SCOTLAND YARD

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21191, 14 August 1940, Page 9

SCOTLAND YARD

PALATIAL NEW BUILDING EXTENSION COSTS £200,000 (United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright! LONDON, August 13 Scotland Yard will shortly be directing the war against crime from its new £200,000 extension, adjacent to the overcrowded, ill-lighted but historic building on the Thames Embankment. Already the basement of the palatial 10-floored building is occupied, while the Criminal Record Office is planning to move in with a staff of 600, accompanied by vast files, and the photographs of every living “worth-while” criminal in the country. Many records date back 70 years. The new premises have been under construction for three years.

Plans have been completed for a brighter “black Museum,” which will still contain underworld bludgeons and guns, the handcuffs worn by famous criminals, and the bath in which the “brides” were murdered. There will be one deliberately dark room, where ultra-violet ray and epidiascope experts will work. The ultra-violet ray, which police call “black limelight,” is used in tracing forged documents. The epidiascope is a giant magic lantern, which flashes on the screen enlargements of the tiniest objects. The Fingerprint Branch is transferring 5,000,000 fingerprints in fireproof files.