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FIG. 12.

The breast is uncovered and some white soft material artistically arranged in folds over the shoulders and in such a way as to appear connected with the pedestal. A black background is placed behind and the exposure made. To give a more realistic effect the hair, face, and all other parts showing should be liberally powdered over with a white powder or rice flour. The negative produced will have a clear glass background, but the body of the figure will still be visible. This is removed by cutting away the film round the pedestal and to the arms on each side, leaving only those parts remaining that are required to produce the statuette. In printing we get a white statuette portrait on a dark background.

If the photographer does not possess a pedestal, the next best means to produce these pictures is to get a large sheet of cardboard and cut it out to the shape shown in the figure beneath, and with white paint make the picture of a pedestal, shading with a little gray to give rotundity. The figure is stationed behind it, and a black background used.

A third method involves still less trouble. This is to purchase a ready made pedestal negative. These are film negatives of a pedestal that can be adjusted to the negative of the subject desired to be produced as a statue. After the negative is taken and varnished the film is scraped off round the figure, cutting off the body as shown in the first illustration, after which the pedestal negative is adjusted, fastened, and then printed. The negative is reversible and can also be used for different subjects. The picture shown in Fig. 13 was made by Mr. G. B. Bradshaw, of Beach House, Altrincham, England, by means of one of his pedestal negatives.

By G. B. Bradshaw.
FIG. 13.—STATUETTE PORTRAIT.

MAGIC PHOTOGRAPHS.

FIG. 14.—CIGARETTE TUBE FOR MAGIC PHOTOGRAPHS.

Take an ordinary silver print and fix it without toning. Thoroughly well wash it to remove all traces of the fixing solution and then immerse it in a saturated solution of bichloride of mercury, when the image will disappear. The bichloride of mercury changes the photograph into white chloride of silver and chloride of mercury which is also white. The image when on white paper is thus rendered invisible.

Next soak some strong bibulous paper in a saturated solution of sodium hyposulphite, and, when dry, paste a piece of the paper to the back of the invisible print with a little starch paste, attaching it by the edges only. Of course the image can also be made to appear by soaking the invisible print, without the bibulous paper attached, in a solution of sodium sulphite, hypo, or water with a little ammonia added.

FIG. 15.—DEVELOPING THE IMAGE.

Magic photographs made in the manner above described can also be developed by smoke. A novelty, introduced in Paris some time ago, consisted of a cigarette or cigar holder, shown in Fig. 14, containing in its stem a little chamber for the insertion of a small piece of apparently plain paper, but in reality an invisible photograph produced in the manner already described. The ammonia vapor in the smoke passing through the chamber attacked the print and developed the image. By blowing the smoke on the latent image it may be made to appear, but the operation is rather tedious, and anyone with a little ingenuity can easily construct a cigarette holder with an arrangement to hold small pictures and allow the smoke to pass through.

The chamber of the cigarette or cigar holder must of course be sufficiently large to allow of the print being inserted in such a manner that the smoke can readily attack its surface, otherwise uneven development of the image will take place.

SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHY.

FIG. 16.—A "SPIRIT" PHOTOGRAPH.

Many years ago, in the old wet-collodion days, a well-known photographer was one day surprised by the visitation of a spirit. The apparition did not make its appearance during the nocturnal hours, as is, we have been given to understand, the custom of these ladies and gentlemen from the other world, but, strangely enough, in broad daylight; and not by his bedside to disturb his peaceful slumber, but upon the photograph he was in the act of producing. Had this gentleman been of that soft-brained kind, so easily gulled by the professional spiritualist, it is possible that he would not have done what he did, which was to make a thorough and scientific examination as to the probable cause of the phenomenon. The case was this: A gentleman sitter had been taken in the usual manner upon a collodion plate. Upon taking a positive print from the negative, he was surprised to find a dim white figure of a lady apparently hovering over the unconscious sitter. Upon examination of the negative, the image of the figure was also visible, but not so plainly as in the positive. The explanation of the whole matter was soon discovered. In those days glass was not so cheap as at present, and all old or spoilt negatives were cleaned off and freshly prepared with collodion for further use. In this case the glass had previously supported the negative image of a lady dressed in white. Some chemical action had evidently taken place between the image and the glass itself, turning the latter slightly yellow in some parts. This faint yellow image, although hardly visible in the negative, had, being of a non-actinic color, given quite a distinct image in the positive. The case was not an isolated one, as these spirit photographs, as they were called, often made their appearance when old negatives were cleaned and the glass used again. The precise action producing the image has never, we think, been satisfactorily explained. It could often be made more distinct by breathing on the glass. We do not know if any enterprising humbug ever took advantage of this method of producing spirit photographs to extort money from the unwary, but about ten years ago a work was published, entitled "Chronicles of the Photographs of Spiritual Beings and Phenomena Invisible to the Material Eye," by a Miss Houghton. In this a number of reproductions of photographs of "spirits" were given with a detailed explanation of how they were obtained and the difficulties attending their production, the "spirits" being apparently of very independent natures, only making their appearance when they felt so inclined. It is quite possible that a person entirely ignorant of photographic methods might be led into the belief that they were actually photographic images of the dead, but we fear that the book is hardly well enough written to deceive the experienced photographer. At certain and most unfortunate periods in the process employed, some of the