Questioned: Document Examination

SOLIS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY-COLLEGE OF CRIMINOLOGY
Questioned
Document
Examination
LESSON NINE: WRITING MATERIALS

WRITING MATERIALS
A. ANACHRONISM – It refers to something wrong in time and in place. This means that the forger has trouble matching the paper, ink, or writing
materials to the exact date it was supposed to have been written.
B. PAPER – These are sheets of interlaced fibers - usually cellulose fibers from plants, but sometimes from cloth rags or other fibrous materials,
that is formed by pulping the fibers and causing to felt, or mat, to form a solid surface.
C. WATERMARK - Certain papers are marked with a translucent design, a watermarks impressed in them during the course of their manufacture.
D. WRITING MATERIALS – Any material used primarily for writing or recording such as papers, cardboard, board papers, Morocco paper, etc.
WRITING MATERIALS IN QUESTIONED DOCUMENTS - The common (probable) questioned on paper is its age, whether the actual age of the
paper corresponds with the alleged date of preparation of the questioned document.
HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT
A. PAPYRUS - This came into use about 3,500 B.C. - people of Egypt. Palestine, Syria, and Southern Europe used the pith (soft spongy tissue
of the stem) of the sedge (grass-like herb) CYPERUS PAPYRUS to make a writing material known as PAPYRUS.
B. PARCHMENT - writing material made from skin of animals primarily of sheep, calves or goats - was probably developed in the Middle
East more or less contemporaneously with papyrus. It came into wide use only in the 2nd century B.C. in the city of PERGAMUM in ANATOLIA.
C. VELLUM - writing materials from fine skins from young calves or kids and the term (name) was often used for all kind of parchment manuscripts,
it became the most important writing material for bookmaking, while parchment continued for special manuscripts. Almost every portable surface
that would retain the marks of brush or pen was also used as a writing material during the early period.
D. DEVELOPMENT OF PAPER MANUFACTURING

1. It is widely claimed that invention of paper is generally attributed to a Chinese court official, CAI LUN (TSAI LUN), in about A.D. 105. He is
the first to succeed in making paper from vegetable fibers, tree barks (mulberry tree), rags, old fish nettings.
2. The art of papermaking was kept secret for 500 years; the Japanese acquired it in the 7th century A.D.
3. In A.D. 751, the Arab city of Samarkand was attacked by marauding Chinese and some Chinese taken as prisoners were skilled in
papermaking and were forced by the city Governor to build and operate a paper mill and Samarkand soon became the papermaking
center of the Arab world.
4. Knowledge of papermaking traveled westward, spreading throughout the Middle East, the Moorish invasion of Spain led to the invention
(A.D. 1150) or erection of the first European paper mill, at JATIVA, province of VALENCIA.
5. Knowledge of the technology spread quickly and by 16th century, paper was manufactured throughout most of Europe.
6. The first paper mill in England was established in 1495.
7. The first such mill in America in 1690.
8. The first practical machine was made in 1798 by the French inventor Nicholas Louis Robert. The machine reduced the cost of paper it
supplants the hand-molding process in paper manufacture.
9. Robert's machine was improved by the British stationers and brothers Henry Fourdrinier and Sealy Fourdrinier, who in 1803 produced
the first of the machines that bear their name.
10. The solution of the problem of making paper from cheap raw material was achieved by the introduction of the groundwood process of pulp
making about 1840 and the first of the chemical pulp processes approximately ten years later.
11. CHLORINE - This was introduced in the 19th century for bleaching and colored linen could already be manufactured for paper.
12. ESPARTO – This is a grass grown in Libya, also in Spain and North Africa was first introduced in England in 1861.
13. STRAW – This was used to make paper in 1800.
14. SULPHITE – This is a paper from wood was not attempted until 1869 and paper called SULPHITE (modern type) was first used between
1880 and 1890.
15. OLDEST MANUSCRIPT - Letters dated A.D. 874 have been found in Egypt and the oldest manuscript in England on cotton paper dated AD
1890.
TRACING THE AGE OF PAPER (DOCUMENT)

The age of the document may be estimated from paper. Four cases were reported by Lucas where the age of the document was established
from the compositor/composition of the paper. In one of these cases, a document dated 1213 A.H. (A.D. 1798) was found to be written on
paper composed entirely of chemically prepared wood cellulose. Considering that this type of paper was not introduced not until about 60 years later,
the document is obviously a fake one.
WATERMARKS
It is a term for a figure or design incorporated into paper during its manufacture and appearing lighter than the rest of the sheet when viewed
in transmitted light. The earliest way of identifying the date of manufacture of the paper is by the WATERMARK - a brand put on the paper by the
manufacturers.
How watermark is made?
The watermark was made when the semi-fluid paper pulp (mixture of cotton or other fibers) was being drained on a grid of laid (warp) and
chain (woof) wires. Fine wires forming the desired design were tied on top of the grid and impressed into the pulp. This impression made the paper
thinner, and therefore, more transparent, where it appeared.
Origin.
Watermarks first appeared on papers produced in Italy around 1270, less than 100 years after the art of papermaking was introduced to
Europe by Muslims from the Middle East. Early in the 19th century, papermakers began to solder the watermark wires to the grid frame, thus insuring
uniformity of impression and aiding in the detection of counterfeiting and forgery. The first British postage stamps of 1840 bore a watermark, but stamps
of the United States were not so marked until 1895. When paper began to be machine-made, the watermark wiring was simply transferred to the grid
cover of the dandy roll, a turning cylinder that passed over the paper.
CONCEPT OF DOCUMENT’S AGE DETECTION THRU WATERMARKS.

a. Sometimes a LIMIT may be placed to the age of the document by means of watermark, the earliest known dating from 1282.
Unfortunately, however, not all papers contain watermarks.
b. It is impressed into the paper by wires on the rollers called “DANDY ROLL” that make the paper, and these designs are changed from
time to time.
c. Usually watermarks are requested by their owners/manufacturers with the patent office.
d. If present, watermark is one of the most reliable means of tracing the age of the paper. However, the questioned documents examiner's
finding is limited only to the APPROXIMATE DATE (YEAR) of the paper manufacture.
e. In determining the age of the paper by watermarks, it is necessary to ascertain the owner of the watermark in question or its
manufacturer.
f. In the FBI, this is done by checking the reference file of the laboratory. Once the manufacturer is determined, then consideration is
given to changes in design and defects of individual design.
g. In recent years, some large manufacturers have cleverly incorporated inconspicuous changes in their watermark design in order to date
their products.
h. Obviously, document is fraud if it contains a watermark that was not in existence at the time the document purports to have been
executed.
In case the watermark did not change, the following is applied:
a. Consider any defect in the individual design may furnish a clue as to the age of the paper.
b. The dandy roll, through constant usage, will somehow be damaged. This damage is also known as caused by WEAR AND TEAR
which becomes progressively more and more as time goes by.
c. The damage on the dandy roll will leave some peculiar markings on the watermark of the paper manufactured or all papers that will
pass through the damaged dandy roll.
d. The investigator, carefully determining the distinct markings caused by the dandy roll's damaged surface, will coordinate with the paper
manufacture regarding when such damage occurred on the dandy roll used.
DISCOLORATION
One way of tracing the age of the paper is through the observance of the changes in its physical characteristics partic-
ularly DISCOLORATION. Naturally, a paper will discolor after a passage of time due to numerous environmental factors such as moisture,
temperature, dust, etc. In case of papers out of wood pulp, they start to discolor at edges from 2 to 3 years. While RUG-SHIP QUALITY papers, they
are very old before discoloration starts.
CAUSES OF DISCOLORATION
1. due to process of oxidation brought about by natural means.
2. brown spots due to mold that are very obvious characteristics both in appearance and distribution.
3. exposure to dust and dirt.
4. occasional staining of fruit juice, grease.
5. excrete of rats, mice and other insects.
6. may also due to heat, partial burning, etc.
DETAILED EXAMINATION OF WRITING MATERIAL

1. Collect standard document from the issuing institution, company or individual and compare. Consider the physical characteristics of both
questioned and standard documents such as the size, the thickness, the surface (glossiness, opacity, etc.) and the general texture of the
paper.
2. Check with the issuing institution, company or individual about the dissimilarity of writing material used in the questioned document.
3. Conduct further physical or chemical examination such as folding endurance test, folding test, bursting test, etc.

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SOLIS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY-COLLEGE OF CRIMINOLOGY

LESSON NINE: WRITING MATERIALS

D. DEVELOPMENT OF PAPER MANUFACTURING

TRACING THE AGE OF PAPER (DOCUMENT)

CONCEPT OF DOCUMENT’S AGE DETECTION THRU WATERMARKS.

DETAILED EXAMINATION OF WRITING MATERIAL

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