History of fingerpritin'

1750 BC

Babylonians used fingerprints as their signature on clay tablets.

220

When the Chinese first started to use ink prints, fingerprints soon became forgotten

1686

Malpighius started to describe fingerprints, but stopped after portraying their ridges

1823

J.E. Purkynie discovered the possibility to classify fingerprints

1874

Henry Faulds, “The Father of Fingerprinting,” kept records of fingerprints and concluded that fingerprint patterns were unchangeable and that visible fingerprints could best be left with printer's ink on a smooth board. He received credit for the first identification of a fingerprint as he proved to be able to lift a fingerprint from a bottle of whiskey.

1858

Sir William Herschel insisted that workers sign contracts with fingerprints, in India, as he wanted to make sure they got their legitimate pensions; this became the first documentation application of fingerprints

1877

Sir William Herschel first suggested taking and storing the fingerprints of prisoners

1880

Doctor Henry Faulds published British literature on the use of fingerprinting

1882

Gilbert Thompson used thumbprints on checks to avoid fraud in the USA.

1882

The first evidence of the use of fingerprints in the United States was by New Mexico surveyor Gilbert Thompson who purposely covered his survey with his prints in order prevent forgery

1888

Sir Francis Galton developed fingerprint classification so that they could be identified and retrieved in a reasonable amount of time

1892

The first recorded use of fingerprint identification in a criminal matter was when Argentinean Police Commodore Juan Vucetich took prints off a door post to find a murderer.

1896

by Sir Edward Richard Henry identified and classified the four basic patterns of fingerprints: the arch, the loop, the whorls, and the composites.

1924

Congress allowed the Federal Bureau of Investigation (F.B.I.) to establish an Identification Division. This combined all fingerprinting files which made it much easier to identify a certain set in the database, which today is completely computerized.