Finger-Prints Wirelessed

Waipawa Mail, Volume XLIX, Issue 152, 14 September 1928, Page 1 (Supplement)

Finger-Prints Wirelessed

Scotland Yard for the second time has used a new system by which fingerprints can be wirelessed to all parts of the world. A prisoner de-

tained in London is believed to be wanted by the Chicago police. His fingerprints are immediately taken and sent to the United States by radio code. The system was first used when the fingerprints of a man arrested in London were wirelessed to New York, and he was identified as a counterfeiter who had escaped while on a lft,ooo-dollar bail, pending his appeal against a sentence of five years. In the new system, various whorls, circles, and loops are described by the index letter and figures. Fingerprints sent by wireless thus might read: C 4. C 6, C 9, F 7, F 9, Fl 3. G2, H 4, .T 9, Jl2, J3,*J7, LB, LlO, ending with the initials P.D. At the receiving bureau the fingerprints would be reconstructed! by means of a chart in five minutes.