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Dr. Nehemiah
wrote a paper describing the patterns that he saw on human hands under the microscope, including the presence of ridges. -
Jan Evangelist Purkyinje
described nine distinct fingerprint patterns, including loops, spirals, circles, and double whorls. -
Sir William Herschel
began the collecting of fingerprints and noted the patterns were unique to each person and were not altered by age. -
Sir Francis Galton
along with Sir E. R. Henry, developed the classification system for fingerprints that is still in use today in the United States and Europe. -
Ivan (Juan) Vucetich
improved fingerprint collection, and devised his own fingerprint classification system and invented a better way of collecting the impressions. -
Sir Edmund Richard Henry
with the help of two colleagues, created a system that divided fingerprint records into groups based on whether they have an arch, whorl, or loop pattern. -
Alphonse Bertillon
was credited with solving the first murder using fingerprints because he created a way to identify criminals using fingerprints back in 1879 -
FBI Starts Fingerprinting
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) took over the cataloguing of fingerprints in America and had over 200 million fingerprints on file by 1971. -
Computerized Fingerprinting Through AFIS
programs began using Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems (AFIS), which scanned and stored fingerprints electronically. -
FBI Adopts Computerized Fingerprinting
the FBI began transferring their fingerprints on file to an electronic system, where millions of criminal fingerprints across the globe are now stored.
