Week 3 - Gathering Materials & Building a Chamber

 This week I am focusing on gathering the materials needed to begin my experiment at home and building the airtight chamber that will develop latent prints using cyanoacrylate fuming. I have collected glass, metal, aluminum, and plastic materials to fit into the chamber I am building. To build the chamber, I am using a plastic container with rubber seals added to the edges to make the chamber as airtight as possible. I will cut a hole in the side of the chamber to allow the heat source to be plugged in and put inside the chamber. We then will use rubber and metal brackets to re-seal the hole around the cord that will go through the hole. Starting next week, I will be using carbon black powder to collect my fingerprints and identify 5-10 minutiae points that will then be compared to the fingerprints developed using cyanoacrylate fuming. This way, I can determine which materials display the minutiae identified on the materials that went through the fuming process. 

Cyanoacrylate Chamber used in a lab setting

Cyanoacrylate Chamber built at home