Lips had thought the letters asking about color Kirlian photography lacked any possible opportunity for the company, but he had passed them onto Phillip anyway. There had been a feeling, coming mostly from Dina, that anything that could distract Phillip had to be tried.
Phillip's reaction hadn't been what Lips had expected. Instead of intensifying the efforts to succeed with Autochrome, Phillip had decided to try to photograph Kirlian images with his special camera.
Lips had provided the hand for the image, and it was still stinging as he sat down in the projection room to see what the Kirlian image looked like.
It was a major disappointment. The screen was almost black. The only light showing on the screen was from scratches on the negatives. Phillip walked up to the image for a closer look. 'Nothing! If we believed this image, we would be forced to conclude that your hand completely lacks an aura.'
'Perhaps the camera was too far away to detect the discharges?'
Phillip studied the projected image for a few moments before shaking his head. 'No, it seems my brilliant idea of using the three-color camera to record a Kirlian image has failed. We need to try something different.'
Lips moved to the windows and pulled open the heavy drapes. 'What about replacing the paper with the film?' he said over his shoulder.
'Well, the paper we left in the usual place to produce a Kirlian image for comparison purposes certainly recorded an image. But the film is just black and white, and we are trying to produce a color image.'
'What if we used filters?'
'We have three filters, unless you are hoping to combine plates from three separate Kirlian images . . .'
Lips realized Phillip was thinking of registering problems. Unless the photos exactly overlapped, the image just wouldn't work, and layering the filters would just stop light getting through to the lower plates.
'No, Lips, what we need is plates sensitive to one or other of the primary colors.'
'Isn't that what we're trying to do with the Autochrome?'
'Not quite. With the Autochrome, we are trying to make a single plate sensitive to each of the primary colors, whereas what I'm thinking is we sensitize three plates, each to a different color.'
****
They tried it with glass negatives first, because that's what they had for the camera. But that hadn't worked. The glass was acting as an insulator, and only the top plate registered anything. That had meant an urgent order had to be sent out for some cellulose acetate sheet-film. Fortunately, there had been a photographer in Jena who had some.
Phillip held the last of the three still dripping negatives up to the red safety-light, and smiled. 'We have an image on all three sheets. Now all we have to do is sensitize each sheet of film to a different color.'
'How are you planning on doing that?' Lips asked.
'We send an order to Michael for some sheet cellulose acetate that we can apply our own, custom, emulsions onto. And we experiment until we have three dyed plates that give us a color image.
Lips arrived home from lectures to a surprise. The up-timer chemical engineer Phillip had been waiting for had finally arrived.
'Lips, this is Lori Drahuta, she'll be staying in the apartment while she decides whether or not she wants to work at HDG Laboratories,' Hans said.
Lips looked enviously at the young woman. She was wearing fancy leather boots, blue jeans, a t-shirt with a fancy design on it, and a denim jacket. 'Nice t-shirt.'
Lori looked down at the image of St. George defeating a wild dog on her t-shirt. 'It's my own design.'
'How do you get the image onto the material? Did you paint it?'
'You can, but this is silk-screen. I produced a number of them as a fundraiser for the rabies awareness program.'
That word sent a shiver through Lips. Rabies was a disease to be feared, even if the up-timers did have a treatment for it. 'Is it the same as wood-block printing?'
'No. If you're interested, I can show you how it's done.'
'Yes, please.' Lips was definitely interested. He had visions of printing a t-shirt with the image of his hero. If he couldn't afford the jeans and jacket, he could at least afford a printed t-shirt.
****
Lips had expected to dine alone, again. His brother was visiting friends, while Phillip was in Grantville with Dina, who'd given birth to a boy and a girl in the early hours of the twenty-ninth of February, and they were spending a few days in Grantville. Instead, he found the new girl sitting at the table. There was a moment of shock, then he remembered his duties as host. 'Good evening, Frau Drahuta.'
'Please, make it Lori. And what do I call you?'
My name is Phillip, but family call me Lips, Lori.'
'And I'm family?'
'We certainly hope you will join the family here at HDG Laboratories.'
'Well, I hope I can fit in, although I was expecting to see Dr. Phil. Whoops!' Lori clapped her hands over her mouth. 'Sorry, that just slipped out.'
'I haven't heard that name for Phillip before, where did you hear it?'
'Ted and Tracy Kubiak. Apparently Ted started it. But it's not a sign of disrespect, honest. It's just the American tendency to give people nicknames, and well, back up-time there was some guy on TV who went by the moniker of Dr. Phil.'
'Dr Phil.' Lips tried it on his tongue. It came naturally. Almost more naturally than Phillip, and certainly much easier than Dr. Gribbleflotz, which, with his experience of up-timers, they would have found a bit of a tongue twister. 'Why haven't I heard it before?'
'I think it's just a pet name for Dr. Gribbleflotz within a tight group in the Kubiak family.'
'Well, I think Phillip would be happy for you to call him Dr. Phil.'
'I think I'll stick to Dr. Gribbleflotz until I get to know him better.
Phillip, Dina, and the babies, Jon and Salome, had arrived back in Jena to a hideous surprise. Phillip's mother, recently widowed-again-had turned up. And she wasn't a very nice person. Lips had tried to send a message before Phillip left Grantville, but he'd just missed him. What should have been a joyous homecoming had been ruined by Maria Elisabeth Bombast von Neuburg.
Lips heard the heavy footsteps of Phillip's mother ringing through the apartment and tried to find somewhere to hide. Maria Elisabeth was an equal opportunity critic, and everybody was a legitimate target. Except for Lori Drahuta, who was an up-timer, and thus almost a noble.
Maria Elisabeth burst into the room in all her painted glory. Dressed in age inappropriate colors and styles, and with enough white-lead on her face to sink one of the new ironclads, she was a sight to terrify even the bravest. Lips backed further into the corner he'd found when Phillip's mother burst in. She looked angry, again.
'I don't know how I'm going to hold up my head,' she said as she waved a letter under Phillip's nose. 'Margaretha's Friedrich, such a hard working and successful boy, is now the personal alchemist to Ulrich of Ostfriesland.' She glared at Phillip. 'Why can't you have a noble patron?' she demanded. 'Every great man needs a great patron, but not you, Theophrastus, you don't even have a patron. You are
'I might be self-employed, but I am still a successful alchemist. And I am much more successful than Friedrich Weiser.'
Lips nodded. That was telling her. The Great Stoner was probably the only alchemist in the world anywhere near as successful as Phillip.
'Friedrich Weiser is a graduate of Tubingen. He not only has a Baccalaureus Artium, but he also has his Magister Artium. What do you have? Nothing, that's what you have!'
'I have a doctorate,' Phillip spat out.
Maria Elisabeth was not impressed. 'A doctorate from some university in the United Provinces nobody has heard of does not compare with degrees from Tubingen. Why, Tubingen has Johannes Kepler and Wilhelm Schickard amongst their alumni. Who does your university have?
Lips knew the answer to that one. Nobody. The institution awarding Phillip's degree hadn't existed until
