Spirit Photography' Frauds

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVII, Issue 1, 7 January 1909, Page 9

Spirit Photography ' Frauds

"Of the making of spiritistic frauds there is no end We dealt with largo classes of these mediumistic impos-

tures in a series of articles published in 1907 , and with 'spirit writing' and other-such phenomena in our issues of December 10 and December 17- of the year that ha 3 just passed ' afay in the ewigkeit.' The .practical conjurer who, like us, has followed the progress and the methods of this baleful form of charlatanism, smiles a low, wise smile, or (according to circumstances) develops a sense of impatience and at times of indignation, as he peruses ' the crude dogmatism of well-meaning Catholic and other writers who attribute to preternatural agencies a varied assortment of so-called spiritistic ' manifestations '„ that ar«? produced by the arts of conjuring and ' hanky?panky. J Such, for instance, are the thousand-and-one , methods of the 'spirit writing' which is made to appear on ; papers ' precipitated ' from above, or held, upon a table, orrthrowh under the .table, or placed in locked' drawers or in sealed envelopes, or on the insides of .slates tied or screwed together and protected, in addition, .with the magic bits of impressed red wax in which, in this connection^ the- nonconjuring public place such a touching but wholly unwarranted trust. The reader who perused the leading article in our issue of December 17 can hardly fail to have gathered at least a general idea of the wiles and ways by which these forms of imposture are played (usually for, a consideration) upon the -curious or gullible folk -that pit their sweet simplicity and ignorance of conjuring against the illusionist skill that directs the . phenomena of the seance stage or parlor.

•' - : y In our issue of December 17 we likewise made a passing reference to the wiles of so-called ' spirit ' photography. We are glad to find that Father. Hull, the learned, cautious, and able editor of the Bombay Examiner, refers editorially (in his issue, of November 28) to ' the untrustworthiness of even -the photograph test iri cases of alleged hypnotic and spiritistic phenomena.' • Father Hull has, by the was", already dealt in an- extremely sensible way with the Indian rope-trick, of which we read at times such curious descriptions. Mopsa says in the Winters . Tale : ' I love a ballad in print, a' life., for then we are sure they are true.' The superstition that trusts to the inerrancy of the printed page endures, to some extent, in the hinterlands of in our day. But the infallibility of the photographic plate enjoys a much wider vogue in our time. It is, to many, something more tangibly, undeniable than the unfailing truth w.hich simple-minded Mopsa found in ' a ballad in print.' This overweening faith in the photographic plate has been pressed into the service of mediumistic charlatanism, a.s~a supplement to the trust which umvary writers .on ■ spiritism repose in locks and seals and knots and in the gummed flaps of paper envelopes. The result has been a wide range of frauds — some clumsy, many clever, and not a few brilliant — which have been wrought upon thousands of persons through the medium of the photographic camera. -It is true only in a very qualified sense that ' the camera cannot lie:' Tt cannot, for instance, be persuaded to give true colorvalues. And it can, within its narroV scope, be made' to play numerous puzzling pranks, and (in the matter of ' spirit' photography, so-called) to work as cruel and heartless deceptions as any trick of ' materialisation 3 or of slate-writing in all the capacious repertoire of the professional medium. We have in our -possession some droll specimens of trick photography. One' of the Scientific American publications, issued at New York in 1906, gives working details of the double-exposure, the black background, and other methods of producing the most surprising effects by the aid of the camera. Thus, we may have, on the same plate, a photograph of -(say) John Doe, or of a group of John Doe and his family, in two noses, at , different distances. Or John Doe's wife, may "be made to serve John Doe's head, Tipon a platter, to John Doe sitting in hungry, expectancy at the breakfast table. Or John Doe may be made to decapitate himself by sword or saw — his own headless trunk beside him, while his brain-box lies upon the floor or on a table or in his outstretched hand. Or Richard Roe (with or without a head) may be made, m a photograph, to wheel his own head along in a wheelbarrow, or to carve his own head upon a dish,. or to look at a reduced figure of himself enclosed in a picture-frame, or a bottle or a block of ice, or standing, in the relatively diminutive stature of . a- pigmy or a Lilliputian, upon the outstretched hand of the larger portrait of himself in the same print. Or your photograph (as in cases before us) may show you as a bust upon a pedestal, or with two heads, like the god Janus Bifrons of ancient pagan Rome. Or the trick photographer may (by the multiphotographie process) put your image upon the plate, at one exposure in five different poses. The general reader may gain some idea of the ingenious methods arid the bewildering effects of illusive photography in general, andi of stiine oi the wiles of so-called 'spirit photography' in particular from a perusal of Walter E. Woodbury's Photographic

Amusements (published by the Scovill and Adams Company, New York; in 1896),-and by reference to Book V/of Magic, Stage Illvsions, and Scientific Diversions (published by Munn and Co., New York, in 1906). But for the later and more recondite tricks and pranks and ' hankypanky' of the camera, the investigator must apply (as the present writer does) to the leaders of the conjuring profession and to the -few and far-apart photographers who, for amusement . or otherwise^ have made a specialty of the misnamed' art of ' spirit photography.' The present writer knows personally . of two first-class adepts • in this craft^ one in Sydney (New South Wales), the other in Chicago! Both, alike depend entirely for their' .effects upon trick photography. The -Chicago man's handicraft enables him to produce some marvellously clever illusive 'work. ' And we are informed, on apparently excellent authority, that his ' faked ' ' spook ' pictures are regularly used in spiritistic circles (by many, perhaps, in good faith) as evidence of the power of .mediums to. call spirits, at will, from the vasty deep. We have digressed somewhat from the ' spook ' photography which excited the distrust of our learned confrere of the Bombay Examiner. Ho quotes at length from an unstated source two of the many methods of the ' spirit ' photographer — one of them the method of' the double expos-u-e. We give hereunder the substance of the quotation: 'The camera is now produced. For ' preference it should be a simple one of a well-known brand. If any member of the lady's family owns a camera it is an advantage to borrow the apparatus. This looks most convincing.' The lady should now be seated at a piano and requested to play something while the camera is being made ready. • When all is prepared the photograph [of the lady and the piano] is taken, the lady departs, and the picture is promised on the following day. When she has left the photographer calls in a friend. The friend should be wrapped in a ' white sheet, and made to stand by the piano. The pose should be artistic; the ghost should appear to be listening with the rapt attention peculiar to spirits. Now another exposure should be made on the same plate or film in the camera, which, of course, has not been moved since the first picture "was taken. Some careful photographic judgment must be used at this point. Suppose the first photograph required an exposure of six seconds, the exposure for the - white figure would be about one second. This short exposure of one second will have practically no effect" upon the image of the lady, but it is advisable to remove anything white on the piano, such as a piece of music. Nothing no i v remains to be. done but to develop the plate or film/ When this has been done a most realistic spirit photograph will be the result. The. "ghost" will not appear solid, but transparent, as all v the details impressed on the plate by the .first exposure will show through its vague figure. . . Occasionally investigators have insisted upon buying the plates, putting them into the dark slides themselves, , and watching- the development. Even under these circumstances it is. possible that tricks may be played. One photographer painted the inside of the dark-slide with a luminous preparation which made an impression on the plate " before and after, the actual exposure. This trick .was very effective (until discovered), as the photographer was able to use plates that, had been bought and marked by the investigator, who could be present during the entire operation from the taking of the photograph to the development.'

« Thus far the Examiner. • Two of the methods of ' spirit ' are here described. There are others galore. •> And, as in the ingenious impostures of" ' spirit ' writing, nearly every new year sees a new method of , extorting . shekels from the weak-minded and the unwary by means pi the camera that, in the popular estimation, 'cannot lio.' - We may here refer to a few other of the commoner methods - of perpetrating this cruel imposture. (1) While the sittor is serenely and unsuspectingly facings the camera, a ' pal ' /of the medium's or of the photographer's quietly appears for a few moments, suitably attired in ghostly draperies, behind the sitter. He disappears rapidly and silently, '- and, his image being under-exposed and somewhat out of focus, it presents in- the print the fuzzy and shadowy appearance which ' touches the spot ' with those who are impressed with this particular form of spiritistic ' manifestation.' (2) In regard to the first, method described in the Examiner, we might mention that, in the second exposure of the plate, after the sitter has gone, the ' spook ' is made to pose in a suitable position in front of a dark background. A .magnesium or .other proper light is thrown upon him. He is sometimes taken out of focus, but a .-more successful ruse practised by the 'meejum' or -photo? grapher is this : 'he places a fine piece of muslin gauze close to the lens of the camera— this gives ,the hazy, indistinct appearance which the art and craft of spiritistic

photography, for obvious reasons of prudence, usually desires. Sometimes this fraudulent exposure of the photographic plate is made before the sitter appears. The plate (left undeveloped in this case) retains, of course, the latent image. The same -plate is used again to photograph the sitter, and, on being developed, presents, of course, tw-» images — a • sharp, clear one of the victim, and a faint one of the ' spirit,' through whose fuzzy and diaphanous form the sitter or his surroundings may be clearly traced. -The • very indistinctness of the * spook's ' ■ features makes it,- of < course, difficult for the sitter to quarrel with the medium's , positive statement that the £ spirit-form ' is that of - some near and dear one ' not lost "but gone before.' (3) Fluor- . escent substances are also- cleverly used in connection' with ' ' spirit photography.' One of the substances- favored for this purpose is bisulphate of quinine. This compound has one curious property that mediums have not been slow to exploit, to the bewilderment of their clients and the great profit of the charlatans. The bisulphate is almost invisible to the eye, but it photographs nearly black. The intelligent reader will at once realise the uses to which the substance can be put by a medium bent upon introducing a ' spirit form ' into the portrait of a client. He paints the photographic background over with the compound, except in the places where he wishes the ' dead ' to appear. And there, beyond the true focus of the lens, he allows to remain impa'inted just so much of the light background as will make a suitable ' spook ' appear in the photograph. The part ' of the background that is treated with the fluorescent bisulphato of quinine will, as stated, appear almost black, while the ' spool ' shaped part thereof, that has not been so treated, will appear of a lighter tint. A - piece of white paper placed behind the sitter (say, against the background), and treated with the fluorescent substance, will, of coarse, serve the same purpose, at less trouble. * (4) A few years ago the Australian Photographic Journal described as ■ follows another and rather novel method of producing so-called ' spirit ' photographs : ' Take a negative of any supposed ' c spirit " that is to be represented, put it into "the printing frame with the film side out; lay on the glass side a piece of platinotype paper with the sensitive side up ; clamp in place the back of the printing frame and expose to the ''sun for half a minute. Now place in the printing frame the negative of another person to whom the " spirit 3> is to appear, and over it put the previously exposed sheet, film side down ; expose to the sun for two minutes until the image is faintly seen; then develop in the usual way, and the blurred "spirit" photograph will appear faintly to one side or directly behind, the distinct image. Sheets of paper with different ""ghost" exposures can be prepared beforehand.' (5) We may add that pictures (paintings, drawings, engravings, - photographs, etc.) are often used by the mediums for the purpose of photographing and projecting as ' spirit forms ' into the portraits of their victims. Even the weasel has been known to sleep. And the imposture just referred to has been several times exposed by the lack of caution of the mediums in selecting well-known pictures (as, for in- ' stance, a famous portrait of Napoleon' and a noted.painting by N. Sichel) and making faint photographic reproductions of them do service as the counterfeit presentments of .deceased persons that have come back out of the vasty deep to hold silent converse with their dear ones among the frowsy surroundings of the medium's seance parlor. We have before us a telling exposure of this kind l of fraud by Mr. W. M. Murray, a prominent member of the Society of Amateur Photographers of New York. * This article has run into such length that space is not left to describe various other methods of ' spirit photography.' x Much, for instance, might.be written (6) regard- ' ing the methods of substituting for the honest plates brought by the sitter,. : spook ' plates prepared in' advance by the medium — ' and tlie same with intent to deceive*.' Much, too, .might be said regarding (7) the jnethoils, old and new, of ' faking ' ' plates, plate-holders, and the in-* sides of cameras; and (8) we are assured that a wide range of imposture is made possible by, the capacity to affect, by X-rays, a photogra-phic dry-plate inside a camera without uncovering the shutter. We will merely conclude this rather, lengthy, and somewhat random, description by a statement (for which we can personally vouch) that will enable our readers to" estimate in some degree the wide possibilities of fraud which exist in ( connection with this matter of miscalled ' spirit photography.! (9) The writer of these lines is acquainted with every detail of what he f believes to be a new method of impressing so-called • spook ' U images upon a photograph. In this particular method P, (which is entirely by trick ' photography) the sitter brings his own plates, camera, and printing-frame. And these alone are used — there is no substitution. The sitter is,

moreover, invited to develop the plates, or to be present during the whole process of developing and fixing. Even under the microscope the developed plate shows ho trace whatever of anything suggestive "of a "'* spirit form.' The sitter, moreover, may personally place the plate in his own printing frame, seal all securely, and be present during the process of printing; 'Everything seems fair and- aboveboard and 'honor-bright.' But gatta' ci cova (as the Italians say) — things are not what they seem; a piece of photographic conjuring, unseen and unsuspected by the sitter, »>has taken > place ; and the print "from that innocentlooking ■ 'plate shows a fraudulent ' spirit-form ' beside or above or. about the- clearer image of the client. Ba« that is' not all. t A second print froin v the same 'plate may show no>' spirit-form' whatever; a third may display quite a different 'spook' from -the first; a fourth may print yet another or none at all ; and so on. - The whole method is within the power of a photographer of 'very ordinary skill in his profession — plus a little knowledge of, and practice in, a ruse of the ' hanky r panky ' order. In 'the skilled hands of an artist, it would, moreover, permit of a reasonably wide range of even more than mere fuzzy resemblances as between' the /alleged 'spirit-forms' and the portraits of persons that have actually lived: All this would depend upon the artist's .memory of faces, his stock of portraits, and his skill in delineation. For this feat (or freak) of illusive photography, there is no need of the contraptions described in a previous paragraph from the Australian Photographic- Journal. Should our hope of throwing into book form our thoughts upon the general subject reach fruition,, we shall illustrate and describe some of the curious pseudo-spiristie , phenomena of wlliShV this freak of illusive photography, is capable. Otherwise, we shall be willing to describe the method to Catholic writers who may be desirous of honestly investigating the/widtl&and the depth and the height of fraud and imposition which are possible in connection with . so-called ' ' spirit photography.' Satan can, of course, dip his sable finger into many- a pie. And (as frequently stated by us) there occur at times (though very -rarely) in. non-mediumistic spiritism phenomena which do not admit of a natural explanation. But both common sense and a well-known- principle of Catholic practice (to which -we referred "in our issue of December 17) alike forbid a'tiributing to a preternatural source so-called spiritistic phenomena which not "alone may be, but are, reproduced and even surpassed by such purely natural means as the tricks and wiles of the illusionist. It is not, we think, known — or at least it is very little known — that projection by a- good magic, lantern forms a ready and serviceable means of exposing a considerable range of ' spirit photographs.' A lantern slide or transparency is made from the suspected, negative (the negative is vastly preferable to a print for this, purpose, as the print gives a fainter and '-flatter' image, and even this is considerably marred by the grain of the photographic paper appearing in an exaggerated form upon the screen). The transparency, is projected with electric, or lime light on a white screen (a smooth, white wall, if* of sufficient size, is still better). The larger, the projected picture, the better, so long as the clearness of the image is maintained— say twelve to sixteen feet square. Enlarged to this extent' good photographic transparencies of seance 'spirits' will, often (as when taken from masks, prints, engravings, paintings,. wash-drawings, etc.) afford interesting and instructive revelations of mediumistic methods. •

. In this connection we may quote the following extract from Dr. Marcus's Monism (English Translation, p. 69) on some of the phenomena of mediumistic, spiritism- ' Against the reality, of the ghosts cited by the - spiritists may be mentioned the senseless actions by which they manifest their supposed presence. One notes the meaningless childish behaviour of the so-called spirits, whose intellect is satisfied by throwing about kitchen, pans or other articles in use,, and such idiotic proceedings. Samuels ghost, when summoned by the witch of Endor, at least behaved reasonably. And if it should be said that during their lifetime on earth these spirits were of a low type — rowdy fellows — whose progress consists in this, that they may now . in the astral body frighten people with harmless jokes, still- it is very curious that it should be just these fools of whom we receive reports, never of. an earnest ghost with whom we could exchange an intelligent sentence.' ' -

The Right Hon. Christopher Palles, Chief Baron of the Exchequer .in Ireland, who has passed his 76th birthday, is easily the doyen of the judiciary in the United ' Kingdom. It is 33 years since Mr. Gladstone appointed .him to the office of Chief Baron, which he 1 was destined to be the last to fill. His long career* on the Bench has been marked throughout by great ability, dignity, and independence.