South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1918-03-16
Identifying Our Men by
Finger Prints
BY GARRETT p. sERvIss.

Under the new system of person.
al identification now being intro
duced into the United States navy
there should be few cases hereafter
of the burial Of unidentified dead"
and thus one of the haunting ter
rors faced by relatives at home will
be almost completely eliminated.
The system is the invention of J..
H. Taylor of the identification sec
ton Of the bureau of navigation, and
it is based on finger prints. Every
man and officer in the navy is to
wear a little metal tag bearing on
one side the print of his hight ip-
dex finger. and on the other his
name, date of enlistment, day and
year of birth. rank, etc.
heretofore, when a disaster like
that of the blowing up of the Maine
occurred hundreds of the dead could
not be identified and, unclaimed by
relatives, had to be buried in a
common grave. often, too, terribly
wounded men, taken TO hospitals, or
dying under operation, have simply
disappeared" for lack of identifica-
ton marks.
Perhaps the chief Importance Of
the new system is that IL renders
substitution of marks impossible A
mere name mark might get into
wrong hands.
The new Identification tags, many
of which have already been distrib
uted. are made of mOnel metal, an
alloy containing copper and nickel.
which is both incorrodible by sea
water and infusibie except at a tenn
perature of more than $500 degrees.
The tags are slightly oval in out
line. and an Northumberland in
greatest length \ braided wire of
monel metal, passing through hole
in one end of the tag and covered
with cotton TO prevent abrasion,
goes round the neck Of the wearer
The process of obtaining the fin
ger print on the metal is both sim
pie and interesting. The ball Of the
finger is smeared with a thin film OF
printers ink from a prepared plate
and is then pressed upon the fiat
surface of the tag. While the i'm
preston is yet fresh it Is sprinkled
over with powdered asphaltum,
which adheres to the fine lines of
ink. but not to the dry metal The
tag is next heated with an alcohol
flame until the asphaltum melts.
and the result is the formation of
sharp glossy lines" which repro
duce internationally, the smallest de-
tails of the print.
The final step is 10 etch the sur
face OF the tag with nitric acid. leav-
ing the lines standing out in sharp
relief. The other markings on the
tag. such as the name and dates, are
produced In the same manner.
The basis OF the system is the
classified collection Of finger print
records possessed by the Identified
ton section OF the bureau OF navi-
CATION. All enlisted men in the navy
have had their finger prints taken
for these records since 1907, and the
finger prints Of all officers are now
being procured.
some 100000 prints are on file,
and il might seem that among such
/ a multitude identification OF an in
, dividual would be very difficult and
would require much time. In fact
/ however. the labor OF identification
Is enormously reduced By the exis-
| tence OF a number Of well-marked
| types Of finger ridges. such as arches
loops. whorls and composites. in ad-
/ ditiOn 10 many sub-classes, which
enable an expert TO run down an in
| dividual print very quickly while .