From: qut@netcom.com (Be Good)
Date: Wed, 15 May 1996 19:35:57 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Defeating fingerprints
In-Reply-To: <199605141903.OAA05327@einstein.ssz.com>
Message-ID: <199605150643.XAA24223@netcom16.netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


> Forwarded message:
> 
> > With regards to filling in your own card, what about using a disappearing 
> > ink?? Then your prints would disappear! You could even do your name, 
> > right infront of them, and it would disappear, leaving these anynonomous 
> > prints behind!!
> 
> While the ink does become transparent/translucent I am shure the FBI chem
> lab won't have a problem finding traces of the chemical. This would make for
> jim dandy evidence in court.
> 
> > Or you could make an inkpad that is damp with sodium hydroxide (lye) 
> > instead of ink.  That way, you could lightly roll your fingers in it, 
> > like it was ink, and then wait a minute, and wipe it off.  That way, the 
> > only skin being eaten away, would be the ridges of the fingerprints.  Do 
> > this enought times, and the rigdes will end up the same height as the 
> > valleys, and will then essentially be flat.

Won't work.  Regular old soda lye is not really that corrosive to 
the skin.  I've handled plain lye many times and only hurts a
little if a grain gets up my fingernail.

> Burglars and safecrackers sand the ridges off.

This sounds like it'd work, but quite tedious.

>                                                          Jim Choate





-- 
		God grant me the serenity to accept
		the things I cannot change,
		the courage to change the things I can,
		and the wisdom to know the difference