Disputed Handwriting

Disputed Handwriting

The Project Gutenberg eBook, Disputed Handwriting, by Jerome B.
Lavay
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Title: Disputed Handwriting
Author: Jerome B. Lavay
Release Date: November 10, 2004 [eBook #14003]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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HANDWRITING***
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DISPUTED HANDWRITING
An Exhaustive, Valuable, and Comprehensive Work upon One of the
Most Important Subjects of To-day. With Illustrations and Expositions
for the Detection and Study of Forgery by Handwriting of All Kinds
by
JEROME B. LAVAY
The first work of the kind ever published in the United States. For the
Protection of America's Banks and Business Houses.
1909

"Handwriting is a gesture of the mind"

TO THE AMERICAN BANKERS' ASSOCIATION
THAT POWERFUL AGENCY WHICH HAS ELEVATED THE
STANDARD OF BANKING IN THE UNITED STATES AND AN
INSTITUTION THAT FOLLOWS ALL WRONGDOERS AGAINST
MEMBERS OF THE FRATERNITY RELENTLESSLY AND
SUCCESSFULLY THIS WORK IS MOST RESPECTFULLY
DEDICATED

CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
HOW TO STUDY FORGED AND DISPUTED SIGNATURES
All Titles Depend Upon the Genuineness of Signatures--Comparing

Genuine with Disputed Signatures--A Word about Fac-simile
Signatures--Process of Evolving a Signature--Evidence of Experience
in Handling or Mishandling a Pen--Signature Most Difficult to
Read--Simulation of Signature by Expert Penman--Hard to Imitate an
Untrained Hand--A Well-Known Banker Presents Some Valuable
Points--Perfectly Imitated Writings and Signatures--Bunglingly
Executed Forgeries--The Application of Chemical Tests--Rules of
Courts on Disputed Signatures--Forgers Giving Appearance of Age to
Paper and Ink--Proving the Falsity of Testimony--Determining the
Genuineness or Falsity by Anatomy or Skeleton--Making a Magnified
Copy of a Signature--Effectiveness of the Photograph
Process--Deception the Eye Will Not Detect--When Pen Strokes Cross
Each Other--Experimenting With Crossed Lines--Signatures Written
With Different Inks--Deciding Order of Sequence in Writing--An
Important and Interesting Subject for Bankers--Determining the
Genuineness of a Written Document--Ingenuity of Rogues Constantly
Takes New Forms--A Systematic Analysis Will Detect Disputed
Signatures
CHAPTER II
FORGERY BY TRACING
Forgeries Perpetrated by the Aid of Tracing a Common and Dangerous
Method--Using Transparent Tracing Paper--How the Movements are
Directed--Formal, Broken and Nervous Lines--Retouched Lines and
Shades--Tracing Usually Presents a Close Resemblance to the
Genuine--Traced Forgeries Not Exact Duplicates of Their
Originals--The Danger of an Exact Duplication--Forgers Usually
Unable to Exactly Reproduce Tracing--Using Pencil or Carbon-Guided
Lines--Retouching Revealed under the Microscope--Tracing with Pen
and Ink Over a Transparency--Making a Practice and Study of
Signatures--Forgeries and Tracings Made by Skillful Imitators Most
Difficult of Detection--Free-Hand Forgery and Tracing--A Few
Important Matters to Observe in Detecting Forgery by
Tracing--Photographs a Great Aid in Detecting Tracing--How to
Compare Imitated and Traced Writing--Furrows Traced by Pen

Nibs--Tracing Made by an Untrained Hand--Tracing with Pen and Ink
Over a Transparency--Internal Evidence of Forgery by
Tracing--Forgeries Made by Skillful Imitators--How to Determine
Evidences of Forgery by Tracing--Remains of Tracings--Examining
Paper in Transmitted Light--Freely Written Tracings--A Dangerous
Method of Forgery
CHAPTER III
HOW FORGERS REPRODUCE SIGNATURES
Characteristics Appearing in Forged Signatures--Conclusions Reached
by Careful Examinations--Signatures Written with Little Effort to
Imitate--What a Clever Forger Can Do--Most Common Forgeries of
Signatures--Reproducing a Signature over a Plate of Glass--A Window
Frame Scheme for Reproducing Signatures--How the Paper is Held and
the Ink Applied--How a Genuine Signature is Placed and Used--A
Forger's Process of Tracing a Signature--How to Detect Earmarks of
Fraud in a Reproduced Signature--Prominent Features of Signatures
Reproduced--Method Resorted to by Novices in Forging
Signatures--Conditions Appearing in All Traced
Signatures--Reproduction of Signatures Adopted by Expert
Forgers--Making a Lead-Pencil Copy of a Signature--Erasing Pencil
Signatures Always Discoverable by the Aid of a
Microscope--Appearances and Conditions in Traced Signatures--How
to Tell a Traced Signature--All the Details Employed to Reproduce a
Signature Given--Features in Which Forgers are Careless--Handling of
the Pen Often Leads to Detection--A Noted Characteristic of
Reproduced Signatures--Want of Proportion in Writing Names Should
Be Studied--Rules to Be Followed in Examining Signatures--System
Employed by Experts in Studying Proof of Reproduced
Signatures--Bankers and Business Men Should Avoid Careless
Signatures
CHAPTER IV
ERASURES, ALTERATIONS AND ADDITIONS

What Erasure Means--The English Law--What a Fraudulent Alteration
Means--Altered or Erased Parts Considered--Memoranda of Alterations
Should Always Accompany Paper Changed--How Added Words
Should be Treated--How to Erase Words and Lines Without Creating
Suspicion--Writing Over an Erasure--How to Determine Whether or
Not Erasures or Alterations Have Been Made--Additions and
Interlineations--What to Apply to the Suspected Document--The
Alcohol Test Absolute--How to Tell which of Crossing Ink Lines Were
Made First--Ink and Pencil Alterations and Erasures--Treating Paper to
Determine Erasures, Alterations and Additions--Appearance of Paper
Treated as