Hargreaves Hartley |
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Hargreaves Hartley, a jealous young man aged 27 of 20, North Street, Nelson, accused his wife Elizabeth Ann Hartley of infidelity and shot her four times.
The bullets hit the unfortunate woman on the jaw, ear and neck, causing severe injuries.
Dr. W .G. Little, a Nelson practitioner, had previously worked at Owens College and sent to Manchester for Arthur Schuster.
(Image of Hargreaves Hartley - Burnley Express and Advertiser, April 29, 1896 p3) |
However, Schuster was unwell and sent his two assistants in his place. They took the fragile x-ray equipment with them to take the photographic x-rays needed to locate the bullets, as the patient was too ill to be moved from her home.
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The first x-ray was completed in an hour, the second took around 70 minutes.
The whole of the proceedings were watched by Dr. Little, the Mayor of Nelson and the Town Clerk, and the plates were returned to Manchester for processing.
Professor Schuster telegrammed Dr. Little to say that the experiment had been successful, but there was some doubt about the position of the fourth bullet.
Having recovered from his illness, Professor Schuster travelled to Nelson and took another x-ray. The glass plate was probably placed underneath or behind Mrs Hartley's skull - this was an extremely difficult location to attempt an x-ray.
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20 North Street Nelson |
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X-Ray of the bullet in Mrs Hartley's cranial cavity |
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Dr. Schuster was successful in locating the elusive fourth bullet. Sadly, Mrs Hartley was too weak to undergo surgery and died on 9 May.
Professor Schuster gave a demonstration of the procedure used in taking the new x-rays in the Lecture Room of the Technical School in Nelson. His subject was Mrs Taylor of Boundary Street, Colne, who had had a fragment of a broken needle in her hand for two years.
The plate was developed by Mr J. L. Hopper, photographer, of Pendle Street Nelson. The exposure lasted about 5 minutes and the plate took around half an hour to develop.
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Sir Arthur Schuster, PhD, DSc, ScD, LLD, FRS, died in 1934, one of the most famous professors in Manchester University's Department of Physics and Astronomy.
Radiograph of the bullet reproduced by kind permission of The Wellcome Trust Medical Photographic Library |
