Details of exhibit

Exhibition:
1908 Fifty-third Annual Exhibition of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain  
Exhibit title:
Boots showing blood-stained tag and heel (to right) of right boot, and blood-stained upper and heel and sole of left boot (to left) and also earth stains on sole of left boot  
Exhibitor:
H. George Drake Brockman 
Section:
Autochromes 
Exhibit No.:
602 
Description:
N.B. – The above colour transparencies figured in the trial of a man who committed murder in Middlesbrough in May, 1908. See account appended hereto.

Autochrome Transparencies. Nos. 600 to 612

The Above Autochrome Transparencies were made at the instance of the prosecution in the case of Rex v. Howroyd, tried at York Assizes, during July, 1908. The murder was committed at Middlesbrough in May, 1908, and was of a peculiarly atrocious character. Certain articles figured prominently in the case, and these were principally a broken stout bottle and a pair of boots.
The stout bottle was used by the assailant to murder his victim, and it was broken. The fragments were collected and fixed together with strapping. The murderer decamped, leaving the boot for his right foot behind in the house. He removed this boot because of the discomfort it caused to a hammer toe on that foot. The left boot was found in the murderer’s house, and photographic and medical examination of these articles revealed the presence of blood. The method of procedure was as follows:- The boots were subjected to a stream of oxygen in an atmosphere which was super-saturated with water vapour and at a temperature of 70° F. As a consequence, certain tarry-looking stains on the boots which were thought to be blood became ruddy. The boots were then at once photographed. Subsequently, scrapings from these ruddy areas on the boots, when tested chemically, gave the most pathognomonic test for blood, viz., the Haemin Test. To obtain more brilliance the plates were decidedly and intentionally over-exposed, the colour of boots being rendered as a grey with muddy stains of soles and uppers. The left boot, which is to the left in Transparency 3A, shows, in addition to blood-stains, a stain of clay on the sole, thus confirming the theory that the man walked home wearing this boot.
With regard tot the stout bottle, the same device of treatment with oxygen was resorted to for dark stains on the reverse and base of the bottle. Transparency 12A shows the stout bottle with dark marks round the letter before treatment with oxygen. Transparency 13A shows the same after treatment with oxygen, showing marked ruddy areas.
Transparencies 1A and 2A show the interior of the room where the murder took place. Transparency 5A shows the blood-stained clothing of the murderer. (See descriptive tracings 1A*, 2A*, 3A*, 5A*.) Transparencies 14A and 15A show the belt of the murdered person, with stains of blood on buckle and leather.
(Signed) H. George Drake Brockman, M.R.C.S.,
Asst. Medical Officer 
Exhibit type:
Photographic equipment and supplies 
Process:
Autochrome (Colour) 
Award:
none