Such
markings are distinctive for each rifle and can be made by no
other. I have taken rifles bearing numbers preceding and following
that of a particular one, as well as a large number of other
firing pins. I have tried the rifles and the firing pins, one by
one, and after I made microphotographs of the firing pins with
special reference to the rounded ends and also photographs of the
corresponding rounded depressions in the primers fired by them, it
was forced upon me that cartridges fired by each individual firing
pin could be positively identified."
I had been studying the photographs. It was a new idea, and it
appealed to me strongly. "How about revolvers?" I asked quickly.
"Well, Dr. Balthazard, the French criminologist, has made
experiments on the identification of revolver bullets and has a
system that might be compared to that of Bertillon for identifying
human beings. He has showed by greatly enlarged photographs that
every gun barrel leaves marks on a bullet and that the marks are
always the same for the same barrel but never identical for two
different barrels.
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