“Recently, on one of the Prussian railroads, a barrel which should have contained silver coin was found, on arrival at its destination, to have been emptied of its precious contents and refilled with sand. Professor Ehrenberg, of Berlin, sent for samples of sand from all the stations along lines of railway that the specie had passed, and by means of his microscope, identified the station from which the sand must have been taken. The station once fixed upon, it was not difficult to hit upon the culprit from the few employees on duty.”
—Scientific American, April 1856
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