Biometrics

Although serious interest and popularity of products using biometric fingerprints for identification is very recent, many do not realize that biometric fingerprints is a very ancient concept. The history of biometric fingerprints for identification is very old indeed, and actually begins well before any type of technology was available to capitalize on biometric fingerprints.

Ancient civilizations were the first to use biometric fingerprints for identification. In ancient Babylon, fingerprints were found on clay tablets that were used for conducting business transactions. In China, thumb prints were found on clay seals. For these ancient civilizations, the biometric fingerprints acted as a type of signature.

In the fourteenth century, Persian government officials had biometric fingerprints impressions made, and a doctor in the government noted that no two biometric fingerprints were alike. It is very interesting, then, that government officials in the western world did not put this realization to use in law enforcement until the late 1800's.

The first mention of the use of biometric fingerprints in law enforcement was in 1880 by a one Dr. Henry Faulds working in Tokyo, Japan. His thesis not only identified the possible benefits of biometric fingerprints for law enforcement agencies, but also presented the method by which fingerprints could be taken and filed. Using printers ink and fingerprint cards was the method given by Faulds, and is the method many of us are familiar with today.

Biometric fingerprints and their widespread future use was noted in what could be considered a science fiction novel by Mark Twain in 1883. In his book Life on the Mississippi, a main character who was an investigator solved a murder by using fingerprints. Why is this referred to as an occurrence of fingerprints in science fiction? Because there is no documentation of any law enforcement official using fingerprints to solve crimes until an Argentine official by the name of Juan Vucetich solved a murder by biometric fingerprints in 1891.

Sir Francis Galton studied biometric fingerprints and their implications throughout the 1880's. Then, in 1892, Galton published a book that outlined the basis of using fingerprints for law enforcement agencies. He also outlined the classification system for biometric fingerprints still in use today. Still, law enforcement officials were slow to keep up.

In 1901, England and Wales finally began using biometric fingerprints for criminal identification. Responsibility for this eventual adoption of biometric fingerprints for identification belongs to Sir Edward Richard Henry, who adopted Galton's observations and then altered the process slightly. The Henry classification system is the one used by law enforcement in all English speaking countries today. By 1904, the system was in use in New York State and Leavenworth State Penitentiary in Kansas for the use of tracking criminals in the prison system.

Finally, in 1924, Congress passed legislation that allowed the FBI to begin collecting biometric fingerprints for fingerprint files. In the seventies, management of fingerprints at the FBI was made easier with automation and computer tracking, which has, of course, improved over the years. Today, we can use biometric fingerprints for identification for all types of security in commercial, government, and residential use.