"I often hear you say that it is hard not to leave some traces that can show the characteristics of users on any daily necessities, and trained people can easily identify them. Now I have a new watch here. Can you find out the character and habits of its old owner? "
I handed him my watch and couldn't help laughing. Because in my opinion, this experiment can't be answered, and it is also a lesson I taught him in his usual arbitrary style. He took the watch in his hand, studied it carefully, looked at the dial, opened the cover, and carefully examined the parts inside, first with the naked eye and then with a high-power magnifying glass. His depressed expression almost made me laugh. Finally, he closed the watch cover and gave it back to me.
He said, "There are almost no traces left here, because this watch has been rubbed with mud recently and the main traces have been removed."
I replied, "Yes, this watch got muddy and fell into my hand." "In my mind, my partner used this as an excuse to cover up his failure. Even a watch that has not been repaired, what traces can be found to help infer?
He looked up at the ceiling with his eyes half closed and said, "Although there are not many traces, my observation has not completely failed. Let's get this straight. Please correct me. I think this watch belongs to your brother and was left to him by your father. "
"Quite right, you know it from the word HW ... engraved on the back of the watch, right?"
"Yes, W stands for your family name. This watch was made almost fifty years ago, and the words engraved on it are about the same time as it was made, so I know it is a relic of your last generation. According to custom, things like jewelry are often passed on to the eldest son, who often takes his father's surname. If I remember correctly, your father has been dead for many years, so I infer that this watch is in your brother's hand. "
I said, "It's all good. Is there anything else? "
"He is a bohemian man. At the beginning, he had a bright future, but he missed all the good opportunities, so he often lived in poverty, occasionally prospered, and finally died of good wine. This is what I have seen. "
I jumped up from my chair and couldn't help pacing around the room listlessly, with infinite bitterness in my heart.
I said, "Holmes, this is your problem. I can't believe you can play such a trick. You must have inquired about my brother's tragic history in advance, and now you pretend to infer these facts in some mysterious way. Do you expect me to believe that you can find these facts from this old watch? To put it bluntly, you are simply servants. "
He kindly replied, "Dear doctor, please forgive me. I inferred a problem from the theory, but forgot that it might be a painful thing for you. I assure you, I didn't know you had a brother before you showed me this watch. "
"But how can you infer these facts so wonderfully? What you said is not true. "
"ah! This is still a fluke. I just said some possible situations, but I didn't expect it to be so correct. "
"So you didn't guess?"
"Yes, yes, I never guess. Guess is a bad habit, which is harmful to logical reasoning. You feel strange because you don't understand my thinking and don't notice the small problems that can often infer big things. For example, I said at the beginning that your brother's behavior was careless. Look at this watch. There are not only two dents on the bottom edge, but also countless scars on the top of the watch. This is because I am used to putting my watch in my pocket with hard objects such as coins and keys. It's no exaggeration to say that a watch worth more than 50 pounds is so careless and leads a disorderly life! This watch alone is priceless, and it is unreasonable to say that the inheritance is not rich. "
I nodded to show that I understood his reason.
"The practice of pawn tickets in London is that every time you receive a watch, you must engrave the number of the pawn ticket on the inside of the watch with a needle tip. This method is better than the tag, which can avoid the danger of losing or confusing the number. Looking inside with a magnifying glass, I found that there are at least four such numbers. The conclusion is: your brother is often embarrassed; The incidental conclusion is that he is sometimes in good condition, otherwise he will not have the strength to recover. Finally, please pay attention to the inner cover with keyhole. There are thousands of scars around the keyhole, which are caused by key friction. When a sober person inserts a key, isn't it just inserting it? There is nothing on a drunk's watch that won't leave these marks. He wound the wire at night, so he left traces of trembling wrists. What is the mystery of this? "
In fact, there are many such examples in the original work, but I don't know which one is more typical when I suddenly want to find it. This should be a classic! But I think this is a bit inconsistent with the example of Sherlock Holmes judging a person's occupation from his appearance, clothes, movements and so on. "
O(∩_∩)O~ In short, I hope it will help you!