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200 BCE
Chinese Friction Ridge Impressions
Found in records from the Qin Dynasty are details of using handprints as evidence in burglary investigations. -
Grew, Bidloo, Malpighi
~Dr Nehemiah Grew was the first European to publish friction ridge skin observations
~Govard Bidloo had a book called 'Anatomy of the Human Body', which discussed friction ridge (papillary ridge) details
~Marcello Malpighi was a professor who discussed fingerprint ridges, spirals and loops. He has a layer of skin named after him 'Malpighi layer' which is approx. 1.8mm thick. -
The uniqueness of Mayer
Johann Christoph Andreas Mayer wrote a book talking about how skin patterns are never repeated from one person to the other. -
The fingerprints of the 1800's: part 1
~Jan Evangelista Purkinje discussed nine fingerprint patterns
~Sir William Herchel used fingerprints on native contracts in India
~Professor Paul-Jean Coulier discovered that fingerprints can be developed on paper using iodine fuming. He mentioned the potential for identifying suspect's fingerprints using a magnifying glass -
The fingerprints of the 1800's: part 2
~Thomas Taylor proposed that both palm and fingerprints can be used to solve crimes.
~Dr Henry Faulds studies skin furrows and devised a method of classification and Dr Faulds' clinic in Tokyo. He also discussed how fingerprints can be a means of personal identification and how you can use printer ink to record them. -
The fingerprints of the 1800's: part 3
~Gilbert Thompson used his thumbprint on a document to prevent forgery
~Alphonse Bertillon classed fingerprints as a secondary role in crime fighting
~A murder was identified using fingerprint identification from Mark Twain's fingerprint classification book
~Juan Vucetich began the first fingerprint files
~Inspector Eduardo Alvarez made the first criminal fingerprint identification -
The fingerprints of the 1800's: part 4
~Sir Francis Galton scientifically discovered that; except for injury or disease fingerprints do not change over the course of someone's lifetime and no two fingerprints are exactly the same
~Dr Ralph Hodgson gave lectures discussing the Bertillon measurements