Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-06-14
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Several Puzzling Cases Of
Spirit Photography.
A SUBJECT OF STUDY
INVESTIGATED BY THE SOCIETY
FOR PSYCaICAL RESEARCH.
Phenomena Alleged to Be Genuine
How Fake Spook Pictures
Are Made.

Copyright 1902, by John Elfreth Watkins, Jr)
Written for The Evening Star.
The Society for Psychical Research Is
just now investigating a case Of spirit pho
Biography, the Importance of which seems
to be considerably enhanced by it's involy-
ing a very Well-authenticated coincidence"
said a prominent member of that famous
association of scientific ghost hunters a
day two ago.
Miss Sybell Corbet, while staying with
her sister at one of England's most historic
manor houses, took a photograph of the in
terror of the library. The lens of her cam
era was left uncapped for an hour. No one
was present with Miss Corbet when the pic
ture was taken, but when she developed
the negative the semi transparent head and
body of an elderly gentleman appeared
seated in a high ba cked oak chair his right
arm resting on the arm of the chair his
other arm and legs being invisible The
figure could be seen only to the waist and
although the face was rather indistinct 1t
appeared to have a short beard When the
picture was shown to one of the nearest
relatives of Lord D., the late owner of the
mansion, she thought it exactly like him.
Strangely enough, 1t turned out that Lord
D., who previously leased the mansion to
Miss Corbet's sister, had, unknown to them,
died few days before in London, and was
the picture was being exposed
Miss Corbet is sure that her plate-one
of a parcel Of new ones-had not been ex-
posed before. The only men in the house
at the time were her youngest brother,
butler and two footmen, all Of whom were
young and beardless. Fortunately, she
preserved her Photographic notebook bear
Ing record Of the day and hour when the
| exposure was made, and this TALES exactly
with Lord D. s funeral notice. Miss Corbet
| Is absolutely certain that the room was
| vacant when she uncapped her lens. The
| butler declares that no one entered while
! the exposure was being made With regard
to the possibility that one OF the footmen
| might have been taken, either accidentally
| or as a practical joke, the photographer
| points out that the dress of the figure is
| that of geS1sman, whereas her sisters
| footmen always wore livery. Her brother
| solemnly declared that he did not enter the
| room.
Ghost With Ampuated Limbs
The old manor in which the ghost pho
tograph' was taken occupies the site Of
| what was for centuries an abbey The
library, where the ghost appeared, was
part Of the abbeys refectory, and is said
to be the only portion OF the old building
| left Some opine that this fact would make
the mansion likely place for spiritual
| manifestation to occur. Furthermore, the
fact that certain limbs Of the ghost are
| missing is explained by the fact that an
| ancestor of Lord D., who fought in the
| peninsular war, had suffered the amputa-
| ton of the same limbs. The supposition of
| these latter theorists is that this ancestor s
| spirit had come to attend the funeral of the
! dead peer who, although having died in
| London, was being buried at the moment
| from a church near his former home and
| ancestral estate.
I'm the face Of this evidence that the un-
| expected figure in the dead peers chair
| was of ghostly origin, Prof. W. F. Barrett
| experimental on the effects that could be
produced photographically by the transitory
| introduction of a human figure during a
long exposure of a plate The results thus
| obtained by aid of a person coming into the
| room sitting on a chair and moving both
| his legs and left arm, were strikingly like
! the ghost picture unconsciously produced
| by Miss Corbet. These experiments lead
| Prof Barrett to suspect that one of the
! servants of Miss Corbet's sister came into
| the room, sat down in the chair moved his
| left arm, crossed his legs and then un-
| crossed them. looked down for a moment
| and then at the camera, saw that he was
being photographed, so got up and went
! away, having been In the chair about TWEEN
| ty or thirty seconds Of the hour OF ex-
| posture. This moving Of the head Of The
| intruder would prolong the chin until It
| had the shaggy appearance of beard and
| would give a figure of a ghost Of an APP
parently older man, with no legs and q