The MVC 5000 Fuming Cabinet

When retrieving a fingerprint from a crime scene, most people imagine the classic Sherlock Holmes scenario of a magnifying glass, finger print dust and a small brush to reveal the criminals finger print. Although this is the classic method, there are in fact many other techniques that can be used to lift a print from a scene or item - many of them using chemicals. One such method is the Fuming cabinet or  Superglue cabinet. This technique is used primarily on plastics, although other surfaces may be just as applicable. The target object with suspected prints is placed into the air tight cabinet, the air in the chamber is humidified to about 80% and then exposed to evaporated Ethyl Cyanoacrylate (superglue) which sticks to the finger print residue to reveal  the print. The MVC 5000 super glue cabinet is large enough for big items such as step ladders and even stair banisters and has been used by Lincolnshire & Nottinghamshire police forensics teams to reveal fingerprints on large items, in one case leading to a successful prosection.
 
Once the prints have been superglued they can be photographed or scanned. However, some surfaces such as bright white shiny backgrounds may make it very difficult to photograph or scan. So further treatment may be required such as immersing the superglued article in a florescent dye known as Basic Yellow 40. This fluoresces under a particular wave length of light and makes it easier to photograph.
 

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