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Green, and asked him if a licence were required for "breaking up ammunition." There was some conversation, and eventually the person making enquiry said lie would ring up the Inspector later. The Sergeant says he did not ascertain the name of the person telephoning, that he did not enter the conversation in the book provided for that purpose, or report the matter to his Inspector. He said it was an oversight on his part, but he relied on the person telephoning to the Inspector as aforesaid.
The first method employed by Knowles to break up the said ammunition was by firing the cartridges in a muffle furnace. This, however, proved to be a wasteful process, and, therefore, he telephoned to the Premier Aluminium Casting Co., Ltd., and later he wrote to the said Company as follows:—
"Groveland Road,
"Tipton,
"February 20th, 1922."Messrs. Premier Aluminium Casting Co.,
"Hay Mills,
"Birmingham."Dear Sirs,
"I beg to confirm my conversation over the 'phone that it is quite useless going on with these Cartridges under the present style, and I shall be pleased to see your Mr. Andrews and Mr. Dawkins over here with a view to what steps we are going to take.
"The process in force now is nothing but a most wasteful one and mixes the lead and copper altogether, and instead of a profit we shall have a very heavy loss,
"Yours faithfully,
"(Signed)p.p. John W. Knowles,
"Manager"
In consequence of the last-mentioned letter, Mr. Andrews went to the said factory and saw Knowles. He was shown how the muffle furnace was wasting the metal, and then he was shown a new method of breaking the cartridges apart. Knowles said it had been "found out" by one of his men, and it consisted in placing a strip of metal with holes drilled in it across an empty box and fixing it to the sides. The cartridges were placed in the holes and the bullets prised out of the copper cases by hand. The bullets then fell into the box and the copper cases were put into another box.
Mr. Andrews thought it was "a good idea," but although he knew that this new method was in progress, and saw through the open door
