How Did The Art Of Fingerprinting Start?

A certain pattern is formed by the ridges for our fingertips. It is known to man for long. The Chinese have used these finger-prints in various forms for different purposes for hundreds of years.

In very recent times the value of the fingerprints has been realized for detecting the criminals. It was in the year 1880, that Dr. Henry Faulds of England, was the first to suggest that the fingerprints be used to detect and identify criminals. It was established in 1892, by sir Francis Galton, a noted English Scientist, that no two fingerprints were alike. He was the first in setup a collection of fingerprint records.

The British Government felt interested in the theories pro-pounded and decided and set up a commission to study the idea of using a fingerprint system in the art of identification of criminals. Sir, Edward Henry, one of the members for this commission later headed Scotland Yard.

The system of classifying and filing of fingerprints was devised by Sir Henry. Speed is often important in detection of crime, and without a system of filing in a classified manner it would take very long to match two sets of fingerprints.

Sir Henry’s system divided the impressions of fingerprints into the following types – loops, central pocket loops, double loops, arches, tented arches, whorls, and accidentals. By counting the ridges between fixed points in the pattern, it is possible to classify each of the ten fingers into a definite group. The ten fingers are then considered as a unit to obtain the complete classification. The fingerprints in this system are filed in a sequence, without reference to name, description, or crime specialty of the individual. Millions of prints can be held in an office and the identification can be established in a few minutes.

The FBI file of more than 100,000,000 fingerprint cards include fingerprints from many persons who want some means of identification in case of sickness. The finger prints of Armed services and Government employees are also included in that. As per system all aliens have to be fingerprinted. Many industries vital to the national defence require fingerprinting of their employees