He believed the undetermined object was most likely a fluffy cottonwood seed or a spider or insect crawling across the camera lens. To find out what lay behind the mystery, he conducted two sets of experiments, one by scattering cotton from the adjacent cottonwood tree and one by using insects. The first experiment involved collecting cottonwood fluff from a nearby tree and blowing it into the air in front of the camera using a blow tube. This proved to be inconclusive since the image cotton didn't represent a glowing fluffy ball the same as the one in the original recording.