FINDING FINGERPRINTS (continued): • When an object thought to have fingerprints on it is held over iodine vapor, the vapor crystalizes where it comes into contact with fats and oils, defining the lines of the print. The print is then photographed, and specialized filters on the camera will make the print even more visible. Iodine fuming is good at lifting prints from rubber gloves.
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• Another method used silver nitrate and ninhydrin as dusting powders. Ninhydrin reacts to the amino acids in human sweat, causing them to become visible. Silver nitrate combines with trace amounts of body salts to form sodium chloride. The print can then be lifted with a sticky tape, and then photographed. Ninhydrin and silver nitrate, used together, can reveal prints left on porous surfaces such as paper or wood.
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MOMENTS IN TIME • On Nov. 15, 1864, Union General William Tecumseh Sherman begins his famous March to the Sea by torching the industrial section of Atlanta. For the next six weeks, Sherman's army cut a 60-mile-wide swath of destruction through Georgia before capturing the seaport of Savannah. • On Nov. 12, 1892, William "Pudge" Heffelfinger becomes the first professional football player when Pittsburgh's Allegheny Athletic Association pays him $500 to play as a ringer in a game against the rival Pittsburgh Athletic Club. Before then, players had traded their services on the field for expense money or trinkets, not cash. • On Nov. 11, 1918, at 11 o'clock of the 11th day of the 11th month, the First World War comes to an end. The Great War claimed the lives of 9 million soldiers; 21 million more were wounded. Civilian casualties caused indirectly by the war numbered close to 10 million.
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alphabet and counting, makes its broadcast debut. Over the years, critics have blamed the show and its use of brief segments for shrinking children's attention spans. • On Nov. 13, 1974, Karen Silkwood is killed in a car accident in Oklahoma on her way to a meet with a reporter. She reportedly carried documents proving that Kerr-McGee Corp. was negligent when it came to worker safety at its plutonium plant. The theory was that someone forced her off the road to prevent the meeting. • On Nov. 14, 1986, Wall Street arbitrageur Ivan Boesky pleads guilty to insider trading and agrees to pay a $100 million fine. "Boesky Day," as the SEC would later call it, was crucial in exposing a nationwide scandal at the heart of the '80s Wall Street boom.
• On Nov. 16, 1999, construction begins on a giant bonfire at Texas A&M University, the continuation of a 90-year tradition. Two days • On Nov. 10, 1969, "Sesame later, the 59-foot-high pile of more Street," a TV show that would teach than 7,000 logs collapsed, killing 12 generations of young children the students and injuring another 27. © 2014 King Features Synd., Inc.
• A third method involves the use of superglue. In the early 1980s a British policeman was using superglue to repair a cracked film-processing tank in a darkroom, He noticed that the glue fumes enhanced the fingerprints that were on the side of the tank. This was brought to the attention of forensic scientists, and in 1982 the superglue fuming method of lifting fingerprints was first used. Similar to the iodine fuming method, the superglue is heated in a glass beaker and the object placed in the rising vapors. The gas condenses and sticks to the body oils and makes the pattern visible. Dyes are then used to make the pattern stand out even more. Superglue fuming reveals prints left on tin foil, rubberbands, Styrofoam, and various plastic products. • Today, digital scanners capture an image of the fingerprint. To create a digital fingerprint, a person places a finger on an optical reader. The reader converts the information into digital data. The computer then searches for similar patterns in the database.