The Veil Lifted: Modern Developments of Spirit Photography
Religion
The Veil Lifted: Modern Developments of Spirit Photography
Spirit photography; Spiritualism
The higher department of fluorescence may with success be employed. Here
is something to which believers in the visibility of spirit forms to
a camera are quite welcome. At the time, and _àpropos_ of the Mumler
trial in New York, I wrote that a good many absurd things have been said
_pro_ and _con_ on the subject; but a writer in the latter category, who
asserted that anything that is visible to the eye of the camera, and thus
capable of being depicted by photography, must therefore necessarily be
visible to the human eye, was surely ignorant of that important branch
of physics popularly known as fluorescence. Many things are capable of
being photographed which to the physical eye are utterly invisible. Why,
for that matter, a room (visually dark) may be full of the ultra-violet
rays of the spectrum, and a photograph may be taken in that dark light.
Objects in a room so lighted would be plainly visible to the lens of the
camera—at any rate, they could be reproduced on the sensitive plate,
while, at the same time, not an atom of luminousness could be perceived
in the room by any person possessing ordinary or normal vision. Hence
the photographing of an invisible image, whether it be of a spirit or
a lump of matter is not scientifically impossible. If it reflect only
the ultra-violet rays of the spectrum, it will be easily photographed,
although quite invisible to the sharpest eye.
Again, Cromwell F. Varley, F.R.S., well known as one of the most eminent
of electricians, says (_Electric_, June, 1871), when passing a current of
electricity through a vacuum tube, the results of which were indicated
by touches of light about the poles:—“In one instance, although the
experiment was carried on in a dark room, this light was so feeble that
it could not be seen, and the operators doubted if the current were
passing. But photography was at work, and in thirty minutes a very good
picture was produced of what had taken place. This,” he says, “is a
remarkable fact; indeed, it borders on the wonderful, that a phenomenon
invisible to the human eye should have been, so to speak, seen by the
photographic lens, and a record thereof kept by chemical agency. It is
highly suggestive, and we may anticipate that it will be turned to good
account by practical philosophers.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account