NATURE OF FINGERPRINTS

A FINGERPRINT is a composite of the ridge outlines which appears on the skin surface of the
bulbs on the inside of the end of joints of the fingers and thumbs.

HISTORICAL ACCOUNTS INVOLVING FINGERPRINTS

1. In China, fingerprint is called “Hua Chi”. The value of fingerprints for purposes of
identification was found on a Chinese clay seal made not later than the 3 rd
century B.C.
2. In England, Thomas Bewick, an English engraver, author, and naturalist engraved
the patterns of his own fingers on every wood-work he had finished to serve as
his mark so as to establish its genuineness.

Person on Dactyloscopy

3. 1684-Nehemiah Grew published a report which was read before the royal
society of London, England. He described the ridges and pores of the hands and
feet.
4. 1685-G. Bidloo published a treaty describing sweat pores and ridges.
5. 1685-Midle wrote a book, “Human Anatomy,” in which he included a drawing of
the thumb print showing the ridge configuration of the whorl pattern.
6. 1686-Professor Marcelo Malpighi, an Italian anatomist (GRANDFATHER OF
DACTYLOSCOPY according to Dr. Edmond Locard – “Father of Poroscopy”),
commented in his writings on elevated ridges on the fingertips and alluded to
diverse figures on palmar surfaces.
7. 1751-Hintzo wrote on the ridge formation, but dealt with the subject from the
viewpoint of anatomy rather than identification.
8. 1764-Albinus followed along the same lines as Hintzo had written.
9. 1788-J.C.A. Mayer stated in his book (Anatomische Kupfertafein Nebst Dazu
Geharigen) that although the arrangement of the skin ridges is never duplicated
in two persons, nevertheless, the similarities are closer among some individuals.
10. 1823-Johannes Evangelist Purkinje, (FATHER OF DACTYLOCOSPY) a
Czechoslovakian professor of anatomy at the University of Breslau, published a
thesis in Latin (Commentio de Examine Physiogico Organi Visus Et systematis
Cutansi – A Commentary of the Physiological Examination System: Dec. 22,
1823, Breslau, Germany) describing the ridges, giving them names and
established certain rules for classification (nine groups). He involves vague
differentiation of fingerprints or use them for identification.
11. 1856-Herman Welcker took the prints of his own palm. In 1897, (forty one years
later) he printed the same palm to prove that the prints do not change.
(Principle of Permanency).
12. 1883-Kollman, an anthropologist who wrote his book on ridges and pores. He
did not associate fingerprints with identification.
13. 1858-Sir William J. Herschel (FATHER OF CHIROSCOPY), in Hoogly, district of
Bengal, India, he used fingerprints in India to prevent fraudulent collection of
army pay account and for identification of other documents. He printed the
palms of natives in order to avoid impersonation among laborers. Prints of the
entire palms were used instead of signatures. The first person Herschel printed
appears to have been one RAJYADHAR KONAI.
14. 1880-Dr. Henry Faulds, an English (Scottish) doctor stationed in Tokyo, Japan,
wrote a letter to the English publication, “NATURE” – “On the Skin Furrows of
the Hand”, (dtd Oct. 28, 1880) on the practical use of fingerprints for the
identification of criminals. He recommended the use of a thin film of printers ink
as a transfer medium and is generally used today.
15. 1880-Sir Francis Galton, a noted British anthropologist and a cousin of scientist
Charles Darwin began observation which led to the publication in 1882 of his
book “Fingerprints.” Galton’s studies established the individuality of classifying
fingerprint patterns.
16. 1882-Gilbert Thompson, a U.S. geological surveyor in charge of a field project in
New Mexico used his own fingerprints in commissary orders to prevent forgery.
17. Isaiah West Taber – A photographer in San Francisco advocated the use of the
system for the registration of the immigrant Chinese.
18. 1883-An episode in Mark Twain’s life on the Mississippi relates to the
identification of a murderer by his thumbprint.
19. Twain (Samuel L. Clemens) further developed his theme. Eleven (11) years later,
he causes the publication of “Puddin Head Wilson”, a novel based on dramatic
fingerprint identification demonstrated during a court trial. His story pointed out
the infallibility of fingerprint identification.
20. 1888-Sir Edward Richard Henry, succeeded Sir William J. Herschel at his post in
India. He became interested in fingerprints and devised a classification of his
own and published his work in book form and titled it “Classification and Uses of
Fingerprints.”
21. 1889-Sir Richard Henry at Dove, England read a paper detailing his system before
the British association for Advancement of Science.
22. 1891-Juan Vucetich, an Argentinean police official, installed fingerprints files as
an official means of criminal identification; based his system of the pattern typed
by Sir Francis Galton; and he also claimed the first official criminal identification
by means of fingerprints left at the scene of crime.
23. In 1892, at La Piata, Argentina, a woman named Rojas who had murdered her
two sons and had cut her own throat, though not fatal, blamed the attack on a
neighbor. Bloody fingerprints on a door post were identified by Vucetich as
those of the woman herself which led to her confession.
24. 1892-Sir Francis Galton, an English Biologist, wrote his first textbook. He devised
a practical system of classification and filing. 1894-Sir Francis Galton’s report on
fingerprint as a method of identification, along with his system, was read at
Asquith Committee of London, England. His system was officially adopted on
February 12, 1894.
25. 1900-Alphonse Bertillon’s system of body measurement had by this time spread
throughout the world.
26. 1901-Sir Edward Richard Henry was appointed assistant commissioner at
Scotland Yard. His system was so applicable that Henry emerged as the “Father
of Fingerprints,” at least as the first man to successfully apply fingerprints for
identification. 1901-marked the official introduction of fingerprinting for criminal
identification in England and Wales.
27. The system employed was developed from Galton’s observation and devised by
Edward Richard Henry, the Inspector-General of Police in Bengal, India. He later
became commissioner of London’s Metropolitan Police.
28. 1914-Fingerprints were officially adopted in France, replacing Bertillon age.
29. 1882-Gilbert Thompson of the Us Geodetic survey used thumb print for camp
orders on an expedition to New Mexico. This was not official but it was proven
useful (the record was dated Aug. 8, 1882).
30. 1902-Sir Henry P. Forest, chief Medical examiner of New York Civil Service
Commission and an American preacher in fingerprint science in the US for the
New York Civil Service commission to prevent applicants from having
betterqualified persons to take the test for them.
31. The New York Civil Service Commission, on Dec. 19, 1902 required all civil
service applicants to be fingerprinted. Dr. Henry P. Forest, put the system into
practice.
32. 1903-New York State Prison in Albany claims the first practical, systematic use of
fingerprints in the US to identify criminals.
33. 1903-Fingerprints identification was adopted in the following penitentiaries:
Singing Sing, Napanoch, Auborn and Clinton prisons
34. Captain James Parke of the institution installed the identification system where
the fingerprints of prisoners were taken and classified and the fingerprint system
was officially adopted in June of the year. Today, New York State uses the
American system that is similar to the Henry System and represents the system
initiated by Capt. Parke in 1903.
35. 1904-Maj. R. Mccloughry, the warden of the Federal Penitentiary of
Leavenworth when the office of the Atty. General of the U.S. granted permission
to establish a fingerprint bureau therein. It was the first national government
use of fingerprints.
36. 1904-John Kenneth Ferrer (Perrier) of the Fingerprint Branch of the New
Scotland Yard, attended the St. Louis Missouri Worlds Fair. He had been assigned
to guard the British Crown Jewels. American police officials became interested in
fingerprint through him and he became their instructor.
37. 1904-The City of St. Louis Missouri, became the first city to adopt fingerprint.
The police department officials adopted the system on October 29, 1904.
38. 1905-Fingerpritning was officially adopted by the U.S. Army. It was known as the
first military use of fingerprint.
39. 1907-Fingerprinting was officially adopted by the U.S. Navy (January 11, 1907).
40. 1908-Fingerprinting was officially adopted by the U.S. Marine Corps.
41. 1910-Frederick A. Brayley published what appears to be the first American book
in fingerprints.
42. 1911-The State of Illinois, made the first criminal conviction based solely upon
fingerprint evidence. It was known as the first judicial ruling on such evidence,
(People vs Jennings, 252 Illinois 543-96 NE 1007, 43 LRA (NS) 1206 for 1991).
43. 1915-The International Association for Criminal Identification was founded. The
word “criminal” was later dropped from the Association’s name. It is the first
organized body of professional identification experts.
44. 1916-The Institution of Applied Science established at Chicago, Illinois was the
first school to teach fingerprint identification (June 16, 1916).
45. 1916-Frederick Kuhne published a book entitled “The Fingerprint Instructor,”
which probably the first authoritative book in fingerprint to be circulated in the
U.S. Munn and Co., served as the publisher.
46. 1919-Marked the publication of “Fingerprint and Identification Magazine”
(Chicago). The first monthly journal devoted exclusively to fingerprint science,
(July 1919).
47. 1920-The Exceptional Arch, a new pattern, was adapted to Henry’s system by
American experts. The pattern was added after the study made by the assembly
members at annual convention of the International Association for Identification
in 1920.
48. 1922-Haken Jersengen, the sub-director of police in Copenhagen, Denmark
introduced first a long distance identification to U.S. at a police conference here.
 The method was adopted and published in a magazine entitled “Publications” of
the International Police Conference, (New York City Police Department, 1932).
49. Mary K. Holland – the first American Instructress in Dactyloscopy.
50. 1924-The Identification Division of the FBI was established after J. Edgar Hoover
was appointed Director.
51. 1924-The book entitled “Single Fingerprint System” by T.K. Larson, was first
published in U.S., (Berkley, Police Monograph Series) D. Application and Co., New
York City.
52. 1924-The First National Bureau of Identification was created by the act of
Congress. The bureau was established within the U.S. DOJ (Washington DC).
53. 1925-Harry J. Myers II installed the first official fact fingerprint system for infants
in Jewish Maternity Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
54. 1925-The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania used compulsory foot and
fingerprinting of new born infants and mothers which was enacted into law by
Act of General Assembly as approved on April 20, 1925.
55. 1932-The International Exchange of Fingerprint date was initiated with a
number of other nations on February 15, 1932.
56. 1933-The Bureau of Identification, U.S. Department of Justice, adopted the
single fingerprint identification system. The first national use of single print for
identification purposes for certain crimes only, (Feb. 1933).
57. 1933-Latent fingerprints section, for making technical examination of latent
prints or have inked prints on an individual basis was instituted on November 10,
1933. The Civil Identification on Section was established.
58. 1937-The Institute of Applied Science installed Photographic and Firearms
Identification (Forensic Ballistics) laboratories. The institute was the first private
school in U.S. which installed laboratories for instructional purposes only.
59. 1938-A book by Harry J. Myers II, “History of Identification of fingerprints in
U.S.” was published in Fingerprint and Identification Magazine (Chicago, Illinois,
Vol. 20, no. 4, Oct. 1938).
60. 1946-the 100th millionth fingerprint card was received in the identification
division of the FBI. The total grew to 152 million in May 11, 1959.
61. 1967-“Minutiae” was initiated by the FBI, a computerized scanning equipment to
read and record fingerprint identifying characteristics.
62. 1972-the prototype automatic fingerprint reader was delivered.
63. 1973-implementation of the first phase of the automated Identification System
(AIS-1), which was to establish the database consisting of the name, description,
and criminal record of all first offenders with birthdates of 1956.
64. 1978-Journal of Forensic Science – reported that certain properties of
perspiration and body oils contained in latent print residue will luminesce
without pre-treatment and to a degree that photographs could be taken when
 activated by continuous Argon-ION Laser. Hence, the FBI’s Latent Print Detection
System was put into use.
65. 1979-AIS-2 replaced AIS-1. This phase involved the automated searching by
name and other descriptor information of incoming fingerprint cards against the
database.
66. 1979 (Oct. 17, 1979)-A latent fingerprint was developed and lifted from the hand
of a victim in Miami, Florida murder resulting in identifying the suspect. This was
the first known case where a fingerprint from a human skin was used in the
identification, prosecution and conviction of a perpetrator of a crime.

67. 1982-Missing Children Act was signed into law which requires the Attorney
General to acquire, collect, classify, and preserve any information which would
assist in the location of any missing person (including an unemancipated person
as defined by the laws of the place of residence of such person) or assist in the
identification of any deceased individual who have not been identified.
68. 1983-Completion of the conversion of the FBI criminal fingerpint searching from
manual to automated searching. Also, AIS records became available by mail
upon request of the National Crime Information Center’s (NCIC’s) interstate
identification index (III) – an interstate record exchange.
69. 1984-AIS records became available “ON-LINE” through the NCIC program.
Records from the NCIC and AIS, and participating state and local
telecommunication networks became available w/in seconds to authorized
criminal justice agencies.
70. 1985 (Jan. 2) – a contract was awarded for building the final phase of the
Identification Division Automated System (IDAS).
71. 1989-IDAS implementation. Its features are: integrated document transport
equipment; on-line automated technical fingerprint search; and simplified
processing flow. All, for expeditious response time of fingerprint cards.
72. 1900-Mr. Jones was the first to teach fingerprints in the Philippines in the Phil.
Constabulary.
73. 1918-The Bureau of Prisons records show that carpetas (commitment and
conviction records) already bear fingerprints.
74. Under the management of Lt. Asa N. Darby during the American occupation in
the Philippines, a modern and complete fingerprint file has been established for
the Philippine commonwealth.
75. 1937-The first Filipino fingerprint technician employed by the Phil. Constabulary
was Mr. Generoso Reyes. Capt. Thomas Dugan of New York City Police
Department and Mr. Flaviano C. Gurrero of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI) gave the first examinations in fingerprints.
76. 1933-The first conviction based on fingerprints was handed by the Supreme
Court of the Phil. in the case People vs. Medina and this case is considered the
leading judicial decision in the Philippine jurisprudence concerning fingerprinting
(December 23).
77. The science of fingerprinting was first offered as a subject in the Philippines
through the effort of the Plaridel Educational Institution.