Bertillonage Biometrics : Measuring Body Lengths

Bertillonage biometrics was a late 19th century method of identifying individuals by the use of multiple bodily measurements. Bertillonage biometrics is no longer used.

Bertillonage Biometrics - Process

An individual is required to go through a 20-60 minute measuring exam where they would have various body measurements taken. These measurements would ideally include the height, length, and breadth of the head, the length of different fingers, the length of forearms, etc. The results obtained were then recorded and/or compared to a record database. Though all this was done by hand, the record filing and checking system was quite fast for its time. (remember we are talking about the 19th century!)

History of Bertilllonage Biometrics

Created in the 1890's by a Paris police desk clerk, an anthropologist named Alphonse Bertillon, this method of identification became the primary method for identifying criminals in the late 1800's. Bertillon based his system on the claim that measurement of adult bones does not change after the age of 20. He also introduced a cataloguing system, which enabled filing/checking records quite quickly.

The system was a success, identifying hundreds of repeat offenders, and was used world-wide until 1903, when two identical (within the tolerances) measurements were obtained for two different persons at the Fort Leavenworth prison. The prison switched to finger printing the following day and the rest of the world soon followed, abandoning bertillonage forever.

Evaluation Results for bertillonage biometrics

Predicted to be accurate at 286,435,456 to 1 allowing for possible (and eventually proven) duplicates, human error in measuring contributed to a smaller effective accuracy. Non-unique measurements allowed for multiple people to have the same results, reducing the usefulness of this method. Also, the time involved to measure a subject was prohibitive for uses other than prison records.