Sir William Herschel, 2nd Baronet

William James Herschel, 2nd Baronet of Collingwood ( born January 9, 1833 in Slough, England, † October 24, 1917 Hawkhurst, Kent ) was the first European to fingerprints in addition to the signature could install on contracts. He called this the first time on July 28, 1858 as an employee in the British civil service in India. He collected fingerprints for a long time and was able to prove the fact that they remained for a few years with the same, and for other corroborating the assumption that they differ from person to person. Herschel thus paving the way for the fingerprint data.

Life

William James Herschel was the third of twelve children of the astronomer John Frederick William Herschel. He was the eldest son and grandson of the astronomer William Herschel ( discoverer of the planet Uranus). His father asked him whether he wanted to choose another career than those in astronomy. So he joined the British East India Company and was sent to Bengal.

From 1853 to 1878 he lived in British India. He began his career there. After the Sepoy Mutiny in 1857/1858 the administration in India changed by the Company directly to the Treasury ( "the British Raj "). There, William James Herschel increased to a Clerk of the Tax Chamber on ( " Board of Revenue " ), then in 1872, Commissioner ( " Commissioner " ) of Dakka and finally in 1874 Commissioner of Cooch Behar.

Herschel came from a family that has an outstanding reputation due to their scientists and musical artists. His grandfather, Sir William Herschel (1738-1822), was a famous composer, mathematician and one of the most influential astronomers of his time, who discovered the planet Uranus. His sister, Caroline Lucretia Herschel (1750-1848), not only wrote notable works on astronomy but also appeared as a singer. William James' father, John Herschel (1792-1871), was also a well-known mathematician and astronomer. His two brothers, Alexander Stewart Herschel (1836-1907) and John Herschel (1837-1921), followed in the footsteps of his father and operated likewise as astronomers.

When his father died, William James inherited the title of baronet in 1871. At his death, in turn, the title passed to his only son, the Reverend Sir John Herschel, about.

William James Herschel, together with his wife Anna Emma Haldane Hardcastle, whom he married in 1864 and who died in 1873, and his daughter Margaret Elizabeth Emma Herschel ( 1865-1880 ), at the Church of St. Laurence in Hawkhurst, Kent, buried. The University of Oxford awarded him in 1884 a master's degree honorary ( " MA Oxon ").

Looking for safety

The later epoch-making progress began unimpressive. From 1858 the Jangipur offset by William James Herschel its contractual partners in the district of Hooghly in Calcutta complete handprints demanded in addition to signature at the signing of contracts.

Rajyadhar Konai was probably the first person who came into contact with this method. On July 28, 1858 his handprint was taken in addition to the signature on a contract by Herschel. Herschel wanted to achieve the fulfillment of the contract by the Bengali entrepreneur. He cherished the hope that Konai felt, more strongly bound with the added element on the contract on his promise to provide road building materials to the Authority. Konai should his signature can no longer doubt on the document later.

Herschel continued to experiment with handprints and soon found out that it is actually sufficient to use only finger. He collected impressions from friends and family and concluded that do not change a person's fingerprints over time. He suggested to the Governor of Bengal, to let take on important documents fingerprints to prevent the personification and an eventual refusal of the contracts, but fizzled.

In 1860 Herschel colonial official was in the district of Nadia. For his service duties was to ensure that, although the locals they are entitled to pensions for services rendered to the British received, but at the same time every scam as best I could to prevent it. A high illiteracy rate and thus hardly possible individual signature services offered the locals a good potential for shenanigans.

Herschel remembered the success with the handprints. He demanded of the pension recipients in the payment as a receipt for the money receipt of their fingerprint. The fingerprints were collected and compared in doubt. This created a large body of illustrative material. The total of all payments actually went back and Herschel found his passion.

1877 Herschel became the highest officials ( " magistrates " ) of Hooghly appointed ( an office, the administration, such as judicial powers conferred ). He was head of a systematic taking of fingerprints of pensioners, so that their pensions could not be obtained by fraudsters. He began to collect fingerprints of criminals, so that their stay in prison could not be served by a substitute hired by the convicted swindler. His request to be allowed to test the system in a small jail in Bengal, however, was rejected.

Back in England

Herschel returned to England in 1878 back to life, and in 1880 published a letter in the journal "Nature", in which he explained his experience with fingerprints. The magazine had previously published an article by Dr. Henry Faulds, who had also worked as a doctor with fingerprints. Both motivated the British government to investigate a possible system of identification of fingerprints.

His collection of fingerprints had taken from India Herschel. He put it as study material Francis Galton available.

1916, the year before he died, Herschel published a report on its work under the title " The Origin of Finger - Printing".

Importance

Fingerprints were attached already centuries earlier among the Babylonians and the Persians contracts. Even Chinese and Japanese they already used as a signature. William Herschel is credited to have been the first the value of fingerprints for identifications. He was certain that fingerprints were unique and a permanent feature. Herschel documented his own fingerprints during his life, to examine these durability. He was the first demonstrably used fingerprints for practical purposes.

For a considerable period of his life, Herschel is said to have decorated with the imprint of 1858 as evidence that he had first thought of the fingerprint as a method of identification. The contrary is held, first, that Herschel used these impressions more as a means of intimidation because for identification. It broke his contract no. Second, Herschel suggested never to their use of police criminal identification; they were used by him in civil contracts. Regardless of these limitations, however, he was still the first one had a systematic collection of fingerprints for a long time and was able to demonstrate the stability of the fingerprints over the years.

Although he developed the technique of the fingerprint, they used Herschel alone as an administrative tool. He did not come up with the idea that the method could also be used for catching criminals. It was Francis Galton and Edward Richard Henry, the building on Herschel preparations to use the fingerprint as a means of combating the crime began.

Works

• The origin of finger -printing bound with classification and uses of fingerprints. AMS Press, New York 1974, ISBN 0-404-09119-9 (along with Edward R. Henry)