Forty Centuries of Ink: Or, A chronological narrative concerning ink and its backgrounds, introducing incidental observations and deductions, parallels of time and color phenomena, bibliography, chemistry, poetical effusions, citations, anecdotes and curiosa together with some evidence respecting the evanescent character of most inks of to-day and an epitome of chemico-legal ink.Carvalho, David Nunes
History
Forty Centuries of Ink: Or, A chronological narrative concerning ink and its backgrounds, introducing incidental observations and deductions, parallels of time and color phenomena, bibliography, chemistry, poetical effusions, citations, anecdotes and curiosa together with some evidence respecting the evanescent character of most inks of to-day and an epitome of chemico-legal ink.
Carvalho, David Nunes
Ink
"You will remember that Mr. Carvalho, the
expert in handwriting, was placed upon the stand;
and he has testified in your presence as to his
qualifications in determining disputed handwritings,
and what his experience has been during a long
series of years. He tells you that he has examined
this record, and that there is no question but some
of the words have been erased and others substituted
in their places. He tells you that the words
'Jay Goulds' were not the original words in the
certificate, or if they were, the present 'Jay
Goulds,' as they appear in the certificate, have
been forged; that the words 'Mary S. Brown,'
the 'sex mois,' the French words for six months,
and other changes which he has described to you
are forgeries.
"I shall submit to you, as a question of fact,
whether or not Mrs. Cody had any knowledge or
took any part, or authorized or connived at any of
the changes made in this certificate. I do not
say that she did; I leave it to you to say, from
the evidence in this case, whether your minds are
convinced that she had any part or parcel, or
undertook in any way to accomplish the changes
which have been made in this baptismal record.
And if you find as matter of fact that she had
such knowledge at the time this letter was written;
if you find as matter of fact she had this information
given to her by Mrs. Angel, then I leave it
to you to say whether she had such knowledge,
such guilty knowledge, as should prevent her, if acting
honestly, from writing a letter such as has been
described here and contained in the indictment."
The jury brought in a verdict of guilty.
In the trial of the People v. David L. Kellam (1895),
who was charged with altering the dates of three
notes for $6,000 each, the contention of the prosecution
was that the dates of the notes had been changed
by chemicals, and with the consent of the defense a
reagent was applied to the suspected places and the
original dates restored. The verdict of the jury was
guilty.
In the Holt Will case, tried in Washington, D. C.,
in the month of June, 1896, great stress was laid on
the fact of the difference in the admixture of inks
found on letters contemporaneous with the date of
the will, and it was asserted also that the ink with
which the will was written was not in existence at
the time it was alleged to have been made, June 14,
1873, and probably not earlier than ten years later.
Furthermore, that it was a habit of Judge Holt up to
the time of his death, which habit was illustrated in
his writings and correspondence to "sand" his writing.
The jury decided the will was a forgery.
Another famous case in which the scientific testimony
about ink and pencil writing must have assisted
the court in arriving at a conclusion was in the trial
of the famous Tighe will contest, tried before Hon.
Frank T. Fitzgerald, one of the present surrogates of
the county of New York. The story of this case is
incorporated in the opinion which is cited in part:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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