WEBVTT - TechStuff Looks at Ballistics 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:02.880 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.200 --> 0:00:08.960 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With 0:00:09.039 --> 0:00:17.640 tech stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello everyone, 0:00:17.680 --> 0:00:20.640 and welcome to text stuff. My name is Chris Polette 0:00:20.720 --> 0:00:23.560 and I'm an editor at how stuff works dot com. 0:00:23.760 --> 0:00:26.360 Sitting across from me as usuals who wants to start 0:00:26.440 --> 0:00:29.720 off this podcast with a bang is senior writer Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:29.840 --> 0:00:33.520 Samuel Spade's jaw was long and bony, his chin jutting 0:00:33.600 --> 0:00:37.920 v under the more flexible V of his mouth. Very nice, 0:00:38.040 --> 0:00:42.000 Thank you. You know we did a podcast on nuclear 0:00:42.040 --> 0:00:44.880 weapons recently, Yes, we did, um, and right in the 0:00:44.920 --> 0:00:48.000 middle of it, for reasons that I can't even fathom, 0:00:48.080 --> 0:00:50.640 I started thinking about other kinds of weapons, and I thought, 0:00:50.640 --> 0:00:53.000 you know what, it would be kind of interesting to 0:00:53.120 --> 0:00:57.880 do a podcast on ballistics, which is basically the science 0:00:58.000 --> 0:01:04.160 of figuring out moving stuff and projectiles. Yeah, yeah, I 0:01:04.160 --> 0:01:08.200 I was. I agree, that was a cool idea. Yeah, 0:01:08.200 --> 0:01:11.640 it's a science of deals with motion of projectiles. But 0:01:11.720 --> 0:01:14.479 of course it's been used. Sorry, I didn't mean an interrupt. 0:01:14.880 --> 0:01:17.000 I was gonna say that, you know, ballistics, it also 0:01:17.120 --> 0:01:21.520 is kind of shorthand for a specific branch of forensics, 0:01:22.160 --> 0:01:25.200 which is really what we're focusing on today. Yes, because 0:01:26.360 --> 0:01:28.360 when you get down to it, the actual study of 0:01:28.360 --> 0:01:32.680 ballistics is in large part a matter of physics. Yes. Yes, 0:01:32.720 --> 0:01:35.560 there's a lot of science involved in this. We know 0:01:35.640 --> 0:01:40.640 how we much we hate science, dad gum it um. 0:01:40.720 --> 0:01:46.959 Unfortunately for the scientists, but fortunately for crime mystery writers. 0:01:47.880 --> 0:01:53.080 Bullets do not always behave themselves in terms of physics, Like, 0:01:53.440 --> 0:01:56.080 they generally go where they're supposed to go, but they 0:01:56.080 --> 0:01:59.960 don't always follow the normal path when they get there. Yeah, 0:02:00.080 --> 0:02:03.880 let's just say that it's all due to little, tiny 0:02:04.120 --> 0:02:08.400 individual differences on a very small scale. Because we don't 0:02:08.400 --> 0:02:11.760 mean to say that bullets somehow defy the laws of physics. No, 0:02:12.080 --> 0:02:14.320 but they don't always. They don't always travel like a 0:02:14.360 --> 0:02:17.959 predictable path. Right. You might think, oh, well, if so 0:02:18.040 --> 0:02:21.160 and so was standing here and shot such and such 0:02:21.280 --> 0:02:24.520 over there, then the bullets should be right here. That's 0:02:24.560 --> 0:02:28.440 that's not always the case. Even even saying the cartridge 0:02:28.480 --> 0:02:32.200 for the the case for the cartridge should be right here, 0:02:32.280 --> 0:02:35.200 that's not always the case either. So to really understand this, 0:02:35.240 --> 0:02:36.560 first of all, we need to talk a little bit 0:02:36.600 --> 0:02:41.800 about how the forensics part of ballistics all came about 0:02:41.800 --> 0:02:45.720 in the first place. Yes, and and really ballistics people 0:02:45.720 --> 0:02:51.639 have been trying to get the science behind uh forensics 0:02:51.720 --> 0:02:55.600 ballistics down for quite some time, but it hasn't really 0:02:55.639 --> 0:02:58.760 been that long that we really got it down pat. 0:02:58.800 --> 0:03:02.480 I mean in the nineteenth century, Uh, there were people 0:03:02.480 --> 0:03:04.200 who were trying to figure out how to do this, 0:03:04.240 --> 0:03:06.200 but they were the methods they were using were not 0:03:06.320 --> 0:03:10.000 at all scientific, right, And to understand how you would 0:03:10.040 --> 0:03:14.840 be able to use ballistics to try and identify a 0:03:14.919 --> 0:03:17.799 weapon that fired a particular projectile, you have to understand 0:03:17.840 --> 0:03:21.280 a little bit more about what goes on with these projectiles. 0:03:21.800 --> 0:03:32.000 So sometime around oh, the late fifteen century, the people 0:03:32.000 --> 0:03:35.600 who were creating firearms at that time discovered something which 0:03:35.680 --> 0:03:39.640 was that if you were to have a barrel of 0:03:39.720 --> 0:03:45.040 a weapon have some grooves in it to help direct 0:03:45.200 --> 0:03:48.720 the projectile to spin as it comes out of the barrel, 0:03:49.560 --> 0:03:53.520 you improve the stability of that projectile's flight path. Yeah. 0:03:53.560 --> 0:03:56.920 Previously they were what you call smooth bore, which was 0:03:56.960 --> 0:04:00.320 basically a a smooth tube. The inside of it was smooth, 0:04:00.440 --> 0:04:03.080 so you would, uh, you know, say, take your musket 0:04:03.520 --> 0:04:07.880 and fire, uh, fire a shot from it. Um. Actually, 0:04:08.080 --> 0:04:10.200 you know this is this is I was getting ready 0:04:10.240 --> 0:04:11.840 to dismiss this in my head, but I think we 0:04:11.880 --> 0:04:14.480 should mention this. Um. You know those early muskets where 0:04:14.520 --> 0:04:17.920 you would you know, uh, you'd have to get everything ready. 0:04:17.920 --> 0:04:19.599 You'd have to put the wadding and the and the 0:04:19.640 --> 0:04:21.960 powder in and then the musket ball and tamp it 0:04:22.000 --> 0:04:24.240 all down with the rod before you could fire the weapon. 0:04:24.680 --> 0:04:27.159 You know, whether it's matchlock or flint lock, which we 0:04:27.200 --> 0:04:30.960 talked about in another podcast. Um, but you have a 0:04:31.440 --> 0:04:35.839 basically a roundsh ball made of lead which is fired 0:04:36.520 --> 0:04:41.000 using um, the explosive gunpowder and the the gases propelled 0:04:41.000 --> 0:04:43.600 the ball out of the tube and you know they go, well, 0:04:43.760 --> 0:04:46.560 they go where they go generally go in the direction 0:04:46.600 --> 0:04:51.560 that the barrel was pointing. Yes, more specific than that, Yeah, 0:04:51.600 --> 0:04:54.839 it h They weren't nearly as accurate as a rifled barrel, 0:04:54.839 --> 0:04:57.360 which is what which is what Jonathan was just talking about, 0:04:57.400 --> 0:05:01.640 where the there are grooves inside the barrel and they 0:05:01.680 --> 0:05:05.760 are UM and they travel in a spiral pattern. I 0:05:05.839 --> 0:05:08.760 remember correctly, didn't we talk about something in the rim 0:05:08.839 --> 0:05:12.400 when they started grooving the barrel? But they weren't They 0:05:12.440 --> 0:05:15.720 weren't in a spiral pattern. They were straight m may 0:05:15.760 --> 0:05:19.080 have been I can't remember, I'm sorry, But eventually they 0:05:19.120 --> 0:05:23.120 did hit onto the fact that a helical groove spiral 0:05:23.200 --> 0:05:28.839 groove would uh where where that would create enough spend 0:05:28.880 --> 0:05:31.320 so that the projectile would become much more stable. Of like, 0:05:31.800 --> 0:05:35.039 this is the same sort of idea you get when 0:05:35.080 --> 0:05:38.560 you have a football player throwing a football American football. 0:05:38.839 --> 0:05:42.919 American football player, um your hands. You know when you 0:05:42.960 --> 0:05:45.119 hear about like when you hear about like a tight 0:05:45.240 --> 0:05:48.719 spiral that helps that projectile in this case the American 0:05:48.760 --> 0:05:54.080 football maintain a precise flight path. Well, while that was 0:05:54.200 --> 0:05:59.360 very useful in making firearms more accurate, it was not 0:05:59.800 --> 0:06:02.359 the out of as a way of identifying a firearm 0:06:02.400 --> 0:06:05.760 based upon a projectile that had been fired for several centuries. 0:06:05.760 --> 0:06:09.960 It wasn't until the eighteen hundreds and uh actually I 0:06:10.000 --> 0:06:14.240 have the earliest this. This is all from a website 0:06:14.240 --> 0:06:17.719 called Firearms I d and it was created by a 0:06:17.720 --> 0:06:23.400 guy named Scott Doyle who did some amazing research on ballistics, 0:06:23.440 --> 0:06:25.719 the history of it, and all of the elements that 0:06:25.800 --> 0:06:30.080 go into identifying firearms. If you are interested in the subject, 0:06:30.080 --> 0:06:32.760 I recommend you check out firearms, I d because it 0:06:32.880 --> 0:06:36.320 is truly exhaustive. I'm only going to give a small 0:06:36.400 --> 0:06:41.360 fraction of what he made available. So the earliest of it, 0:06:41.520 --> 0:06:46.320 he found the earliest documented case of identifying a firearm 0:06:46.880 --> 0:06:50.440 UH in a criminal case happened in eighteen thirty five 0:06:50.560 --> 0:06:55.440 in London. And what had happened was a homeowner was 0:06:55.960 --> 0:07:00.960 killed by by a gun and a servant was suspected 0:07:01.040 --> 0:07:05.960 of being the perpetrator. And UH, a fellow named Henry 0:07:06.000 --> 0:07:10.520 Goddard UM who was with the London Police or with 0:07:10.600 --> 0:07:14.320 a branch of the London Police, was assigned the case. 0:07:14.920 --> 0:07:20.960 And he examined the the the projectile that killed this 0:07:21.160 --> 0:07:24.360 shop owner and determined that it was made by a 0:07:24.400 --> 0:07:29.280 particular mold um by UH, which meant that it came 0:07:29.280 --> 0:07:33.680 from a specific company. And then he looked at the 0:07:33.720 --> 0:07:38.360 paper patch that was used in the the the firing 0:07:38.400 --> 0:07:40.600 as well. Now, this paper what it did was it 0:07:40.680 --> 0:07:46.040 created a seal between the powder and the projectile so 0:07:46.080 --> 0:07:49.040 that when the powdering knights and the gases expand, the 0:07:49.040 --> 0:07:51.280 projectile would have a good seal on it, so it 0:07:51.280 --> 0:07:54.000 would it would fly out properly. And you saw that 0:07:54.040 --> 0:07:58.720 this paper patch had been made from some newspaper that 0:07:58.840 --> 0:08:01.080 had been in the room. He actually found the page 0:08:01.160 --> 0:08:04.440 where the newspaper had been torn to make that patch, 0:08:04.840 --> 0:08:07.880 and so they were able to determine that it was, 0:08:07.920 --> 0:08:11.160 in fact the servant who appeared to have fired on 0:08:11.240 --> 0:08:14.360 this shop owner. And so that was the first case. 0:08:14.720 --> 0:08:16.960 Now in that case, it wasn't an idea, you know, 0:08:17.040 --> 0:08:23.040 specifically checking the bullet for the spiral marks that would indicate, um, 0:08:23.120 --> 0:08:25.280 what gone fired it, because that's that's something else we 0:08:25.280 --> 0:08:28.480 should mention, these rifling marks. Uh. In fact, that's why 0:08:28.480 --> 0:08:30.800 we call it a rifle. There's these rifling marks that 0:08:30.840 --> 0:08:34.800 are on the bullet itself. That's that's caused. As a 0:08:34.840 --> 0:08:40.800 bullet travels down this this grooved barrel, it cards little 0:08:40.840 --> 0:08:45.760 scratches into the bullet. And so these scratches are unique 0:08:46.040 --> 0:08:49.840 to a particular weapon. Even even two weapons of the 0:08:49.880 --> 0:08:54.480 same make and model will produce different scratches, at least 0:08:54.600 --> 0:08:57.319 on a on a tiny let. You know, beyond a 0:08:57.360 --> 0:08:59.560 superfluous glance, you'll be able to see that there are 0:08:59.720 --> 0:09:03.920 different prances, and so it's almost like a fingerprint. If 0:09:03.960 --> 0:09:07.600 you are able to see, you know, tell that two 0:09:07.679 --> 0:09:11.880 different bullets are close enough and identity that these these 0:09:11.920 --> 0:09:16.680 markings are really really you know, to all intentsive purposes, identical. 0:09:17.040 --> 0:09:18.880 You can say that they were both fired by the 0:09:18.920 --> 0:09:20.920 same weapon. So if you happen to have that weapon 0:09:20.920 --> 0:09:23.640 in your possession and you've done a bunch of test 0:09:23.679 --> 0:09:25.839 firings and all the bullets are coming out the same 0:09:25.880 --> 0:09:27.679 way and they matched the bullet that was used in 0:09:27.720 --> 0:09:30.720 a crime, you can feel pretty confident saying that that, 0:09:30.840 --> 0:09:35.680 in fact was the weapon that was used in that crime. Um. 0:09:35.720 --> 0:09:38.960 So yeah, I mean there, um, there are many cases 0:09:39.240 --> 0:09:42.280 in which you know, this has been this has been used. 0:09:42.320 --> 0:09:44.480 I mean one of the first I read, and I 0:09:44.520 --> 0:09:49.880 read an excellent article by Katherine Ramsland um in uh 0:09:50.000 --> 0:09:53.000 in which he was talking about do you remember learning 0:09:53.000 --> 0:09:56.640 about Sacco and Vanzetti in your American history class? This 0:09:56.840 --> 0:10:02.840 very controversial, absolutely absolutely. Um. This was a case in which, uh, um, 0:10:03.000 --> 0:10:06.760 the payroll was being delivered to a shoe factory and 0:10:07.000 --> 0:10:12.200 a a couple of guys came up and shot the guards, 0:10:12.720 --> 0:10:15.079 and um, you know, they basically made off with the money, 0:10:16.240 --> 0:10:18.920 and uh so they started looking for information. This, by 0:10:18.920 --> 0:10:23.960 the way, was April fifty, um, and this is when 0:10:24.679 --> 0:10:28.400 they started looking. Uh. This really was the incident that 0:10:28.800 --> 0:10:33.320 made modern ballistics a science, I think, UM, just from 0:10:33.400 --> 0:10:37.319 from the way they handled it. So UM, the investigators 0:10:37.360 --> 0:10:41.280 behind this UH collected all the evidence they could, including 0:10:41.320 --> 0:10:44.920 the spent shell casings. UM. They went back to looking 0:10:44.960 --> 0:10:48.360 at the manufacturers of of weapons. UM. There were about 0:10:48.440 --> 0:10:51.400 six at the time that they looked at, and UH 0:10:51.600 --> 0:10:54.559 they turned out to be Remington, Winchester, and Peters UM 0:10:54.640 --> 0:10:59.160 that that could use these these casings UM. And what 0:10:59.320 --> 0:11:03.840 they what they ended up doing was they started, uh, 0:11:03.920 --> 0:11:07.440 you know, looking around at you know, what they could 0:11:07.440 --> 0:11:11.080 get from this information. And as it turns out, one 0:11:11.080 --> 0:11:13.959 of the incriminating factors was the fact that for one 0:11:14.000 --> 0:11:16.680 of the weapons that they had, the only bullets that 0:11:16.720 --> 0:11:21.240 they could find, uh that would fit that weapon were 0:11:21.280 --> 0:11:26.840 in Saco's pocket. UM, which is pretty incriminating evidence, but 0:11:26.840 --> 0:11:30.920 it's not exactly that's circumstantial, you know. UM. So what 0:11:30.960 --> 0:11:32.640 they did was they talked to somebody who had worked 0:11:32.720 --> 0:11:35.839 with UH sort of preliminary ballistics technology. His name was 0:11:35.880 --> 0:11:41.400 Albert H. Hamilton's and UH he actually had been um 0:11:41.440 --> 0:11:46.840 working with UH with other cases and UH he wasn't 0:11:46.880 --> 0:11:52.080 completely scientific um in his methods, but he he actually 0:11:52.520 --> 0:11:54.800 got stuck in the middle of the case. And during 0:11:55.120 --> 0:11:58.880 this uh the Sacco and Vanzettie case, UM came in 0:11:59.000 --> 0:12:03.240 with new weapons that were UH similar to the ones 0:12:03.280 --> 0:12:06.160 that they had and basically disassembled them in front of 0:12:06.160 --> 0:12:09.840 the judge who noticed that he was swapping parts with 0:12:09.920 --> 0:12:12.520 the other gun and went, no, you can't do that, 0:12:13.160 --> 0:12:15.080 and they threw it out. But they did give the 0:12:15.120 --> 0:12:19.840 information to Calvin Goddard, someone who is quite famous in 0:12:19.880 --> 0:12:23.679 ballistics forensics. Yeah, he's he's I would argue that he's 0:12:23.720 --> 0:12:26.680 probably considered by many people to be the father of 0:12:27.160 --> 0:12:30.640 this technology. He worked with a guy named Charles Waite 0:12:30.760 --> 0:12:34.040 at in New York with the Bureau of Forensic Ballistics, 0:12:34.760 --> 0:12:38.240 and he was using microscopes and a helixometer, which is 0:12:38.520 --> 0:12:40.960 a probe that you could use to look at gun 0:12:40.960 --> 0:12:44.160 barrels UM. I imagine that was used in the manufacturing 0:12:44.160 --> 0:12:47.319 of these weapons. UM. But what he did was he 0:12:47.760 --> 0:12:51.599 fired these the weapons used or or in Sacco and 0:12:51.679 --> 0:12:57.360 Vanzetti's possession, UM into a wad of cotton and compared 0:12:57.840 --> 0:13:01.600 the casing and the bullet to the ones recovered in 0:13:01.679 --> 0:13:09.040 the investigation. And they were similar enough UM to incriminate 0:13:09.120 --> 0:13:12.920 both of them. Now um, Vanzetti, I mean, they put 0:13:12.960 --> 0:13:15.960 both of them to death, but Vanzetti said he was innocent, 0:13:16.200 --> 0:13:21.760 and uh apparently Zacho's uh last words were long live anarchy, 0:13:21.840 --> 0:13:25.640 which doesn't exactly uh he he doesn't exactly say, well, 0:13:25.679 --> 0:13:29.200 you know, I didn't do any of that, but yeah, 0:13:29.240 --> 0:13:32.120 and and in later years too, they've still they continue 0:13:32.160 --> 0:13:35.800 to examine that and uh, right now, although it's still 0:13:35.800 --> 0:13:40.440 controversial whether or not these guys were railroaded or whether 0:13:40.520 --> 0:13:44.280 or not they actually did commit the crime. Um, uh, 0:13:44.320 --> 0:13:49.480 they still say that. Uh, the weapons still support Goddard's 0:13:49.480 --> 0:13:53.040 findings even years later. So the technology we're using now 0:13:54.360 --> 0:13:58.079 suggest that those weapons were the ones used them. That 0:13:58.280 --> 0:14:02.000 Bureau of Forensic Ballistics was formed in in April nineteen 0:14:02.000 --> 0:14:04.880 twenty five in New York City, and the whole purpose 0:14:04.960 --> 0:14:08.160 behind it was that by nine you remember, back in 0:14:08.200 --> 0:14:10.640 eighteen thirty five, was the first time we see someone 0:14:10.679 --> 0:14:15.040 trying to identify a firearm, uh, after a crime has happened. 0:14:15.520 --> 0:14:18.880 The firearm itself was the one that was used. By 0:14:18.960 --> 0:14:23.480 ninety five, there had been a lot of pioneers who 0:14:23.520 --> 0:14:27.520 worked on this idea of identifying firearms based upon the 0:14:27.520 --> 0:14:32.560 projectiles they fired, and uh, The problem was that the 0:14:32.560 --> 0:14:36.760 the resources were scattered, right. I mean you had you 0:14:36.800 --> 0:14:39.880 had some communities that might have an expert that resides 0:14:39.920 --> 0:14:42.080 within that community, but then you know, you might have 0:14:42.160 --> 0:14:46.360 hundreds of miles of area where there is no expert, 0:14:46.400 --> 0:14:49.120 there's no one to call upon. And so the Bureau 0:14:49.240 --> 0:14:52.720 was formed as a resource for law enforcement agencies across 0:14:52.760 --> 0:14:56.000 the United States. There were other countries that were doing 0:14:56.040 --> 0:14:59.040 similar things. Actually, a lot of this early research where 0:14:59.320 --> 0:15:02.320 the idea was, hey, look, they're these markings on this bullet. 0:15:02.640 --> 0:15:05.520 They're consistent with every bullet that's fired from this particular gun, 0:15:05.600 --> 0:15:07.440 and they're different from all the ones that are fired 0:15:07.480 --> 0:15:10.200 from that gun. That kind of work was being done 0:15:10.200 --> 0:15:11.480 all over the world. In fact, there were a lot 0:15:11.520 --> 0:15:15.080 of people in France who wrote a lot of instrumental 0:15:15.120 --> 0:15:20.040 early papers on identifying firearms based upon their projectiles or Yeah. 0:15:20.080 --> 0:15:23.920 And then two, the FBI, the Federal Bureau of Investigation 0:15:23.960 --> 0:15:27.040 here in the United States was directed by a their 0:15:27.160 --> 0:15:32.440 jaunty head of staff, Jagger Hoover. I think that's the 0:15:32.480 --> 0:15:33.960 first time I've ever heard is I think that's what 0:15:34.240 --> 0:15:38.920 Jay stands for, right, John T. Edgar Hoover. Um, No, 0:15:39.520 --> 0:15:42.040 not at all, uh, he know, it was more like, 0:15:42.160 --> 0:15:45.600 really you said that, really it was a question mark, 0:15:45.880 --> 0:15:49.760 like the sarcastic kind. It wasn't actually an interrobang, gotcha. 0:15:50.320 --> 0:15:54.080 So he directed that the FBI should create a lab 0:15:54.400 --> 0:15:58.040 for ballistics forensics as well, and so this was becoming 0:15:58.080 --> 0:16:00.720 really serious business. And then we're there were a lot 0:16:00.760 --> 0:16:04.120 of early cases between you know, the late eighteen hundreds 0:16:04.120 --> 0:16:07.960 and and nineteen twenty that established that this was a 0:16:08.040 --> 0:16:11.760 legitimate means of investigation. So let's talk a little bit 0:16:11.760 --> 0:16:14.720 more about what you actually do when you're trying to 0:16:14.800 --> 0:16:17.720 identify whether or not a particular bullet was fired from 0:16:17.720 --> 0:16:20.800 a particular gun. First of all, it helps if we 0:16:21.040 --> 0:16:24.440 if we talk about bullets and cartridges because we and 0:16:24.480 --> 0:16:27.120 we've done this in another podcast, but it always helps 0:16:27.120 --> 0:16:29.280 because a lot of I think people who are generally 0:16:29.360 --> 0:16:33.320 unfamiliar with guns don't know the anatomy of a gun. Yep. 0:16:33.440 --> 0:16:35.200 And that's part of why I wanted to mention that 0:16:35.240 --> 0:16:40.040 about the muskets Um because you know, after a while 0:16:40.160 --> 0:16:42.760 they realized that the system that we're about to talk about, 0:16:42.840 --> 0:16:46.320 it makes the weapons much more reliable using those things 0:16:46.520 --> 0:16:49.520 and faster to operate because rather than having to put 0:16:49.520 --> 0:16:51.720 the powder in the in the wadding and all that 0:16:51.760 --> 0:16:54.840 stuff in there, and and prepare the weapon to be fired. 0:16:55.080 --> 0:16:57.720 I mean, I saw I can't even remember what show 0:16:57.760 --> 0:16:59.120 it was. I saw a thing on TV where they 0:16:59.160 --> 0:17:01.880 had somebody firing and must get as fast as they could, 0:17:02.000 --> 0:17:06.880 just to see how quickly a trained um musketeer could 0:17:06.880 --> 0:17:09.560 fire a weapon. It's about three times per minute. Three 0:17:09.560 --> 0:17:12.960 times per minute is considered an excellent time. Yeah, I know, 0:17:13.040 --> 0:17:17.360 I've seen I've seen artillery cruise that we're using, uh 0:17:17.600 --> 0:17:22.080 period cannon's um Actually it wasn't a cannon, but anyway, 0:17:22.119 --> 0:17:25.320 it was. It was an artillery gun, period artillery gun. 0:17:25.359 --> 0:17:27.560 And they talked about how even with a well trained 0:17:28.600 --> 0:17:32.320 group of troops who were familiar with the weapon, three 0:17:32.359 --> 0:17:35.520 times a minute was considered to be the peak performance. 0:17:36.080 --> 0:17:40.359 So one of the biggest innovations was the idea of 0:17:40.560 --> 0:17:43.600 why don't we take the system of gunpowder and wadding 0:17:43.720 --> 0:17:45.640 and shot and all that, and why don't we try 0:17:45.640 --> 0:17:48.080 and figure out a way of packaging it all into 0:17:48.200 --> 0:17:52.199 one thing that you load into a gun once and 0:17:52.240 --> 0:17:54.520 then you fire. So instead of having to load in 0:17:54.560 --> 0:17:57.560 all these separate pieces and pack them together and hope 0:17:57.560 --> 0:18:00.199 that it fires correctly. It's all packaged together there, and 0:18:00.200 --> 0:18:03.280 that's the idea behind the cartridge. In fact, the earliest 0:18:03.320 --> 0:18:08.159 cartridges were these little paper cartridges that had everything packed together, 0:18:08.400 --> 0:18:10.679 and uh, they were used in the Civil War mainly. 0:18:10.760 --> 0:18:13.280 But then actually that was sort of the step between 0:18:13.280 --> 0:18:14.960 where you put the cartridge in and then and then 0:18:15.000 --> 0:18:18.320 the musket ball right right the shot. Yeah, the cartridge 0:18:18.320 --> 0:18:21.160 contained essentially all the stuff that you would have put 0:18:21.160 --> 0:18:26.240 in previously besides the shot itself. Well, the modern day 0:18:26.280 --> 0:18:31.400 cartridges have the the fuel that's going to push the 0:18:31.400 --> 0:18:34.320 the bullet forward and the bullet itself all packed together. 0:18:34.600 --> 0:18:37.479 So you've got a case that's typically made out of 0:18:37.520 --> 0:18:42.080 something like brass or maybe steel, depends on the particular manufacturer, 0:18:42.119 --> 0:18:45.119 and the ammunition involved pretty typically brass, and then you 0:18:45.240 --> 0:18:47.440 have a bullet at the end. The bullet is the 0:18:47.480 --> 0:18:50.240 actual projectile that will fire out of the gun. The 0:18:50.400 --> 0:18:55.440 case remains behind. Now, the case also contains it contains powder, 0:18:55.560 --> 0:18:59.399 primer and a primer mix and uh, and that's the 0:18:59.440 --> 0:19:02.640 stuff that when a firing pin from the weapon hits 0:19:02.680 --> 0:19:05.400 the primer, that ignites the primer, which then in turn 0:19:05.480 --> 0:19:10.119 ignites the powder which creates this massive amount of gas. 0:19:10.160 --> 0:19:13.679 Massive in a relative term, I should say um amount 0:19:13.720 --> 0:19:17.280 of gas within the case. That's what pushes that that 0:19:18.160 --> 0:19:22.199 bullet out of the weapon. So the case remains behind. 0:19:22.240 --> 0:19:26.200 The case is actually altered by this because the gases 0:19:26.280 --> 0:19:30.040 are pretty hot. Then they pushed pretty hard, so the 0:19:30.080 --> 0:19:32.199 case itself will change a little bit. Then you have 0:19:32.280 --> 0:19:35.000 to extract the case from the weapon and put a 0:19:35.040 --> 0:19:37.679 new cartridge in its place in the chamber of the 0:19:37.680 --> 0:19:40.200 weapon in order to fire it again. And of course 0:19:40.240 --> 0:19:43.680 we've also talked about machine guns. So if you're talking 0:19:43.720 --> 0:19:47.240 about an automatic weapon, you put in you have a magazine, 0:19:47.560 --> 0:19:53.320 some feeding mechanism, feeding mechanism that will automatically pop the 0:19:53.400 --> 0:19:56.000 next it will pop the spent cartridge out of the 0:19:56.000 --> 0:19:59.280 weapon and uh load the next cartridge in and ready 0:19:59.320 --> 0:20:02.560 to be fired. And it happens very very quickly. So 0:20:02.720 --> 0:20:06.000 but it operates on the same same principle. So here's 0:20:06.000 --> 0:20:08.480 the interesting thing, a couple of interesting things. First of all, 0:20:08.520 --> 0:20:11.359 we talked about the rifling with the grooves within the 0:20:11.400 --> 0:20:15.480 barrel which are going to cut into the bullet, making 0:20:15.600 --> 0:20:18.200 a fingerprint on that bullet, so that if you were 0:20:18.280 --> 0:20:21.119 to find two bullets fired by the same gun, and 0:20:21.160 --> 0:20:23.119 you were to compare them side by side, you should 0:20:23.119 --> 0:20:27.280 be able to see the same markings on both because 0:20:27.720 --> 0:20:30.320 it's it's going to carve it out the same way. Well, 0:20:30.440 --> 0:20:35.040 the same sort of thing goes plays for the cartridge 0:20:35.160 --> 0:20:38.040 or like the case, rather for the cartridge. Um, the case, 0:20:38.240 --> 0:20:40.520 the spent cartridge is going to have some markings on 0:20:40.560 --> 0:20:43.840 it as well. Um, some of it maybe scratches just 0:20:43.920 --> 0:20:47.040 from you know, the way that it sits in the chamber, 0:20:47.480 --> 0:20:50.160 or if the there if there's an extractor, if there's 0:20:50.200 --> 0:20:53.680 an actual mechanical element in there that kicks that spent 0:20:53.800 --> 0:20:58.600 cartridge out, that can leave a mark on the case 0:20:58.640 --> 0:21:01.159 as well. So that way, if you don't maybe you 0:21:01.160 --> 0:21:02.760 don't even have the bullets, maybe you just have the 0:21:02.800 --> 0:21:06.800 spit cases, you can compare those and see. So I 0:21:07.000 --> 0:21:11.600 Step one of identifying the weapon is identifying what caliber 0:21:11.680 --> 0:21:14.119 of bullet was used and you know what kind of 0:21:14.119 --> 0:21:17.280 cartridge was used, because that will limit the type of 0:21:17.320 --> 0:21:21.440 weapons that could have fired that particular ammo, right, because 0:21:21.440 --> 0:21:24.600 not every gun fires every immunition. Because anyone who has 0:21:24.640 --> 0:21:27.840 ever worked with guns nose they're very specific kinds of 0:21:27.880 --> 0:21:30.840 ammo that work with particular guns and you cannot you 0:21:30.880 --> 0:21:35.439 cannot interchange them. Nope, nope. UM. And uh you know 0:21:35.640 --> 0:21:38.439 each each weapon Now, each manufacturer when they make when 0:21:38.480 --> 0:21:43.560 they put the grooves in there and the the section between. UM. 0:21:43.800 --> 0:21:47.120 Basically the ridges around the grooves are called lands. UM. 0:21:47.160 --> 0:21:53.480 Those metal ridges basically are what helped the bullet reach 0:21:53.560 --> 0:21:58.560 its destination by providing it the spin and accuracy. UM. 0:21:58.600 --> 0:22:02.040 But they also are are uh common to manufacturers. So 0:22:02.680 --> 0:22:07.000 one weapons manufacturer might put six grooves in the barrel, 0:22:07.600 --> 0:22:10.840 one might use four. UM. So one of the things 0:22:10.920 --> 0:22:13.960 these marks left and they are unique to every weapon. UM. 0:22:14.000 --> 0:22:18.200 These marks are going to help the forensics investigator if 0:22:18.240 --> 0:22:20.480 if if they can find the bullets, they're going to 0:22:20.520 --> 0:22:24.399 be able to identify which manufacturer made the gun. That 0:22:24.440 --> 0:22:27.119 will help track it down. And then from there they 0:22:27.119 --> 0:22:29.359 can look at other things that will help them at 0:22:29.400 --> 0:22:32.720 least narrow down. He said, well, this couldn't have been uh, 0:22:32.760 --> 0:22:34.480 this couldn't have been the gun that fired because it's 0:22:34.480 --> 0:22:36.560 not even the same manufacturer. It's not the right people. 0:22:36.600 --> 0:22:38.879 So we can rule this out. From there, they can 0:22:38.920 --> 0:22:42.040 look at specific guns because multiple manufacturers can make the 0:22:42.119 --> 0:22:45.959 same type of gun. Yes, so yeah, so narrowing it 0:22:46.000 --> 0:22:47.960 down to your First you look at the caliber of 0:22:48.000 --> 0:22:51.920 the bullet, uh and the case so that you can 0:22:51.960 --> 0:22:54.200 determine what kind of m O was used. That narrows 0:22:54.240 --> 0:22:57.439 it down to a range of weapons that might be 0:22:57.480 --> 0:23:00.439 able to fire that looking at the actual pattern on 0:23:00.480 --> 0:23:03.159 the bullet itself and uh, well we'll give you at 0:23:03.200 --> 0:23:07.840 least an idea of the specific type of weapon used 0:23:07.880 --> 0:23:12.400 and the manufacturer. And then again comparing that bullet with 0:23:12.600 --> 0:23:15.719 one like a test bullet fired from a weapon will 0:23:15.800 --> 0:23:19.159 let you know if it's fired from the same weapon. 0:23:19.480 --> 0:23:22.320 So you're you keep narrowing it down. This is very scientific. 0:23:22.359 --> 0:23:24.080 I mean you're talking about going from the general to 0:23:24.119 --> 0:23:27.800 the very specific, and so you're just eliminating all the 0:23:27.880 --> 0:23:30.919 other options until what you're left with is the only, 0:23:31.480 --> 0:23:36.800 hopefully the only uh possible answer. And um, there are 0:23:36.840 --> 0:23:40.440 a lot of different ways that that these the cartridges 0:23:40.520 --> 0:23:44.720 can have marks on. Besides the ejection UM mark, there 0:23:44.720 --> 0:23:48.400 could be firing pen marks, so you can see how 0:23:48.480 --> 0:23:52.439 the firing pin struck the bottom of the cartridge. That 0:23:52.520 --> 0:23:54.480 will tell you a lot about the type of weapon. 0:23:54.520 --> 0:23:57.800 Like there's certain weapons that have a very distinct firing 0:23:57.840 --> 0:24:01.120 pen mark, So like a square one a good indicator 0:24:01.200 --> 0:24:04.679 that that was a glock that fired the weapon. And 0:24:04.720 --> 0:24:07.000 there are certain marks that are you're going to find 0:24:07.040 --> 0:24:11.160 that are common to particular types of weapons, So forensics 0:24:11.200 --> 0:24:16.160 experts will use that when they're actually examining UM bullets. 0:24:16.320 --> 0:24:18.520 So let's let's say there's a there's a crime case. 0:24:18.600 --> 0:24:21.720