Results and discussion
Small particle reagent technique has proved its worth in detecting fingerprints on moist, non-porous smooth surfaces. In the present experimental study both formulations A and B provide evidence of clear, sharp and good contrast results on aluminium foil, metallic spoon and glass surfaces. The results shown for first 20 days have been excellent by both formulations A and B on all three surfaces. Thereafter a considerable decrease in the quality of prints developed by both formulations was observed.
Composition A developed sufficiently clear and identifiable fingerprints on all three non-porous surfaces which had remained in clean water for up to 30 days (mean 3.33) while composition B gave reasonably good results up to 20 days on all three surfaces (mean 3.33).
The most suitable surface which showed reasonable quality of ridge-details and identifiable characteristics with mean 3.8 was aluminium foil that is to say, there was no one instance when prints developed on aluminium foil gave print grading below 2. On the contrary, glass slide was found to be the least productive surface in terms of developing latent prints under wet conditions. It was observed from the experiment that the clarity of the prints decreases with an increase in immersion time irrespective of the surface type. Thus, it can be concluded from the above experiment that formulation A develops excellent results on aluminium foil immersed in water for up to 30 days. It may also be concluded from the above experiment that SPR based on basic fuchsin and crystal violet can be a good substitute to conventional SPR because of their fluorescent contrasting and non-toxic properties. Results are presented in Table 3 and Graph 1.