger of .to-day finds most of his work in faking old autographed letters of famous people. It is quite probable that many of the autographed letters in private collections are simply clever fakes. Often the forget gives .1 foundation of age to his work by writing on a blank page torn from some old book. Where this is unobtainable tea or coffee applied to paper will give it the rich brown appearance of age, but often a modern watermark discloses the fraud to the expert. However cleverly the writing in the text of the letter may be done, a careful examination of it under a microscope and comparison with a genuine letter will always disclose the forger}-. Some vears ago a letter stated to have been written by Lord Nelson and which fetched a large sum when sold by- auction. was found on examination to be a fake. The field for this sort of work is limited in Australia, but it is carried - on extensively in Europe and America, where wealthy collectors are always seeking for these letters to add to their collections. INVISIBLE WRITING During the war period experts in inks were busy at the Censorship Bureau examining letters for code messages, and many curious things were discovered in simple letters leaving England for neutral countries Simple-looking missives written in red ink were found to have had some of the letters in various words written over with another kind of red ink so that .when the letter was submitted to certain chemical action, the body of the writing vanished, leaving the secret message. It was such a secret letter which gave away the existence of a certain

organisation in Australia during the war period. A modern “Jim the Penman" would need to possess a good knowledge of the science of inks and paper if he wished to pit his skill against the chemist. and even with that knowledge, the odds arc on the side of the law.