Photographed "Spirits"

1876

"Spirits," though still refusing to be captured like ordinary mortals, have consented to allow themselves to be photographed. They now obediently follow those over whom they watch to the studios of photographers, and there falling into a graceful attitude, allow those who believe themselves to be accompanied through life by a "guardian angel" to satisfy their vanity (and credulity) by having a carte-de-visite taken of themselves and their "attendant spirit." The resulting carte gives such an air of reality to the affair that it is considered rank folly to doubt any longer, when the spirit can be actually photographed, and these brought within the ken of the most hardened skeptic.

Such piteous folly on one side and arranged deception on the other are more prevalent than ordinary folks generally suppose. A case brought to our notice from Paris will illustrate the way in which this class of photographers impose on the public. The police, hearing that a certain photographer of that city was pocketing large profits by taking these photographs for credulous people, dispatched an emissary to discover the fraud. On making known his wish to be photographed with his guardian spirit, he was requested to leave the studio for a short time for the purpose of the spirit being invoked. During his absence, a plate, prepared in the ordinary way, was exposed to light for a few seconds opposite a screen whereon a vague ghostly image was figured. The man's photograph superposed — gave, it is needless to say, the required effect. The photographer, on a hint from the police, ceased to take spirit photographs.

These photographs may also be produced by the photographer's common process of printing from two negatives; one negative takes the sitter, the other the "spirit" as before, on printing from both the effects are combined. Another method depends upon a curious electrical fact. If a tinfoil device be laid between two sheets of glass, and tinfoil be laid on the outer surfaces of the glass, and then electric sparks passed between the tinfoil coatings, it is found that an image of the device is formed upon the two glass plates, caused by a molecular change in the glass. This image is at first invisible, but on breathing on the glass it becomes visible, and a photograph can then be taken of it in the ordinary way.

But the cleverest plan of all is that which utilizes the lately-discovered optical principle known as fluorescence. Paint on a white screen with sulphate of quinine (which is colorless) something shadowy to represent the "ethereal being." Expose this to bright sunlight for a short time, and then place your unsuspecting believer in "guardian angels" before this screen; photograph him in the ordinary way, and at the same time you obtain a picture of your painting, about which he is ignorant. Finish the photograph in the ordinary way. The quinine drawing will "come out" hazy and indistinct as part of the picture, and then your believer in spirits who has longed to have his "attendant spirit" manifested to him, receives it tremblingly with gratitude. — Chamber's Journal.