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Spirit Photography carries three debunked facts in this atlas. They are not three separate cases but one method, caught in two named incidents a continent apart and stated once as a general verdict.

Caught in Court, Caught in a Raid

Key-experiment: at Mumler's 1869 New York fraud trial, witnesses including P. T. Barnum demonstrated that ordinary double exposure could produce a convincing spirit photograph; Mumler was acquitted for lack of definitive proof but his reputation never recovered. Notable-exposure: a June 1875 Paris police sting and subsequent studio raid found photographer Edouard Buguet's plates were pre-exposed and uncovered dummies and nearly three hundred mounted head photographs used to compose fraudulent images; Buguet confessed and was convicted. Two practitioners, two countries, six years apart, the same technique exposed both times.

The General Verdict

Replication-status draws the line under both: every closely documented spirit photography case has been traced to conventional double exposure technique and, in some cases, physical props; no spirit photograph has been produced under conditions ruling out these methods. Three facts, one finding: a nineteenth century trade built on a single darkroom trick, demonstrated in an American courtroom, uncovered by French police, and never once produced under conditions that ruled the trick out.

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• Spirit PhotographyPhysical MediumshipOne method, caught in New York and in Paris, and stated once as a general verdict