Fingerprints:The History

The History of Fingerprints:

The fingerprint was first introduced in 14th century Persia, the government had fingerprint impressions and a doctor observed that no two were alike

1686
Marcello Malpighi was a professor of anatomy at the universtiy of Bologna, Noted Ridges, Spirals and loops in fingerprints.
1823
John Evangelist Purkinji was a professor of anatomy at the university of Breslau, published a thesis discussing the 9 fingerprint patterns.
1856
In July the english first began using fingerprints when Sir William Herschel the Cheif Magistrate used fingerprints on native contracts, he also observed that inked impressions could prove or disprove identity.
1870

Dr. Henry Faulds; the British Surgeon-Superintendent of Tsukiji hospital in tokyo, japan studied "Skin-Furrows" after noticing Fingerprints on specimens of "Prehistoric Pottery", Dr. Faulds also developed a method of classification.
1880
Faulds discussed fingerprinting as a means of personal identification, and the use of ink from printers as a method for obtaining such fingerprints. He is also credited with the first fingerprint ID of a greasy fingerprint left on an alcohol bottle.
1882
Gilbert Thompson was working the U.S. Geological Survey in New Mexico when he used his own Fingerprints on a document to prevent forgery. this was the first known use of fingerprints in the U.S.A.
1883
"Life on the Mississippi" by Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens) was the first book where they used fingerprints for identification purposes.
1888
Sir Francis Galton was British Anthropologist and the cousin of Charles Darwin,and began observations of fingerprints as means of identification in the 1880's. he published a book in 1892 called "Fingerprints" which established the individuality of fingerprint. This book also included the first classification of fingerprints.
1891-1892
In 1891 an Argentine Police Official named Juan Vucetich, began the first fingerprint files based on Galton pattern types. at first he also used the Bertillon system with the files. in 1892 he made the first criminal fingerprint identification. He was able to identify a woman named Rojas, who had murdered her two sons, and cut her own throat in an attempt to place blame on someone else, she left a bloody fingerprint on a door post proving her identity as the murderer.
1901
Fingerprints were first introduced in England and Wales, using Galton's observations that were revised by Sir Edward Henry, which began the Henry Classification system, which is used in all English Speaking countries
1903
The New York state prison system began the first systematic use of fingerprints in U.S. for criminals
1904
the use of fingerprints began in Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary in Kansas, and the St. Louis Police Department. They were assisted by a sergeant from Scotland Yard who had been on duty at the St. Louis Exposition guarding the British Display.
1905
The U.S. Army started using Fingerprints two years later the U.S. Navy also started using Fingerprints the Marine Corp also started using fingerprints. During the next 25 years more law enforcement agencies join in the use of fingerprints as a means of personal identification. Many of these agencies began sending copies of their fingerprint cards to the National Bureau of Criminal ID
1918
Edmond Locard wrote that if 12 points(Galton's Details) were the same between two fingerprints, it would suffice as a positive identification. There is no required number of points necessary for an ID
1924
An act of congress established the Identification Division of the F.B.I.
1946
The F.B.I. had processed 100 million fingerprint cards in manually maintained files. also the AFIS was introduces where they could computerize fingerprints into criminal files.
1999
For all new fingerprints the F.B.I. went to all digital fingerprinting
2002
fingerprint cards are still in use and being processed for all identification purposes