Why don't two persons have identical fingerprints?
Your ten fingerprints are absolutely unique and remain practically unchanged from birth to death...
by Manpreet
Illustrations by Amarjeet Malik

If you press your thumb on an ink-pad and then on a sheet of white paper, you would have unique print. The same would be true of each of your fingers. Your ten fingerprints are absolutely unique and remain practically unchanged from birth to death.

Nature has simply created a different ridge pattern for every finger. No two persons can have identical fingerprints. This- interesting fact was known to the Chinese some 2000 years ago. And so, the Chinese emperors used to sign important documents by affixing their thumbprints on them.

In 1892, an English scientist named Sir Francis Gallon was the first to prove this fact. Sir Edward Henry developed a system for identifying criminals on the basis of this discovery. Since then, the police, all over the world, has been making its use for tracking down the criminals..

Sir Edward Henry divided all fingerprints into 'types' of patterns: loops, central pocket loops, double loops, arches, whirls and accidentals. By counting the ridges between two points, in the pattern, each of the ten fingers could be classified into a certain group. Then you take all the groups. together as a unit and you have a complete system of classifying fingerprints. Police departments keep millions of prints in their office files. With their help, criminals can be identified within no time. The chances that two people might have the same ridge pattern on even one finger, are one in twenty-four million.