Forensic Science Timeline

Voiceprint identification was first studied at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, New Jersey. L.G. Kersta refined the technique.

Oswald Avery (1877–1955), Colin MacLeod (1909–1972), and Maclyn McCarty (1911–2005) discover that DNA carries genetic information.

1945 Frank Lundquist, working at the Legal Medicine Unit at the University of Copenhagen, developed the acid phosphatase test for semen.

Mourant first described the Lewis blood group system. R.R. Race first described the Kell blood group system, and in 1950, M. Cutbush and colleagues first described the Duffy blood group system. F. H. Allen and colleagues first described the Kidd blood grouping system in 1951.

Keith Simpson launches the science of bite mark analysis (forensic odontology) when he examines bite marks on a dead woman.

Max Frei-Sulzer, the founder of the first Swiss criminalistics laboratory, developed the tape lift method of collecting trace evidence.

• The American Academy of Forensic Science (AAFS) is founded in Chicago.
• The group also began the publication of the Journal of Forensic Science (JFS) in 1956. Its first editor was Samuel Azor Levinson, professor of pathology at the College of Medicine, University of Illinois, Chicago.

British researchers Martin and Synge receive the Nobel Prize for their invention of gas-liquid partition chromatography, a powerful method of analyzing mixtures of drugs and poisons.

Kirk published Crime Investigation, one of the first comprehensive criminalistics and crime investigation texts that encompassed theory in addition to practice.

James Watson (1928– ), Francis Crick (1916–2004), and Maurice Wilkins (1916–2004) identify DNA’s double-helical structure.

R. F. BORKENSTEIN, captain of the Indiana State Police, invents the Breathalyzer for field sobriety testing.

• De SARAM publishes careful and detailed measurements of temperature in control cases obtained from executed prisoners. His papers are considered landmarks in determining the time since death from body cooling.
• De SARAM further published important papers on time since death in 1957.
• FIDDES and PATTEN write a classic paper on the determination of time since death from cooling in 1958

The murder trial of Dr. Sam Sheppard publicized blood spatter evidence and inspired several movies, TV programs, and books.

The growth stages of skeletal bones are identified by Americans. Thomas Mocker and Thomas Stewart formed the basis of forensic anthropology.

A. S. Weiner and colleagues introduced H-lectin to determine O blood type positively.

HARRISON and GILROY introduce a qualitative colorimetric chemical test to detect the presence of barium, antimony, and lead on the hands of individuals who fired firearms.

Maurice MÜLLER, a Swiss scientist, adapts the Ouchterlony antibody-antigen diffusion test for precipitin testing to determine species.

MARSHALL and co-workers write a series of papers on the determination of time since death from postmortem cooling.

Lucas, in Canada, described the application of gas chromatography (GC) to identify petroleum products in the forensic laboratory and discussed potential limitations in the brand identity of gasoline.

A sound spectrograph was discovered to be able to record voices. Voiceprints began to be used in investigations and as court evidence from recordings of phones, answering machines, or tape recorders.