The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-01-24
CLAIMS HE IS ABLE TO FORGE
 FINGER PRINTS
Start Inquiry Into State. ment Made By Hand
 writing Expert

New York, Jan. 24-Officials of the International Association for Personal Identification here, an organization having for it's object the finger printing" of every man, woman and child in the United States and Can ada, have started an inquiry into the charge made by Milton Carlson, a Los Angeles handwriting expert, that fin ger prints can be forged.
 Carlson says he forged the finger prints of a convicted murderer in New J Jersey in human blood on a butcher knife, making a perfect thumb impres- sion of a man 5000 miles away. Elk perts, dt is said, pronounced it perfect. So far as known, the Californian Is the first man to announce successful duplication of finger prins, used for the past 1000 years as an infaHible means of identification.
 Forged finger prints are possible but ineffective it is said by officials of the International Association for Personal Identification here. "A crim- ina1," said the secretary of the asso- citation, would not have one chance in million of success in fastening a crime upon an innocent person by means of a forged finger print.
 Our researches show that in every case of a reproduced print the lines are too palpably false to deceive a skilled eye. They show up under a strong magnifying glass like a rubber stamp or wood engraving and not like the original finger lines which, by reason of precipitation and will, are clear and sharply defined.
 Handwriting experts may attempt to discredit fngerprints because their use detracts from their business but the fact remains that human seals, as the finger prints are called, are an concerned. They have practically superseded the Bertillon system in New York state but, until the law is changed, the Berti1lon must be used in the penitentiaries. When the lines are blurred, as often happens, a finger print is worthless but if they are clear it is infa1lible evidence. It has been shown that if the finger ridges were shaved off or sand papered they came back.
 "It is popularly supposed that ingerprints usually are only shown in blood. The fact is that you leave a finger print upon everything you touch. It is quite invisible to the naked eye. The expert, however, will take a bit of powder-a dark pow der on a light surface or a light powder on a dark surface--and will quickly develop the print. The powders usRd are lampblack, gra- phfte, cinnebar, red and mercurious sulphide and dragons blood.
 Nature has carved on our fingers these seals and they should be put to civilian as we'll as police use. Un- doubtedly they have been the means of detecting thousands of criminals. Hundreds of individuals who come to New York and are swallowed up in this great city, their bodies finally landing in the morgue, might never be buried in the potter's field if we had a National finger print registry of civilians
 The New York finger print organ fzation officials say that despite MT. Carlson's charge genuine finger prints are an invaluable aid to identify vic- tims of train wrecks, or other dis asters and for ascertaining the iden- tify of persons who have temporarily "lost' themselves.