The Fluorescence Test: Ultra-Violet Light in Scientific Criminal Investigation
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X3000300208 |
| Date | 01 April 1930 |
| Author | C. T. Symons |
| Published date | 01 April 1930 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Test:
Ultra.Violet
In Scientific Criminal
Investigation
By C.
T.
SYMONS, B.A.(Oxon.), F
.r.c.
Government Analyst, Colombo, Ceylon
The
Fluorescence
Light
IT is essential that the officer who has charge of a case
should know what possible assistance he may get from
science in his investigation.
·It
is equally essential that the
person who has the scientific work to do should make use of
the latest developments of science if he is to work up the
scientific side of the circumstantial evidence and thus give his
assistance in the most efficient manner.
Hence it appeared advisable to the writer to give his
experience of the great assistance he has derived
from'
Wood's
light'
in his work in Ceylon. As will be seen later, by its means
much laborious work previously necessary has been avoided
and much has been accomplished which would otherwise have
been impossible.
So much has been written about ultra-violet rays and their
use in medicine as '
bottled'
sunshine that there does not
appear to be any necessity for giving any very detailed de-
scription of them. Every one probably knows that such rays
are emitted by mercury vapour, and that lamps for this purpose
are actuated by passing an electric current through a closed
quartz bulb containing metallic mercury, thereby causing the
metal to vaporize and glow and emit rays, and that they are
called ultra-violet because their wave-lengths place them be-
yond the visible violet end of the spectrum. Ultra-violet or
U.V. rays so produced are, however, always accompanied by
visible light which masks the fluorescence, and a special filter
(' Wood's filter ') must be interposed to give dark ultra-violet
235
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