Page 84 - Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems (AFIS)

FINGERPRINTS ARE UNIQUE 69

The American System was developed by Captain James Parke and was used
primarily within the state of New York. It was a departure from the traditional
Henry System (and, interestingly, was not named after its chief proponent) by
providing a different score for each finger that was repeated on each hand.
While the Henry System of classification used values derived from the odd/even
finger numbers, the American Classification System was based on the hand. For
example, in the American System, the right thumb (an odd-numbered finger)
was assigned an initial value of 16, as was the left thumb, finger number 6. (See
Table 3.4.) In comparison, under the Henry System, finger number 1 (the right
thumb) has a primary value of 16, while the left thumb, finger number 6, has
a value of 4.

Table 3.4
Finger number 1 2 3 4 5 Primary Values for the
American value 16 8 4 2 1 American Classification
Finger number 6 7 8 9 10 System
American value 16 8 4 2 1

Why were there two different classification systems? An excerpt from a pre-
sentation prepared by the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services
to mark the 100th anniversary of fingerprints reports the following:

The first and most obvious problem was storage. The Henry System called for
fingerprints to be recorded on large paper sheets called “slips.” These slips were filed
flat on shelves or in pigeon holes, which consumed a great deal of space. . . . This
prompted Parke to propose developing a fingerprint form of stiff cardboard and of a
less awkward size which could be filed upright in drawers as the Bertillon cards were.
Superintendent Collins denied his suggestion. . . .
The second problem with the English [Henry] System was their method of
dividing fingerprint records into primary groups. Henry’s method of attaching values
to each of the ten fingers and then accruing those values for any finger in which a
whorl pattern appeared used first the even and then the odd numbered digits, which
was unnecessarily complex.
What Parke proposed was to calculate the primary in a similar way, but using the
patterns as they appeared in sequence on the fingerprint form—right hand first,
then left hand.
A person with the fingerprint patterns Loop, Loop, Arch, Whorl, Loop in the
right hand and Whorl, Loop, Whorl, Loop, Loop in the left hand would, under
Parke’s system, have a primary classification of 3 over 21, whereas the same person,
under the Henry System, would have a primary of 15 over 1. The only time a Henry