THE "SPIRIT" PHOTOGRAPH.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 2642, 14 January 1908, Page 7

THE "SPIRIT" PHOTOGRAPH.

j We all know that there are few things to which spiritualists attach so much importance as the "spirit" photograph. It is interesting to find an explanation of the freak nature of such photographs from Mr. Carrington, of the Society for Psychical Research. The language is so clear anyone can understand many "other world" impressions which have been produced from time to time. Readers will know what a palimpsest is—a bit of parchment upon which successive authors have inscribed successive writings, each author in turn erasing the work of his predecessor. Now each successive layer of writing can be chemically restored so as to be more or less dimly visibfle to the naked eye. Such a palimpsest is the photographic plate on which impressions have been successfully taken and successively erased. It is a common expression in photograph galleries, where old plates are reused for new purposes, "Wash those plates cleaner ; old impressions are coming out." Mr. Carrington supposes a case in point. A photographer had in his dark room an old negative of a picture representing a fair girl in her bridal dress. One day he bade a boy wash out the negative. The glass was freed from dust and film and from the shadowy presence that still lingered there. The sunshine sparkled through it as through crystal. Ere long it came to pass that a bearded man arrived to have his picture taken. When it was developed by the magic of chemistry, behold the shadowy picture had returned, fainter indeed, but still lovely, and it floated in pale light behind the figure of the bearded stranger. Probably the. boy was scolded for his carelessness, and a new plate procured, but the strange picture, haunted by the gentle shadow, was still preserved. And one day the junior partner, gazing at it suddenly cried aloud : "By Jove, Jim, let's go into the spirit manufacturing business !"