Holding a thirty-two-calibre pistol in his right hand and aiming
it at the target, Kennedy picked up a large piece of coarse
homespun from the table and held it loosely over the muzzle of
the gun. Then he fired. The bullet tore through the cloth, sped
through the air, and buried itself in the target. With a knife he
pried it out.
"I doubt if even the inspector himself could have told us that
when an ordinary leaden bullet is shot through a woven fabric the
weave of that fabric is in the majority of cases impressed on the
bullet, sometimes clearly, sometimes faintly."
Here Kennedy took up a piece of fine batiste and fired another
bullet through it.
"Every leaden bullet, as I have said, which has struck such a
fabric bears an impression of the threads which is recognisable
even when the bullet has penetrated deeply into the body. It is
only obliterated partially or entirely when the bullet has been
flattened by striking a bone or other hard object. Even then, as
in this case, if only a part of the bullet is flattened the
remainder may still show the marks of the fabric. A heavy warp,
say of cotton velvet or, as I have here, homespun, will be
imprinted well on the bullet, but even a fine batiste, containing
one hundred threads to the inch, will show marks.
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