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Archaeologists discovered fingerprints pressed into clay tablet contract dating back to 1792-1750 B.C. in Babylon.
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Johann Christoph Andreas Mayer described that "the arrangement of skin ridges is never duplicated in two persons."
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Jan Evangelist Purkyn described nine distinct fingerprint patterns, including loops, spirals, circles, and double whirls.
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Alphonse Bertillion, who was an assistant clerk in the records office at the Police Station in Paris, created a way to identify criminals.
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The system created by Alphonse Bertillon called Bertillonage was first used then to identify a repeating offender.
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Sir Francis Galton and Sir E. R. Henry developed the classification system for fingerprints that is still in use today in the United States and Europe.
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Ivan (Juan) Vucetich improved fingerprint collection. He began to note measurements on the identification cards of all arrested persons, as well as adding all 10 fingerprints.
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Created a system that divided fingerprint records into groups based on whether they have an arch, whorl, or loop pattern.
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Bertillon was credited with solving the first murder using fingerprints.
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Automated fingerprint identification systems used for criminal identification have become central to the work of police and other law enforcement around the world.