Ballistic chemical residue

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  • Ballistic chemical residue

    Anyone know when ballistic chemical residue trace came into use? To put the question in context:

    NOVELLO
    Get this, ace. Nowadays they can
    tell if someone fired a gun. The
    chemical residue covers the shooter's
    hand. Can you believe it? Invisible
    to the eye, but boy does it show up
    in the crime lab.

    Just looking for a rough guestimate, 1930s, 1940s? I did a search and bounced around a thousand crime lab sites, getting nowhere fast. <dizzy> Although I now know how to commit the perfect murder. Boy am I gonna have fun today!

    -Derek
    My Web Page - naked women, bestial sex, and whopping big lies.
    Take the critiques you get with a grain of salt. Invariably, some of the critics will be kooks, bitter curmudgeons, or complete fools. ~odocoileus

  • #2
    Re: Ballistic chemical residue

    I bought a few books not too long back that I haven't had a chance to even look at yet. They are on forensics, crime scene anlaysis yada yada I'll see what I can find...
    I wanna tell you about the time I almost died....

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Ballistic chemical residue

      The first such test was the "paraffin test" also known
      as the "Dermal Nitrate" or "diphenylamine test."

      It was introduced in the United States in 1933 by Teodoro
      Gonzalez of the criminal identification laboratory, Mexico
      City police headquarters. In this test, the hands were
      coated with a layer of paraffin. After cooling, the casts
      were removed and treated with an acid solution of
      diphenylamine, a reagentused to detect nitrates and nitrites
      that originate from gunpowder and maybe deposited on the skin
      after firing a weapon. A positive test was indicated by the
      presence of blue flecks in the paraffin.

      This test is considered unreliable.

      The paraffin test was replaced with the much more accurate
      metal assay.

      A SEM (Scanning electron microscope) is also used for
      analyzing GSR.
      I wanna tell you about the time I almost died....

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Ballistic chemical residue

        A timeline of foresic science is here: http://www.forensicdna.com/Timeline020702.pdf

        Interestingly, there was a study reported in New Scientist recently about how unrealiable testing for gun residue can be.

        They tested the back seats of US police cars and found gun residue in a significant number of them.

        So if you are in the back seat of a police car, with your hands cuffed behind you, you may very well end up with gun residue on your hands even though you never fired a gun.


        Mac
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        • #5
          Re: Ballistic chemical residue

          Most useful, thanks to you both for taking time to look this up for me. Basically what it tells me is, the sample dialogue is being dropped from the script. But I'll hold onto that other info, velly interesting, might come in handy one day.

          -Derek
          My Web Page - naked women, bestial sex, and whopping big lies.
          Take the critiques you get with a grain of salt. Invariably, some of the critics will be kooks, bitter curmudgeons, or complete fools. ~odocoileus

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Ballistic chemical residue

            Cool character name though. 'Novello'

            I'd hang on to that one.
            sigpic

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Ballistic chemical residue

              That's Sergeant Tony Novello of the Detective Bureau to you, kid. <slap, slap> So ya think you're a tough guy, huh? <slap> That's right, cry to your momma.

              -Derek
              My Web Page - naked women, bestial sex, and whopping big lies.
              Take the critiques you get with a grain of salt. Invariably, some of the critics will be kooks, bitter curmudgeons, or complete fools. ~odocoileus

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Ballistic chemical residue

                Sit down, Jackie Cooper.
                sigpic

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Ballistic chemical residue

                  Basically what it tells me is, the sample dialogue is being dropped from the script.
                  Back then the technology would have been ground breaking and it wouldn't have been proved unreliable yet. So, I would have thought it would work nicely in your script.

                  However I would cut it down to:

                  NOVELLO
                  Get this, ace. Nowadays they can
                  tell if someone fired a gun. The
                  chemical residue covers the shooter's
                  hand. Can you believe it?

                  and leave it there...the rest is overkill.
                  I wanna tell you about the time I almost died....

                  Comment

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