Fingerprints
Murder and the Race to Uncover the Science of Identity (Text Only)
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- 4,99 €
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- 4,99 €
Beschreibung des Verlags
This edition does not include illustrations.
A fascinating exploration into the history of science and crime. In the tradition of ‘Fermat’s Last Theorem’, FINGERPRINTS is the story of the race to discover the secrets trapped in the whorls and arches found on the palm of one’s hand.
In 1905 an elderly couple were found murdered in their shop in Deptford, London. The only evidence at the scene of the crime was a sweaty fingerprint on a cashbox. Was it possible that a single fingerprint could be enough to lead to a conviction? Could the pattern of these tracks hold the secrets of the science of identification?
Through the story of three brilliant men: William Herschel, a colonial administrator in Indian, Henry Faulds, a missionary in Japan and Charles Darwin’s cousin, Francis Galton, the extraordinary story of the history of fingerprinting is revealed.
It is a story of intellectual skulduggery and scientific brilliance. Packed with an extraordinary cast of individuals whose scientific breakthroughs helped solve one of the most brutal murders in English history and shape our understanding of identity forever.
Reviews
'As entertaining as it is well-researched and informative.' Scotland on Sunday
'Full of such fine small stories. Beavan has added another splendid book to the canon of non-fiction classics.' Dea Birkett, Independent
'As gripping as any crime novel.' Simon Singh, Sunday Telegraph
'By sparse intelligent use of detail Beavan has created an engrossing, tight drama spanning the latter part of the 19th Century. His research is impressive and he seems to have a genuine feel for the period.' Daily Telegraph
‘Beavan skilfully interweaves an absorbing tale with a fine cast of colourful and eccentric characters to provide a compelling account of the origins of forensic science.‘ Deborah Cadbury, author of THE DINOSAUR HUNTERS
About the author
Colin Beavan is a magazine journalist writing for ‘Esquire’ and ‘Atlantic Monthly’. He gained his Ph.D in applied physics from the University of Liverpool.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Beavan's lively debut explores developments in criminal forensics that culminated in the first prosecution based on fingerprint evidence, in London in 1905. He opens his narrative with the wanton double murder of the elderly Farrows and the crude initial investigation. Beavan, a writer for Esquire and other magazines, examines at length the slow scientific inroads into 19th-century law enforcement. Following the sharp decline in hanging offenses, European societies were swept by hysteria regarding multi-aliased career criminals. Officials reluctantly explored ways of confirming identities of repeat offenders, notably Alphonse Bertillon's anthropometric system, which posited that "criminal" body types could be identified by minute bodily measurements. Several British bureaucrats had experimented with inked fingerprints for identification, but Henry Faulds, an impoverished Scottish medical missionary in Japan, definitively claimed that fingerprints' particular qualities were ideal for criminal prosecution. Faulds's early publications spawned fingerprint science; unfortunately, his thunder was stolen by the ambitious, better-positioned Francis Galton (Darwin's cousin), whom Beavan portrays as an effete plagiarist. Police in South America and India ventured into this terra incognita, but Scotland Yard fiercely resisted. Only tragic anthropometric and eyewitness misidentifications led grudging officials to use the Farrows trial as a test case. The embittered Faulds served as a defense witness, contending that single-digit identification, the basis for this ultimately successful prosecution, was unreliable. This entertaining and balanced work centers less on academic precepts than does Simon Cole's Suspect Identities(see review below). Beavan's effortless prose, firm grasp of his subject and vividly drawn characters will delight history buffs and armchair criminologists. Photos and illus.
