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In
1909 Francis Galton was Knighted, in England for all of his efforts
and monumental achievements. He well deserved this honor.
In
his later life, Galton created a faculty position at the University
college, which stemmed from the Eugenics Record Office.
FINGER
PRINTS
Galton was one of the first pioneers to investigate finger printing.
Galton hoped that fingerprints were inherited. During 1880, British
scientificjournal Nature published letters by the Englishmen, Henry
Faulds and William James Herschel describing the uniqueness and
permanence of fingerprints.
 Galton
experimentally verified their observations, suggesting the first
elementary system. In this system he classified fingerprints on
the basis of grouping the patterns into arches, loops, and whorls.
His system served as foundation for the fingerprint classification
system developed by Sir Edward R. Henry, who later became chief
commissioner of the London Metropolitan police. In June 1900, Galton-Henry
system of fingerprint classification was published and in 1901 it
was officially introduced at Scotland Yard and soon became the basis
for its criminal identification records.
A
PIONEERING METEOROLOGIST
| Galton was well established in British scientific circles, by late 1850’s. Later he became interested in meteorology. He was particularly interested in the question of weather climatic regularities might be recorded so as to allow accurate forecasting. |
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He
circulated a detailed questionnaire to weather stations throughout
the British Isles and Key European Centers, and requested them to
give details of the weather conditions prevailing throughout specific
month, December in 1861. He was able to demonstrate what had been
hitherto unnoticed relations between wind speed, direction and barometric
pressure by putting the data on a map using symbols of his own invention.
His
findings were published in a monograph entitled Meteorographical.
He has also discussed meteorological studies in his biography Memories
of My Life.
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