Forensic Test Kits

Did any science fiction writer of the 1930s introduce the words “forensic test kit”? The writer of the following article would like to know the answer to that very question. In the following article, she has pointed out the rate at which science has familiarized investigators with the potential of the forensic test kit.  The following essay points out the value in some of the information in present-day TV programs. Certainly a youth who has watched a program that focused on updated investigational tools would not be persuaded to behave according to the suggestions of a fortune teller.During York County’s Hex Trial in 1928, no journalist called for a forensic investigation at the Rethmeyer farm. Moreover, no reporter looked into the availability of a forensic test kit in that Pennsylvania County.

Instead reporters focused on the absence of a public library in York County. They seemed to associate the presence of a library with public awareness of tested facts. The reporters felt that a county without a library encouraged the formation of superstitious thinking. Such thinking had fostered the actions that lead to the murder of Nelson Rethmeyer.

Still, the most recently published historical account about the opening in 1935 of the new, York County library does not mention a visit by the local reporters. No one in fact bothered to see if the library had a single book with information on a forensic test kit. One would think that information on a forensic test kit, even information of a futuristic nature, would have the ability to raise public awareness of scientific progress.

What books did the County include among the 21,000 volumes in the Martin Memorial Library? That question must remain unanswered. Perhaps the library had some books on carriages and carriage making. A local carriage maker, Milton Martin, had provided the County with the funds for the new library.

The Martin Memorial Library opened its doors just two and one half years after the book burnings in Germany. Maybe some Nazi supporter was at that library opening, an opening scheduled for October 31st.. Some guests walked into the: Library wearing a disguise. Maybe a Nazi supporter wanted to see if any “dangerous” books sat on the shelves of the County’s new library.

What did the Nazi’s see as “dangerous”? Would they have viewed information on a forensic test kit as something “dangerous”? Would the County authorities have viewed such material as potentially dangerous?

Any absence of such materials in a present-day library is certainly bad for the youth who use that library. If a young person has no chance to read about a forensic test kit, he or she could remain blind to one entire field of knowledge. He or she would then fail to prepare for one potential and promising career.

Unlike the crime fighters of the 1930s, the men and women who take part in a modern-day murder investigation need to know a good deal about forensic science. They need to be familiar with the molecular biology techniques used to analyze findings from a crime scene investigation.

Such techniques provide criminal investigators with valuable DNA evidence. The performance of such techniques represents a huge shift away from witchcraft, the sort of witchcraft that inspired the murder of Nelson Rethmeyer. Yet the foresighted reporters of 1935 had never heard about the importance of DNA evidence.

Filed under: Test Kits