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William James Herschel, a British colonial magistrate in India, first used fingerprints as a means of identification on 28th July, 1858 - not to catch a criminal, but to implement two-step verification on a contract.\nIn Britain, the technology was first used to solve the theft of some billiard balls in 1902. These days, it\u2019s been largely usurped by DNA, but remains a staple of the policing repertoire.\nIn this episode, Rebecca, Arion and Olly consider whether ears might be better criminal identifiers than fingers; reveal the history of the mugshot; and explain why koalas are our secret hand doubles...\xa0\nFurther Reading:\n\u2022 \u2018Press Down Firmly, You're in Our Files Now\u2019 (WIRED, 2011):\xa0https://www.wired.com/2011/07/0728india-fingerprint-identification/\n\u2022 \u2018The Blackburn child killer and rapist who changed criminal forensics forever\u2019 (LancsLive, 2019):\xa0https://www.lancs.live/news/lancashire-news/blackburn-child-killer-rapist-who-17118836\n\u2022 The Bertillon System of Criminal Identification in use by the Police in the 1910s (Kinolibrary Archive Film collections):\xa0https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8Myc8LZSME\nFor bonus material and to support the show, visit\xa0Patreon.com/Retrospectors\nWe'll be back tomorrow! Follow us wherever you get your podcasts:\xa0podfollow.com/Retrospectors\nThe Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.\nTheme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Emma Corsham.\nCopyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2021.\n#1800s #Crime #Person #Inventions #Discoveries #Technology #UK\n Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices