On November 24, 1932, the FBI Crime Lab opened in Washington, D.C. There was one employee, Charles Appel. He was given a borrowed microscope and a helixometer, which was to help with examining gun barrels. It didn’t work very well. FBI Head J. Edgar Hoover established the lab for public relations purposes, but never alloted resources. In its early days, the FBI Crime Lab worked on about 200 pieces of evidence a year. Today that number skyrocketed.
