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Fingerprint Advancement
A German doctor named J. C. A. Mayer was the first to recognize that fingerprints we're unique, commenting that the ridges we're never the same between two individuals -
Primitive Forensic Ballistics
A man was convicted after killing a man. The way they found him was they found a part of a sheet for wadding in the gun and also found a song sheet in the convicted's pocket that was ripped and matched the wadding. -
Forensic Chemistry
A chemical test was invented in Germany to test a particular type of ink used in documents. -
Toxicology
Mathiew Orfila, a forensic chemist, published a book on toxicology and contributed to tests for the presence of blood at crime scenes. -
Microscope Technology
William Nichol invented the polarizing light microscope. -
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Body Temperatures
Dr John Davy investigated the temperature of bodies to ascertain times of death. He conducted tests on the bodies of soldiers in a British military hospital. He found that internal organs retained heat for a number of hours. -
Early Forensic Ballistics
Henry Goddard linked the murder of a man to the victim's servant by matching the wadding in gun to a piece of paper the servant owned and by a ball that was shot was also linked to the servant by a mould that matched the same imperfections as the ball. -
Toxicology Advances
The marsh test was a test for the presence of arsenic. James Marsh, the creator and a Scottish chemist, was the first to use toxicology in criminal trial. -
Microscopy
H. Bayard, a legal physician, published work on the microscopic detection of sperm and on the characteristics of different fabrics under microscopic viewing. -
Photography
The first examination of a photographic fake had been documented with claims that they invented colored photographs -
Forensic Chemistry
A blood test that detected the presence of haemoglobin was developed by Ludwig Teichmann -
Photographic Evidence
During the case of Luco vs. U.S., the Supreme Court ruled photographs admissible as evidence for the first time -
Forensic Blood Test
The first presumptive blood test, which functioned by using hydrogen peroxide and reacted with haemoglobin, was created by a German scientist named Schonbein -
Technological Developments of the Camera
The wet plate process and the use of crime scenes photography were first used -
Fingerprint Identification
A burglar was caught and found guilty by using a thumb print that was left on a windowsill at the crime scene. This was the first case in British history of fingerprint identification used to help convict a criminal. -
Gas Chromatography
Anthony T. James and Archer J. P. Martin presented their idea of gas chromatography, a more refined technique that is now by far the most used chromatography technique. -
DNA Discovery
James Watson discovered the structure of DNA -
DNA Fingerprinting
Sir Alec Jeffreys invented a technique to identify individuals from their DNA. This was done through paternity testing but was later adopted by the police force in England and was used to exonerate two rapists who raped and murdered girls in the years past. -
STR
Using certain parts of the DNA molecule, STR, the FBI replaced some already existing techniques. They combined the STR with a technique called PCR and it allowed a much smaller amount of DNA to be identified. -
Footwear Marks
The Forensic Science Service in the UK created an online database system for the identification of footwear marks. The FIT contains thousands of footwear prints and impressions that can be used to identify the specific footwear that caused the mark. -
Text Message Examination
There was an interview with police departments on BBC and they said that text messages could be linked to the location of crimes and the whereabouts of the criminal's home.