Miscellaneous and Crime Scene Time Line

Physician, Johann Heinrich Schulze placed objects in a container holding a mixture of chalk and nitrate of silver to create photographic images [Ref. 2, p. 9].

J. W. Ritter discovered ultra-violet light which is routinely used at crime scenes in searching for body fluids [Ref. 2, p. 10].

Forensic Science Institute established at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.

Eugène François Vidocq showed that crime can pay, first becoming an informant and later using his skills to detect and solve crimes. Under police authority he formed the first Paris Police Detection Bureau [Ref. 25 p. 6].

Lois Daguerre uses Schyze early work to perfect the first photographic process [Ref. 1, p. 9].

Joseph Nicéphore Niepce uses silver chloride to produce the first fixes positive image, considered to be a photograph [Ref. 3, p. 283].

Photography used to demonstrate evidence in a California case [Ref. 33, p. 26].

Institute of Legal Medicine of Paris established.

Alphonse Bertillon advances the anthropological identification method to identify criminals. This method was later proven false [Ref. 2, p. 11].

Hans Gross (1847-1915), considered the 'father of criminalistics', was an Examining Magistrate and a Professor of Penal Law at the University of Graz. In 1893 he published Handbuch für Untersuchungsricter als System der Kriminalistik, which was translated into English as Criminal Investigation in 1907. Gross' work was based entirely on the practical application of scientific techniques [Ref. 1, p. 222].

A camera was rigged to capture a theft in a store. Reported in Dec. 29, issue of American Police and Parade Gossip [Ref. 22, p. 22-23].

One of earliest university departments to teach all aspects of forensic science was set up by Professor R.A. Reiss, who originally gave a course in Forensic Photography at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. His forensic photography department grew into Lausanne Institute of Police Science [Ref. 22, p. 23].

Sound recording of railway work opposite a hotel was used as evidence in a trial [Ref. 2, p. 12].

Edmund Locard successfully transferred the landmark work of Hans Gross into practice [Ref. 36, p.5] when he established what is considered the world's first crime laboratory, the Lyons Police Laboratory [Ref. 29, p. 283].

L'Institute de Médicine Légale et de Police Scientifique was established in Montreal, Québec, Dr. Wilfred Derôme, Director. First forensic science laboratory in North America which was established by Dr. Derôme following a visit to Dr. Locard's laboratory [Ref. 37, p. 167].

Dr. Albert Schneider of Berkeley, California, used a vacuum cleaner to collect dust from suspect clothes [Ref. 29, p. 288].

Berkeley, California police officer, John Larson develops the first working polygraph [Ref. 25, p. 32].

In Frye v. United States [Ref. 38], the District of Columbia Circuit Court rejected the scientific validity of the lie detector, as not meeting general acceptance by the scientific community. This established a standard guideline for the admissibility of scientific examinations [Ref. 36, p. 14].

Oldest forensic laboratory in the United States was established at the Los Angeles Police Department by August Vollmer, a police chief from Berkeley, California [Ref. 36, p. 6].

Equipment of the investigating officer at the crime scene is described by Hans Gross [Ref. 34, p. 99-102].

Calvin Goddard's establishes the Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory at Northwestern University [Ref. 7, p. 129].

American Journal of Police Science was founded and merged in 1933 with the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, published by the American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology, 357 East Chicago Avenue, Chicago, Illinois [Ref. 39, pp. xiv-xv].

Matwejeff (Russia), studied broken windows to determine if from inside or outside [Ref. 12, p. 129].

Jeserich describes how the shape of bloodstains can tell the position of the murderer and how the weapon was used [Ref. 7, p. 281].

Federal Bureau of Investigation Laboratory established [Ref. 17, p. 1].

London Metropolitan Police Laboratory established.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police Scientific Laboratory established in Regina, Saskatchewan.

Hugh C. McDonald develops the prototype Identkit, based loosely on Bertillon's work [Ref. 1, p. 9].

First American Medico-Legal Congress met in St. Louis, Missouri and established the American Academy of Forensic Sciences [Ref. 7, p. 8].

Paul Leland Kirk becomes head of the Criminalistics Department, School of Criminology, University of California [Ref. 36, p. 150].

Kirk published Crime Investigation: Physical Evidence and the Police Laboratory [Ref. 40], considered a classic text book of forensic science it became a widely used resources [Ref. 25, p. 32].

Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceutical, Inc. [Ref. 41], the U.S. Supreme Court decided that the Frye standard was not a condition for the admissibility of scientific evidence under the Federal Rules of Evidence. The Court empowered the trial judge with the authority to determine what scientific evidence was admissible and valid [Ref. 22, p. 15]. The guidelines used by the Court may have had their foundation in the admissibility of DNA evidence.