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August 17, 2006

1963 FBI Fingerprint Book on Project Gutenberg

The Science of Fingerprints: Classification and Uses, FBI, 1963. Introduction by J. Edgar Hoover.

You can buy a real copy here.

Posted on August 17, 2006 at 12:49 PM • 8 Comments

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Comments

aikimark • August 17, 2006 2:23 PM

Project Guttenberg is a worthwhile digitization of historical documents. I encourage everyone to put in a little time on this.

solinym • August 17, 2006 3:07 PM

Lots of good info on the reliability of fingerprint identification here:
http://www.latent-prints.com/

Walter • August 17, 2006 3:30 PM

Okay, I must be getting paranoid. When I read the title in my RSS reader, I wondered why the FBI was investigating Project Gutenberg...

Ian Holmes • August 18, 2006 3:24 AM

Listen to J.Edgar go:

"Civil fingerprints are an invaluable aid in identifying amnesia victims, missing persons and unknown deceased. In the latter category the victims of major disasters may be quickly and positively identified if their fingerprints are on file, thus providing a humanitarian benefit not usually associated with fingerprint records...

"Of all the methods of identification, fingerprinting alone has proved to be both infallible and feasible. Its superiority over the older methods, such as branding, tattooing, distinctive clothing, photography, and body measurements (Bertillon system), has been demonstrated time after time."

Kind of makes me want to turn in my fingerprints right now, just in case.

Alan Porter • August 18, 2006 9:11 AM

@ Ian Holmes

Some of Hoover's points are valid, but that does not mean that the police / FBI / government need to be the ones to keep fingerprint records.

I have records of my children's identifying marks (moles, scars, etc). I plan to make fingerprints as well. I hope I never have to use them. But I keep them at home, and not on file at some police station.

Alan

blowmedown • August 19, 2006 5:47 AM

"What are we going to do when Uncle Samuel comes around,
Asking for the young one's name,
Looking for the print of his hand
For some file in their numbers game?
I don't want his chances for freedom
To ever be that slim,
Let's not tell them about him."
-"A Child is Coming", Kantner, Slick; Blows Against the Empire, Jefferson Starship, RCA Records, 1970

Jonathan • August 22, 2006 3:22 AM

Sounds as if they chose fingerprints as an alternative to the tattoos with which Nazis marked jews in concentration camps to gas them later.

Well, I don't want to end up in a concentration camp and be gased, so I better don't give them my fingerprints.

Keshab • August 30, 2006 3:07 AM

If you give me your fingerprint recognition code, i'll be pleased

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