Entry 1: The First Envelope, a Letter and and Equation

Envelope front

Envelope back

Here's the first envelope from Professor Barnes' filing cabinet. Don't worry- that red stain isn't blood. I asked a friend whose an EMT and she said it definitely wouldn't look like that, especially not after all this time. I think it might just be safranin, a compound used for Gram-staining bacteria.

Not sure what to make of those little dark figures in the corner. Some doodle for a future painting, maybe?

The symbols on the back are intriguing. From my brief glance through the rest of the papers, it looks like they appear in a number of places.

Here's the first of the letters from this Thom guy:

In case you're having trouble reading it, here's a transcript:

"Barnes,

I saw another one last night. It drifted by my window as I was falling off to sleep. This one was much clearer than the one at the hotel in Pittsburgh. A jellyfish ghost, it was. Body made of gossamer bubbles. Trailing crinkled tentacles like a Portuguese man-of-war. There was a detached “propellar” (sic) of sorts-- maybe even a set of horns?-- that floated before the front of the creature. I cannot even imagine its purpose.  For lack of a better term, I’m calling it a Bubble Comet.

It passed so slow and quiet. I thought it was merely an hypnogogic hallucination. But when I rose to investigate, I saw it still floating beside the wall of the house.

I do not know what to make of these sightings. They are unlike any spirit I have seen before. And they are certainly not human-derived specters. They remind me a little of that apparition we saw on Mount Desert, but these are clearly different. I know you still do not want to believe in that, but I for my part know what we saw that day on the mountaintop. I don’t believe Susan’s explanation of “ball lightning” or “earthquake-generated pizoelectrical (sic) sparks”

 I cannot help feelingl (sic) like Hodgson’s protagonist at the beginning of The House. As if this vision is a portend of more to come. Is this my green house in the red amphitheater? I suppose I’ll have to wait and see.

On an unrelated note, I found that book on bacterial adhesion and movement you were looking for. I’ll send it soon, once I clear my library fines. They won’t let me borrow any more books until I’m paid up. Hopefully payment from this latest commission will come in soon. Though those Historical Society people always take forever. I didn’t get payment for The Fall of Fort Duquesne for three months.

I hope everything is going well with Ellen’s surgery. I’ll try to get out there soon. We should visit Watkins Glen again.

 Thomas"

Weird stuff. I wonder what he means by "that apparition we saw on Mount Desert"? I'm he's referring to Mount Desert in Acadia National Park up in Maine. Sounds like Professor Barnes was delving a little into the supernatural herself. Assuming this isn't all just a playful private story they're sharing.

Here's one more thing. A crumpled note with an equation on it. 

Equation front

Equation back

I asked around the physics department and discovered that the equation is a component of a theory called gravitational lensing. Einstein first came up with it, so I've read. The idea is that the gravity of a galaxy is so dense that it will actually bend light around it, so that an observer on Earth who is looking at said galaxy will see the light of other galaxies and stars behind it distorted by the gravity. This equation represents the angle of defraction of the light. Here's an article with a better explanation of the phenomenon.

The back of the equation has more of those weird symbols from the envelope. Make of that what you will.

I'll post some more stuff when I get a chance.