Newspapers / Zebulon Record (Zebulon, N.C.) / Dec. 3, 1937, edition 1 / Page 9
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Detective u4ofe Evidence % -Wood PIC fllf /\ By Mary Brandel Hopkins IT is as questioning the oracle at Delphi to ask Arthur Koehler to identify a sample of wood. -The authoritativeness of the answer is taken for granted Although separated in time by many centuries, the famed oracle of Greek mythology and the present master mind of Uncle Sam’s wood identification service have in common the singulai faculty of revealing certain informa tion hidden from the world at large In nearly a quarter-century of serv ice in the United States government’s war on criminals and unfair trade prac tices, a keen nose and the microscope have been Mr Koehler’s chief weapons In that period, from his office in the United States Forest Products labora tory at Madison. Wis., Mr Koehler has solved more than 50,000 puzzling prob lems for the government by positively identifying samples of wood Last vear alone, he made 1988 identifications So widely varied have been the de mands on him and so accurate is his judgment of woods that today he is acknowledged as the man who knows more about the identity of the ap proximately 900 American species than anyone else. Moreover, he can differ entiate between several hundred for eign species' which are imported into the United States. So sensitive has his sense of smell become that he is able to name manv species «implv by theii odor Yet it took the Lindbergh kidnaping case to bring him fame. Instrumental in sending Bruno Richard Hauptmann to the electric chair, his well-remem bered kidnap ladder testimony made his name a household word the country over But of the man and mind be hind the name of Arthur Koehler com paratively little else ever has been told It is unlikely that 1 in 10 who hun grily read of his spectacular courtroom revelations in New Jersey knows thal it is he who safeguards the public against unscrupulous manufacturers by settling for the Federal Trade Commis sion all questions of furniture woods being as represented. By his ability to search out blazed witness trees” and to determine when The wife of a Wisconsin highway commissioner was killed by an ex plosion as she opened a Christmas package. Metal contained in the home-made bomb which the box concealed was traced to the work shop of a suspect. But further evi dence was needed and Mr. Koehler was called in the ax marks were made long after they have been completely overgrown by new wood formation, he ends many a boundary dispute between belligerent landowners. He can locate and date fields of battl* by determining how long ago a bullet that now is lodged deep in a tree trunk was fired He can tell in what season of what past year a tree bowed to a hurricane, storm, or cave-in It is possible for him to date pre historic ruins from trees which still live or grew into the ruins. / ’ASES involving thousands of dollars and sometimes life itself, may hinge upon Mr Koehler’s reports But he is blessed with the faculty of translating his opinions from the scientific means by which he arrives at them into terms which laymen. iuries. and manufactur ers understand and accept To shadow him in his expansive laboratories in the Forest Products laboratory building, or to see his record of the galaxy of cases in which he has figured, is to marvel at his knowledge. To this master tree detective, trees living or dead or reduced to a few shavings sawdust, or fine wood flour are like open books from which he reads with seeming uncanmness the record of events which is secreted with in them. Let him study under a microscope a little of the wood flour used in linoleum, dynamite or as fillet in phonograph records and telephone parts, and he will name the tree from which it came. With so capable a man on the side of justice, makers of home-made bombs in several criminal cases have been made to pay for their crimes. W v - Vi, I pF jmt m. \ yi£ •M W JSfim KpKi.i ill Ha Koehler’s nose knows wood. Here he is identifying piece of ship decking. bv its odor, as white pine. Not many years ago the wile oi a Wisconsin highway commissioner was killed by an explosion as she cut the twine which bound a parcel dressed up as a Christmas box and addressed to her husband Metal contained in the home made bomb which the package had con cealed was traced by ballistics experts to the workshop of a suspect But further evidence was necessary for con viction Mr Koehler was called in. and his investigation afforded absolute prool that shavings used in the bomb’s con struction came from the same man’s workshop, where more of the shavings were found The additional evidence was substantial enough proof of guilt to clear up a murder which might otherwise have gone down as another unsolved crime. Just recently a police chief in <* neighboring state sent to Mr Koehlei a pocket-knife and a section of an elec tric wire conduit from the burglat alarm of a department store. The con duit itself was of wood, painted green with a copper wire run through it “Was this wood cut with this knife’” the chief asked. Telltale marks, which might have in dicated that it was, were missing But the microscope revealed that the knife edge was tinged with copper color, and small green particles of the paint ad hered to the blade. Here was proof beyond doubt pi^lj Koehler’s investigation afforded abso lute proof that shavings used in the bomb came from the same suspect’s workshop, where more of the shavings were found Though time’s healing obliterates out ward evidence of a tree's having been marked as a “witness” to a boundary line, it never destroys internal traces so completely that Mr Koehler’s eve cannot detect them “Witness" trees are customarily blazed with an ax and described in survey notes as being so many feet in a certain direction from the corner stake. If they still stand many years later, alive or dead or bad ly ■" v'nchler can cut into them, find the ax marks and definitely prove the trees the “witnesses.” IJECENTLY rightful title to 30 acres ' of improved land claimed by two parties was established by his proof of a “witness tree” as hickory and not oak. In submitting another dispute to him for settlement, one claimant made a point of the fact that a line of trees blazed in 1921 formed the boundary Bv counting the number of annual growth rings subsequently formed by the wooo which gradually encloses the scar from either side, he proved conclusively thai the blazing of the trees claimed by one party as the line had been done in 1928 and not in 1921, and that the trees, therefore, were not the origin-!' boundary. Since repeal of prohibition, enough oak staves to make many barrels havt been sent to him by manufacturers who want to know if the staves are white oak or the inferior, more porous, red oak. The accuracy of the Koehler nose in wood identification is remarkable. In general, the microscope is his most trusted instrument of identification, re vealing as it does certain, though mi nute, differences in structure. But in northern white cedar and western red cedar there are no visible distinguish ing traits. But Mr. Koehler’s nose knows.
Zebulon Record (Zebulon, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Dec. 3, 1937, edition 1
9
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