The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1916-12-19
VAST NUMBER Of
FINGER PRINTS
Bureau of Criminal Identifi-
cation i'm New York Is
Much Enlarged
CLEARING HOUSE
OF WHOLE COUNTRY
Prints More Efficient than Bertillon
System - Long Study of Impressions
Shows They Do Not Indicate Human
Character.

NEW YORK, Dee. 19.-Under the di-
fectlon of Commissioner Woods the
work OF the bureau of criminal identi-
heat1on at police headquarters here has
J. zen greatly enlarged, and brought upI
to date. This is especially true of the
finger print department, which today isl
by the police as the best and
s1rest method of making criminal iden-
tiications. Although the Bertillon
s.. stem is still in use by the depart
ment, and will probably always have
its uses, 1t has to q great extent been
superseded by the finger-print system.
The department today has "a collec-
ton of more than 10000 finger i'm
pressiOns of different individuals. These
prints came from all over the United
ates, Canada, and from many Euro
pan cities. Commissioner Woods
some time ago sent notices to the po-
lice headquarters of every city in the
country suggesting that copies of their
finger prints be forwarded here. In the
notices it was stated that the depart
ment possessed a very large collection
O. records of criminals who could be
10 .ated only by means of finger prints
aud that if its records We're forwarded
the department would offer its finger
PRINT service to them without expense
In many cases these notices We're sent
to the sheriffs of what is popular.y
Known as 'one-horse towns In this
manner the department s finger print
bureau has become a sort of clearing
house for other police departments in
the country. The bureau is in charge
Of Inspector Joseph \. Faurot. He is
assisted in the work by Acting Detec-
tive Sergeant William NJ. Haley and
five other men.
The impressions are classified ac-
cording to ''whorls. = loops, "arch-
es - or ''deltas.' The prints are care
frlly filed and indexed according to
their characteristics. In large room
in the basement of headquarters the
actual finger prints are taken. Printer 5
ink is spread by roller on the sur
face of glass table. This ink is
smeared on the fingers of the prisoner,
and the finger impressions are then
ta ken down on paper. All of the fin
gers of both hands of the prisoner are
aken.
The police after exhaustive studies
have been able to learn much about
finger prints. The system is based on
the fact that every human being has q
distinct and individual impression
which differs from that of any Other
person. 1t has been ably demonstrated
that no two finger prints are alike
/ The police assert that there is not even
similarity between the prints Of
members of family Twins who were
arrested, and were as physically alik,
as the proverbal two peas, had widely
| different finger impressions. There i,
no racial similaritg in finger prints
Those of negro have the same char
acteristic of any other race. Tht
| prints of 4 manual laborcr are no diff
ferent in whirls or loops from thos'
| of singer or artist, except that The
! impressions of the man whose fingers
/ are not calloused from hard work whei
| taken down on paper are often as clea
/ as a steel engraving. 1t is the opinion
OF the men in tha department s finge
print service that it would be impossi
| bic to read the character of person
from their finger impressions.
"There is no way one Of then
said ''by looking at a finger print i'm
preston OF telling whether it is that o
| n boy, man or woman. The impress
sions of "a man Of high order of intel
ligence are not Enthusiastically differ
cnt from those of man of low orde
Of intelligence. In fact, there is n
way we can tell from the print
whether a man is a pianist or Goa
passer.