 We were both glad and saddened when
we received the following article in the mail back in February. We were delighted to
get a humorously anecdotal article from a well-known British fan writer, but the note
attached read: "I'm sure you have heard by now that Arthur (ATom) Thomson died on 8th
February 1990, and he was cremated at Streatham, London on 15th February. Quite a
few fans attended, including Rob Hansen, Avedon Carol, Chuch Harris, Vince Clarke,
Ethel Lindsay, my wife and myself." John included two pieces of original ATom fanart,
drawn especially for the following scientific treatise... 
The use of Molybdenum Disulphide (MD)
is a new innovation used by forensic scientists to reveal fingerprints on wet surfaces.
MD reacts on the fatty substances in deposited sweat. Prior to its discovery as a
means of revealing latent finger marks, wet cars which had been used in crime had to
be removed to a police garage and permitted to thoroughly dry before fingerprint
examination. With MD, the vehicle (or any other wet surface) can be examined at the
scene of the crime, even in a thunderstorm, if expediency is required. (A crime
examiner of my acquaintance was the first person in the world to examine a vehicle for
latent fingerprints which had been dumped in a water-filled quarry. He did his
examination in situ, and I intend to interview him when he is removed from Intensive
Care.)In August 1983 I was involved in the
investigation of a robbery where fur coats had been stolen. The plastic bags in which
the furs were kept in the store had been dumped in a river by the villains. This
necessitated the use of MD on a large scale. Therefore, I prepared a large volume of
the thickish black liquid, retained in a stainless steel dish measuring one yard
square and six inches high. MD lapped the top edge of the container. My colleague
Martin, attired in a virgin-white overall and wearing protective rubber gloves, passed
the plastic bags to me one at a time, and I carefully emersed them in the liquid. I
returned the dripping bags to Martin, and he clipped them in a horizontal row in a
drying cabinet. It was a matter of pride to Martin that he did not despoil his
starched overall with the black sludge, and in fact, when our chore was concluded, he
smiled smugly as he surveyed his nice clean overall, laundered by his wife that very
morning."John," he smiled, "would you kindly
pour the MD in the sink, as I don't want to get my overall splashed."Personally, I do not wear an overall
when performing forensic examinations, as I regard it as slackness in performance. If
the examination is careful, protective over-clothing should be superfluous.So I took a deep breath, gritted my
teeth, grabbed each side of the stainless steel container with thumbs emersed, and
lifted it. I moved a yard to my left and gently tilted the receptacle so that the MD
would dribble from the spout and disappear down the sink outlet.Suddenly, I was confronted by a
phenomenon previously unreported in any scientific journal. Despite my powerful grip,
the spout end of the receptacle started to rise and a wave of black liquid surged
towards me. I shot a quick glance at Martin, and his visage will remain in my mind
until my dying day. It wasn't just the tongue protruding from dry lips...it was his
eyes that worried me...huge pupils...throbbing red veins shooting across the whites
of his eyes...the look of a shocked and frightened man.It is well known that I have superb
initiative...quick as a flash, I lowered my left hand and raised my right hand, and
the black wave, just about to engulf me, suddenly swerved to the left and returned to
the spout end. I confidently expected the MD to sweep over the spout and into the
sink, but even with all my considerable strength applied I could not stop the spout
end from rising upwards again, and at rather an alarming speed. Once more a concerted
lift to the right and the ugly rearing wave checked itself and swung viciously towards
the other end.I looked again at Martin, to see if he
could add his strength to mine but he had his fingers in his mouth and his remaining
hairs were splayed out like rays of the sun.Once more towards the spout end, dear
fan. But now I was a mere puny restraint in the grip of a powerful new physical
force:"Me = M. seemed scared."In those fleeting seconds I made the
obvious decision... I wasn't wearing protective clothing, but Martin was. I must also
state quite frankly that his reflexes appeared somewhat lethargic for a young man.
Irresistibly the receptacle took over
my body. It refused to dip to the left... the huge menacing thunderous wave reached
out for me and parted my hair as I screamed, ducked, and deftly removed my black hands
from the live receptacle.Martin uttered only two words. Indeed,
if it was in his mind to express himself more volubly, he did not have sufficient time
to formulate the required expletives.All he had time to say was..."J...o...h...n......., n...o...o...o"The only redeeming feature of Martin
catching the full impact of the murky tidal wave was that he was standing in front of
a glass-fronted cabinet containing assorted chemicals, including some extremely
noxious items, and Martin taking the full charge precluded the possibility of damage
to the cabinet and contents. Martin sort of stiffened, and then gradually subsided to
the floor, rather like Sammy Davis, jr. making an obsequious gesture of
resignation.I am currently working on another paper
recommending certain physical restraints to prevent fastidious laboratory technicians
from suddenly becoming homicidal maniacs. All illustrations by ATom |
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