Fingerprinting History

The set of ridges on the pads of your fingers, or fingerprints as they are more commonly called, have been used around the world, for many centuries, in various ways. For example in the early 1600's fingerprints were used as signatures for a vast number of important government papers in countries such as Ancient Persia. However, in countries such as Ancient China and Ancient Babylon fingerprints were more commonly found on business transactions and clay seals. In 1686 a man by the name of Marcello Malpighi discovered that there were different patterns inscribed in the fingerprints but made no mention toward these patterns being used as a tool for individual identification. During the early and mid 19th century the idea of fingerprints opened up to new resources. In 1858 a man by the name of Sir William Herschel began a fingerprint collection from which he found that the ink prints he had collected were different for each individual and could be used as a way to identify a specfic person. Today we use fingerprints for everything from finding a missing child to keeping track of convicted felons. The FBI currently maintains a fingerprint library with more than ten percent of the entire US population. One great example of how the technique of fingerprinting has changed would be the automated fingerprinting identification system, or AFIS, which had allowed police departments to access the FBI's fingerprint library by computer. Over the course of history the usage of fingerprinting has changed, however, it will always remain a unique way for people to show their individuality.
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