Ballistics :: essays research papers

In 1784, someone using a flintlock pistol accident Edward Culshaw. In those days, there were no bullets, as we know them. Gunpowder and a ball of lead were put into the guns choke and jam-packed with paper wadding. A spark made when the guns hammer struck some flint at the back end of the barrel ignited the powder. When the constable examined Culshaws wound, he found a authorship of newspaper use as wadding to pack the powder in the killers gun. The prime wary in the killing was a man named John Toms. When a piece of newspaper found in Toms pocket was comp bed with the piece found in the wound, the pieces fit together alike two pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Based on the evidence, Toms was easily convicted. The Toms possibility was probably the first in America in which ballistics was used to solve a crime. Much like in Toms case, most investigations undertake with a crime having been committed. Forensic ballistics and firearm investigation depress when there are bullets, cart ridges, a heavy weapon, or any combination of the to a higher place found at a crime scene. With the evidence, a crime lab can search for clues on these items that could lead to a suspect or possibly prove that the items were used in the crime. By comparing the markings on bullets or cartridges found at the scene with those fired from a suspects weapon, a ballistics expert can often square off if the rounds came from the same weapon. Just the act of cycling a cartridge by dint of a weapon without firing it can leave permanent scratches in the case that are unique to the weapon.When a suspects weapon is examined in the lab, it will be test fired into a box seat filled with cotton or a tank of water to domiciliate the examiner with the bullets and cartridges with a known history. Using a microscope, the known cartridges are compared with the ones in question. With some patience, skill, and a little luck, experts can definitively say that a certain firearm and no other fired thi s bullet, or ejected this cartridge.The lever of luck cannot be overstated. A bullet may leave the muzzle of a weapon at over a thousand feet per hour and slam into a concrete wall. This may deform the round beyond all recognition. Just about anything can and does happen to flying projectiles.