FINGERPRINTING !!!

In the 19th century it was observed that contact between someone's hands and a surface left barely visible and marks called fingerprints. Fine powder (dusting) was used to make the marks more visible.

Modern fingerprint identification dates from 1880, when the British scientific journal Nature published letters by the Englishmen Henry Faulds and William James Herschel describing the uniqueness and permanence of fingerprints.

Dr.Henry faulds gave the idea of tracing criminals from latent prints found at a crime site and came to the conclusion that no two prints were alike.

Their observations were verified by the English scientist Sir Francis Galton, who designed the first elementary system for classifying fingerprints based on grouping the patterns into arches, loops, and whorls. Galton's system was improved upon by London police commissioner, Sir Edward R. Henry, then IGP,Lower bengal with the able assistance of two of  his Indian officers.

The first ever Finger Print Bureau of the world was established at Writer's Building  at Calcutta in the year 1897.

The Galton-Henry system of fingerprint classification, was published in June 1900, and officially introduced at Scotland Yard in 1901. It is the most widely used method of fingerprinting to date.