150 PICTURING MIRACLES 



poppy, as from previous work I knew its habits thor- 

 oughly. The X-ray changed the habits completely, 

 keeping the blossoms open for several hours longer 

 than the ones in front of the Mazda lights or under 

 the room's natural light. The experiment was to run 

 three days and nights till the petals would have 

 dropped off under normal conditions. The second 

 day the X-ray tube exploded, so we did not do the 

 full length of the experiment, but the flowers even 

 with the shorter exposure outlasted the others about 

 two to one. 



The experiments up to this point cost me over 

 $20 per second for every second they were on the 

 screen; to continue the work would require two 

 extra tubes and parts, one of low voltage for thin 

 subjects, and a high voltage delivering 70,000 volts 

 to enable me to make shorter exposures, less dan- 

 gerous to the subject in burning the flesh, than the 

 longer exposure required by the low voltage tube. 

 It meant an expenditure of some $1,500 for added 

 equipment, besides the labor and material for more 

 pictures, each one of which could be looked on as 

 another experiment. So further work was put over 

 for a more opportune time. 



