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Forensic Impression Evidence Time Line

100

Quintillian, Roman lawyer, demonstrated that bloody palm prints on the wall of a murder crime scene were from his stepmother [Ref. 20, p. 84].
618ca

Robert Heindl reports wide use of fingerprinting for identification purposes during the Tang Dynasty in China [Ref. 20, p. 85].

1684ca

Marcello Malpighi, a microscopist, described patterns on the tips of fingers [Ref. 1, p. 173],

1823

Jan Evangelista Purkinje, Czechoslovakian physiologist described whorls, ellipses and triangles in Commentatio de examine pysiologico organi visus et systemati cutanei [Ref. 1, p. 174] and [Ref. 21, p. 3].
1828

Thomas Bewick, an English naturalist, made engraving of his own fingerprint in would and printed them in the books he published [Ref. 22, p. 18].
1840s

Adolphe Quetelet, a Belgian statistician, stated that “there are no two human beings in the world of exactly the same size.” Quetelet's thesis was the basis for Bertillon’s system of identification [Ref. 20, p. 69].

1858

William Herschel, an administrative clerk in India, used fingerprints to identify pay claimants, but more importantly recognized that patterns did not change with age [Ref. 1, p. 174].
1880

Dr. Henry Faulds, a Scottish physiologist, credited with the first documented crime solved by fingerprint comparison. This occurred in Tokyo, where Faulds identified a thief from a print left at the scene. He published an article in the journal Nature stating that fingermarks or impressions in clay or on glass may lead to the scientific identification of criminals [Ref. 1, p. 175].
1882

Gilbert Thompson, an American engineer building railroads in Mexico adopted “the practice of pressing his thumb print on wage chits for his workers” to combat forgeries [Ref. 23, p. 93].
1891

Juan Vucetich, a Croatian who immigrated to Argentina in 1884, set up a fingerprint system in La Plata Bureau of Investigations. Used system to identify bloody thumb print of mother as murderer of her two children [Ref. 24, p. 55].

Galton publishes treatise, Fingerprints [Ref. 24, p. 53].
1898

Edward Henry publishes the definitive text on fingerprint identification, The Classification and Uses of Fingerprints [Ref. 1, p. 176].
1900

Robert Heindl introduced the fingerprint classification system to Germany [Ref. 25, p. 29].
1901

Sir Edward Henry placed in charge of Scotland Yard Fingerprint Branch [Ref. 1, p. 176].
1902

Harry Jackson became first British person convicted on fingerprint evidence [Ref. 1, p.176].

Fingerprint science adopted in United States when Dr. Henry P. DeForest, Chief Medical Examiner of the New York Civil Service Commission, started fingerprinting all civil service applicants [Ref. 26, p. 7].
1908

Order in Council in Canada sanctioning use of fingerprints as a means of identification under the Identification of Criminals Act (1898) [Ref. 27].

1911

First set of fingerprints identified by RCMP Fingerprint Bureau headed by Edward Foster (1863-1956), "Father of Canadian Fingerprinting.” [Ref. 27].

First fingerprint evidence admitted into court in the United States, New York, New York. Caesar Cella, burglary suspect, was convicted on fingerprint evidence identified by Detective Sergeant Joseph A. Faurot [Ref. 1, p. 178].
1913

Poroscopy, impressions left by sweat pores, used for comparison and developed by Locard [Ref. 12, p. 120].
1923

Moulage Method developed by Hans Mullner to preserve imprints from footprints and tire tracks [Ref. 2, p. 13].

1931

Robert Heindl publishes a classification of tire patterns [Ref. 12, p. 147].

1946

First successful telegraphing of a fingerprint image sent from Melbourne, Australia to Scotland Yard [Ref. 1, p. 349].
1953

United Kingdom: Meeting of the home office, Scotland Yard and the five fingerprint bureaus led to agreement that 16 points of resemblance were needed for an irrefutable match of fingerprint evidence [Ref. 1, p. 193].
1976

Scotland Yard installs a national fingerprint computer call Videofile, containing 2,500,000 prints of criminals [Ref. 24, p. 56].

References

[1]. Lane, Brian, The Encyclopedia of Forensic Science, Headline Book Publishing PLC, 1992.
[2]. Richardson, J. R., Modern Scientific Evidence, The W. H. Anderson Company, USA 1961.
[12]. Söderman, H. and O'Connell, J. J., Modern Criminal Investigation, Funk & Wagnalls, 1935.
[20]. Söderman, H. and O'Connell, J. J., Modern Criminal Investigation, Funk & Wagnalls, 1962.
[21]. Henry, E. R., Classification and Uses of Finger Print, Her Majesty's Stationary Office, 1922.
[22]. Kind, S. And Overman, M., Science Against Crime, Doubleday and Co., 1972.
[23]. Thorwald, J., The Century of the Detective, Harcourt, Brace $ World, inc., 1964.
[24]. Paul, P., Murder Under The Microscope, Macdonald Book, England, 1990.
[25]. Gilbert, J. N., Criminal Investigation, Charles E. Merrill Pub., 1980.
[26]. Moenssens, A.A., Fingerprints and the Law, Chilton Book Co., 1969.
[27]. RCMP Archives, The RCMP Archives Salutes Edward Foster.