PALM PRINTS

Hokitika Guardian, 28 October 1931, Page 6

PALM PRINTS

FIRST CONVICTION. SCOTLAND YARD’S NEW WEAPON. LONDON, September 11. Experiments with palm prints at Scotland Yard, will, if successful!., revolutionise the whole method of identification by finger-prints. For the first time in British criminal history, a man has been convicted at the Old Bailey on the evidence oi a palm print left on tine plate-glass top ol' a dressing table at Hendon. . For some months past the Fingerprint Bureau at Scotland Yard, unuer the direction of Chief Inspector Harry Battley, has been working on the envelopment of a scheme of palm print identification. The great advantage oi palm prints as against finger-prints is the greater area revealed. The palm is traversed by innumerable ridges, forming many varieties of pattern, and by creases. The ridge patterns and the ridge characteristics persist throughout life without change, and are so distinctive as to differentiate eacli individual from all others. WILL GROW AGAIN.

Even if a. palm is damaged by disease or injury the obliterated ridges will grow again and regain their normal appearance and sharpness of outline.

Palm prints, for the present will form hut a minor portion of the Finger, print Library at the Yard, which houses over half a million records of convicted criminals and unknown robbers who have never been located. Commenting on the ease at the Old Bailey yesterday the Recorder made reference to the work of Sir Edward Henry who, in 1901, established the finger-print identity system at Scotland Yard.

Finger-prints have been transmitted by wireless across the world and suspected men identified thousands of miles from Scotland Yard. A system of identification bv a single finger-print has been established in London through the energy of Chief Inspector Bnttley.