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By Root 1107 0

that the girls were unable to produce more than three photos because the weather was wet and cold. My colleague Robert Sheaffer, of The Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, troubled to check the weather reports—he is accustomed to doing so during investigations of unidentified flying object (UFO) sightings and Bermuda Triangle claims—and discovered that in the Bradford area during the second half of the month of August 1920, the rainfall was less than in any other month of that year. Furthermore, the meteorological journal British Rainfall reported the weather there to have been "though cool, on the whole, dry." Thus the "almost continual rainfall" that Gardner reported did not occur. England that month had only 56 percent of the expected rainfall, and Bradford was a relative desert!

The first of this second group of photographs, photo number three, is a bit of an improvement on the 1917 pictures. The fairy figure is sharp and clear, suspended in the air before the girl's face. Frances's face and figure are somewhat blurred, and unless it is examined carefully one might accept Gardner's explanation that the girl "tossed her head back" during the 1/50 second the shutter was open. The following close-up of photo number three shows an enlargement of a highlight in the girl's hair. Brian Coe of Kodak notes that this is consistent not with a continuous, rapid movement of the figure, but rather with a short movement during a long exposure. Using the same criteria as before for film speed and lighting, it is clear that this shot could only have been made with a 1½- to 2-second exposure. Frances held her head still for the opening of the shutter, then moved a bit rapidly, and held still again until the shutter closed. The leaping fairy must have been leaping very slowly to be frozen so still in space! Finally, the fairy figure itself is so very well done, in contrast to the others, that it must have been obtained from a magazine or book.

Photo number four is an obvious fake and is not much discussed in the fairy business. For the girls to have produced such a bad figure wearing a fully "mod" outfit suitable for Vogue magazine is laughable. But remember, they were not dealing with very bright critics. What is really amusing about this item, however, is Gardner's observation (accepted by Doyle) that "Elsie is not looking directly at the sprite." This is in accord with the purported shyness of the critters and is supposed to be corroborative evidence of the reality of the sad little figure. But take another look at the picture. Elsie is looking directly at the cutout. Gardner has invented another fact!

This photograph was subjected to the same "careful" scrutiny as the others and declared quite acceptable by even such an expert as Snelling, who, according to Doyle, "laughs at the idea that any expert in England could deceive him with a faked photograph." Actually, we should laugh, but for a different reason. This particular photo is so silly that its fraudulence can be detected by any intelligent observer, let alone a scientist with modern methods.

It is photo number five, however, that upon close examination reveals that Elsie and Frances even fooled themselves! In recent years the ladies have avoided telling outright falsehoods in response to queries about the photographs. That is why I believe, as does Brian Coe, that Elsie's statement to him that" only one exposure was made on each plate" is, to the best of her knowledge, correct. But this photo is a double exposure—made in error!

Mr. Coe must be credited with one of the proofs of this charge. He mentioned to me, while we were examining some of the prints, that photo number five showed a "doubling" of one margin on a contact print. A close examination of the photograph reveals two small, rounded marks at each side of the lower margin. These are the shadows of two tiny clips holding the glass plate against the metal holder. Each plate had to be held in such a holder in order to be inserted into the camera. It consisted of a sheet-metal