"I thought you always used plates for this kind of work," said Dr.
Norbury.
"We do, by preference; but a six-foot plate would be impossible, so I
had a special paper made to the size."
There is something singularly fascinating in the appearance of a
developing photograph; in the gradual, mysterious emergence of the
picture from the blank, white surface of plate or paper. But a
skiagraph, or X-ray photograph, has a fascination all its own. Unlike
an ordinary photograph, which yields a picture of things already seen,
it gives a presentment of objects hitherto invisible; and hence, when
Polton poured the developer on the already wet paper, we all craned over
the tray with the keenest curiosity.
The developer was evidently a very slow one. For fully half a minute no
change could be seen in the uniform surface. Then, gradually, almost
insensibly, the marginal portion began to darken, leaving the outline of
the mummy in pale relief. The change, once started, proceeded apace.
Darker and darker grew the margin of the paper until from slaty grey it
had turned to black; and still the shape of the mummy, now in strong
relief, remained an elongated patch of bald white.
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