Classification and uses of finger prints / by Sir E.R. Henry.

  • Edward Henry
Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Classification and uses of finger prints / by Sir E.R. Henry. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    127/168 (page 113)
    taken in pairs, all descriptive cards can be divided into 1024 classes, and to each class is allotted a separate pigeon-hole. By means of the Key, a copy of which is attached, any one pigeon-hole can be at once found with the greatest ease, and certainly even by a person who has never seen the system before. We were both enabled to do this at once without any difficulty. Having thus located the card in one parti- cular pigeon-hole, a further classification is necessary to assist in the search through all the different cards in that pigeon-hole ; this further classification depends on the details in the impressions, which it is unnecessary to enter into here, but it is so simple that we were both able to find the originals of two of the most intricate cards that could be produced, with ease and certainty. The men whose duty it is to look up the originals, in no case took more than five minutes to produce the original, the duplicate of which we had handed to them out of a file of some six hundred records, and the originals of which were part of a file of finger-print cards exceeding eight thousand in number. One case which was selected as being apparently an especially difficult one, as it was very indistinct, was found in two minutes only. The principles of the subclassification are such that should minute distribution be needed in consequence of any great accumulation in any one pigeon-hole, it can easily be made by extending the same principles. The system of search is therefore much more rapid and more certain than that for the anthropometric data. 5. The greatest sceptic would be at once convinced of identity on being shown the original and duplicate impres- sions. The exact repetition of most minute details is quite astonishing. There is no possible margin of error, and there are no doubtful cases. 6. Thus the three main conditions laid down by the Com- mittee appointed by the Secretary of State to inquire into the best means available for identifying habitual criminals are fully satisfied, viz.— (1) The descriptions, measurements or marks, which are the basis of the system, must be such as can be 27491 H