# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Evidence of fingerprints in early paintings and rock carvings of prehistoric humans

# data[].attributes.body
This early use of fingerprints gives us an idea of just how long the idea of print identification has been around.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
A Chinese book, Hsi Duan Yu (the washing away of wrongs), contains a description of how to distinguish drowning from strangulation. This was the first recorded application of medical knowledge to the solution of crime.

# data[].attributes.body
This book demonstrates the beginning stages of connecting criminal justice with medical evidence.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Thomas Bewick, an English naturalist, used engravings of his own fingerprints to identify books he published.

# data[].attributes.body
Bewick's use of his fingerprint as a type of signature further encouraged the use of fingerprints as a means of identification.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Eugène François Vidocq, in return for a suspension of arrest and a jail sentence, made a deal with the police to establish the first detective force, the Sûreté of Paris.

# data[].attributes.body
Vidocq's questionable trade created the foundation that detective forces today are derived from.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
The first recorded use of question document analysis occurred in Germany. A chemical test for a particular ink dye was applied to a document known as the Konigin Hanschritt.

# data[].attributes.body
This is significant because it opened the door for the analysis of smaller details within a crime.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
William Nichol invented the polarizing light microscope.

# data[].attributes.body
The polarizing light microscope allows for the investigation of crystals, bone, fibers, and minerals.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Henry Goddard, one of Scotland Yard's original Bow Street Runners, first used bullet comparison to catch a murderer. His comparison was based on a visible flaw in the bullet which was traced back to a mold.

# data[].attributes.body
Goddard's findings helped pave the way for a more established study of forensic ballistics.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
James Marsh, a Scottish chemist, was the first to use toxicology (arsenic detection) in a jury trial.

# data[].attributes.body
This is a very significant event because it established a place for forensics within the walls of a courtroom.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
The German scientist Schönbein first discovered the ability of hemoglobin to oxidize hydrogen peroxide, making it foam. This resulted in the first presumptive test for blood.

# data[].attributes.body
This discovery was a significant help in forensics at the time and contributed to the eventual establishment of forensic serology - the study and examination of bodily fluids.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Henry Faulds, a Scottish physician working in Tokyo, published a paper in the journal "Nature" suggesting that fingerprints at the scene of a crime could identify the offender. In one of the first recorded uses of fingerprints to solve a crime, Faulds used fingerprints to eliminate an innocent suspect and indicate a perpetrator in a Tokyo burglary.

# data[].attributes.body
Faulds' contribution to the world of forensics is very important. This use of fingerprints to eliminate a suspect as well as solve a crime is very similar to the way fingerprints are used in today's law enforcement.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Sir Edward Richard Henry developed the print classification system that would come to be used in Europe and North America. He published "Classification and Uses of Finger Prints."

# data[].attributes.body
Sir Henry's contribution to the forensic science community because his method that divided fingerprint patterns in four categories served to identify habitual criminals.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Professor R.A. Reiss, professor at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, and a pupil of Bertillon, set up one of the first academic curricula in forensic science. His forensic photography department grew into Lausanne Institute of Police Science.

# data[].attributes.body
Professor Reiss and his development of academic curricula in forensic science opened the door for the accessibility of further study and discovery by a new set of minds.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
The New York State system began the first systematic use of fingerprints in the United States for criminal identification.

# data[].attributes.body
At this point, we're able to see the beginnings of the system currently used by law enforcement, though now most of their data processing is done digitally.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Charles E. Waite was the first to catalog manufacturing data about weapons.

# data[].attributes.body
Waite's collection of data is significant because it assisted in the ability to rule out which bullets, among other things, could have plausibly been used by a certain weapon based on the make and model.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
August Vollmer, as chief of police in Los Angeles, California, implemented the first U.S. police crime laboratory.

# data[].attributes.body
This is a significant implementation by Vollmer because it encouraged further study and discovery in the field of forensic science in the state of California.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Max Frei-Sulzer, founder of the first Swiss criminalistics laboratory, developed the tape lift method of collecting trace evidence.

# data[].attributes.body
The tape lift method is still used today, and is often one of the first things shown to people learning about how forensic science works.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
The detection of gunshot residue (GSR) using scanning electron microscopy with electron dispersive X-rays (SEM-EDX) technology was developed by J.E. Wessel, P.F. Jones, Q.Y. Kwan, R.S. Nesbitt and E.J. Rattin at Aerospace Corporation.

# data[].attributes.body
This breakthrough technology is very significant because it allows forensic scientists to analyze trace materials from gunshot residue under high levels of magnification, helping them examine the evidence.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
In the first use of DNA to solve a crime, Jeffreys used DNA profiling to identify Colin Pitchfork as the murderer of two young girls in the English Midlands. Significantly, in the course of the investigation, DNA was first used to exonerate an innocent suspect.

# data[].attributes.body
The first use of DNA in a criminal case was significant because it highlighted all the capabilities that DNA data can provide - proving both innocence and guilt.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
The FBI upgraded its computerized fingerprint database and implemented the "Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS)", allowing paperless submission, storage, and search capabilities directly to the national database maintained at the FBI.

# data[].attributes.body
This is a very convenient development by the FBI because it makes identification information to be stored and searched much more easily.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
There is a large and upcoming field of "forensic informatics" which uses computer programs to try and predict where a criminal lives based on the location of crimes that he/she has committed. Similar computer software can be applied to murder scenes to identify the source of blood splatter; so by measuring and logging down a large number of blood drops on a wall of a room, for example, the software can predict where in the room the blood originated.

# data[].attributes.body
This is a very exciting and recent development in the world of forensic science. The assistance that artificial intelligence can provide is extremely helpful in creating theories and discoveries.