This chapter focuses on Paul Dirac’s introduction of a verbally explicit description of scattering in terms of two successive emission and absorption processes, each coupled to a transition of the atom, not obeying energy conservation and located on the level of probability amplitudes. Historical actors called these energy non-conserving transitions “virtual transition” later on. I will contextualize Dirac’s introduction of this verbal model in reference to his research at the time, his interpretation of quantum theory and his rather pragmatic to flexible approach to mostly philosophical aspects of the interpretation of quantum theory. According to my argument, one of the most important reasons for Dirac to come up with this description was its usefulness in the practice of theory. A comparison between Dirac’s concepts and the concepts of the old quantum theory shows that neither the “intermediate states” of the light quantum point of view nor the “virtual” entities of the BKS theory had an important influence on Dirac.