Henry Fox Talbot
1877, 28 September
The Late W.H. Fox Talbot

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Published in "The Britsh Journal of Photography", September 28, 1877, p.460-461.
 
THE LATE W. H. FOX TALBOT.
 
One by one our photographic fathers are departing. Following the other two members (Niepce and Daguerre) of that grand old trio to whom photography owes its existence, Mr. William Henry Fox Talbot, F.R.S., at the ripe age of seventy-seven, "rests from his labours," having died at his family residence, Lacock Abbey, Wilts, on Monday, the 17th instant.
 
Mr. Talbot was born in Dorsetshire, in 1800, and up to the age of thirty-three he passed his time very much in the manner one expects of a man of cultivated scientific and artistic tastes, and possessing the means of indulging in those tastes to the fullest extent. At that period it was customary for those who travelled abroad, and whose desire to make sketches of scenes met with in foreign travel transcended their ability to execute them skilfully, to carry with them a camera luclda a small prismatic instrument which, when fixed to a table, enables anyone to draw with accuracy the particular scene to which the instrument is directed. It was when amnsing himself in sketching, by the aid of this instrument, the scenery on the shores of the Lake of Como, in 1833, that Mr. Talbot first experienced a strong desire to make science a handmaid to art, and to find some means by which the beautiful transcripts of nature to be seen in the camera obscura which instrument he also utilised in connection with art might by chemical agency be made to record themselves, if not in colours, at least in light and shade. To accomplish this object Mr. Talbot set himself to consider whether it could be effected by any of the chemical processes then known. Now what, at that epoch, was known ? Thanks to Scheele, certain properties possessed by chloride of silver when exposed to light had been discovered and recorded. Writing just one hundred years ago (Traits de I'Air et du Feu, 1777 J that savant says: " It is well known that the solution of silver in acid of nitre poured upon a piece of chalk and exposed to the beams of the sun grows black. The light of the sun reflected from a white wall has the same effect, but acts more slowly. Heat without light has no effect on this mixture." Scheele also discovered that it was to the violet and blue rays of the spectrum that this change was due, and not to the more luminous yellow or red rays.
 
Various applications of this discovery were made by Wedgwood, Davy, and others, the chief result obtained being the production of profiles upon white leather that had been washed with nitrate of silver, this being produced by allowing the shadow of a rigid body to fall upon the leather when placed in the sun. But no means of fixing these shadow pictures were known, hence the pictorial results of these two experimentalists had to be kept shut up in a drawer. At this stage of such peculiar scientific knowledge Talbot entered the field of research.
 
The various steps through which Mr. Talbol's earliest experiments were conducted may be summarised as follows: First, he tried simple nitrate of silver solution brushed upon paper and dried, but this was found to darken too slowly. Next, he spread chloride of silver upon moist paper, but this also proved unsatisfactory. He then discovered that the best way by which to prepare chloride of silver was by double decomposition, the paper being first impregnated with common salt and afterwards with nitrate of silver. He discovered in the course of these experiments that in order to obtain the highest degree of sensitiveness with this preparation there must be an excess of nitrate of silver allowed to remain in the film. On paper prepared in this manner Mr. Talbot obtained numerous pictures of flat objects such as leaves, lace, and analogous objects by superimposing them upon the sensitive paper and then exposing them to light. But by means of a modification of this process that is, by giving two successive coatings of chloride of silver with nitrate in excess, and making use of the paper while in a moist condition images were at length obtained in the camera obscura, although a long exposure had to be given. This was accomplished in 1835, and an account of the experiment will be found in the Philosophical Magazine at that period.
 
Previous to this time some of the properties of iodide of silver had been investigated by Talbot, who did not then discover anything sufficiently tempting to induce him to continue in this line of inquiry. Up to 1840 other duties undertaken by Mr. Talbot pressed for attention in competition with his photographic experiments. Bringing to bear upon his researches into the primaeval antiquites of Greece and Rome all the scholastic powers of a cultivated mind which had secured for him the wranglership in mathematics at Cambridge, and the Chancellor's medal in classics, he contributed much to philological and archaeological literature. In 1839 the London newspapers and scientific periodicals contained accounts of Mr. Talbot's progress in securing the images of the camera. This occurred under the following circumstances: In January, 1839, the discovery of the daguerrotype was suddenly announced to the world. It was accompanied by no explanation of the means employed, which were kept a profound secret. As there was some reason for snpposing that it was the same discovery, or nearly so, as Talbot's, the latter, by the advice of his friends, immediately published his discovery in some of the leading newspapers of the day, the Philosophical Magazine, &c. He likewise exhibited a large number of pictures and other photographs at an evening meeting of the Royal Institution, and read a paper on the subject before the Royal Society on January 31, 1839, in order that, if the discovery proved to be the same, he might at least demonstrate that he was an independent discoverer. However, as everyone is now aware, it eventually turned out to be wholly different.
 
Talbot's great discovery was made on the 7th of September, 1840. By this discovery the whole aspect of photography was changed. The process was one to which the discoverer gave the name of tbe " calotype." He found that, when the paper was impregnated with iodide of silver and excited with nitrate of silver and then placed in the camera, it was not necessary to wait until the image became visibly impressed, but that if removed from the camera in a state of apparent blackness, and without the appearance of the trace of an image, it would, if treated with a solution of gallic acid, disclose such image with a greater degree of force than if it had been exposed for many hours, the vigour of the image going on increasing under tbe action of this developer until at length it was sufficiently strong to print from. By this discovery the progress of taking views was accelerated upwards of a hundredfold; for, by an exposure of one minute a view could now be secured possessing as much vigour as that previously obtained after an exposure of two hours. Finding that fogging of the image was very apt to take place, Mr. Talbot traced this evil to its source, and, by the introduction of acetic acid into the developer and sensitiser, he overcame the difficulty.
 
By the calotype process which, in honour of its discoverer, was afterwards designated "Talbotype" portraits possessing great beauty were taken from the life, and we have now in our possession landscapes, studies, and views of various kinds which will bear favourable comparison with some photographs, at least, which have been adjudged worthy of a place on the walls of photographic exhibitions held within the past few years. In sharpness (although tbe negatives were taken not on collodionised glass, but upon paper), in brilliance (notwithstanding the prints were produced upon plain and not upon albumenised paper), and in tone (although the " toning " of photographs had not then been heard of), the early pictures of Mr. Talbot those, for example, to be found in some copies of the Pencil of Nature these early productions, we repeat, of this old master, when examined side by side with those of the present time, compel the admission that " there were giants in those days."
 
The Pencil of Nature, to which we have alluded, is a fine quarto volume, published by Longmans and Co., in 1844, and is, without doubt, the first work ever illustrated by photographs. It may be described as a series of twenty-four photographs of dimensions ranging from half plate to whole plate. The subjects are varied. Each picture has a descriptive chapter of letterpress, and there is an introduction giving an outline of the process employed and the steps which led to its discovery. On one occasion, when conversing with Mr. Talbot with respect to the fading of prints, we showed him our copy of the work in question, and directed his attention to the fact of several of these pictures having faded towards the margins while the middle portion was in excellent preservation. In reply to our question regarding the method by which the prints had been washed and mounted, Mr. Talbot informed us that after having been fixed in a solution of hyposulphite of soda they were transferred to the first of a series of six or eight vessels of water, and after remaining in it for a short time, they were transferred to each vessel in succession. With regard to the mounting: this had been done by a bookbinder, who employed the paste used in his trade, which contained a large quantity of alum, and this, generating acid, had eventually destroyed those portions of the prints with which it came in contact; for, by a fortuitous piece of luck, Mr. Talbot had instructed the bookbinder to paste the pictures to the mounts by the margin only.
 
In 1843 Mr. Talbot visited Paris, and demonstrated his process to artists and amateurs of the daguerreotype process, which was at that time becoming well known. For nearly two weeks Mr. Talbot gave an almost daily series of short lectures, accompanied by practical tuition in the new method of taking pictures. Numerous modifications of the original process were introduced by Mr. Talbot. For example: his camera process was, as we have seen, a negative one, from which negatives, by a species of chemical printing, positive proofs were taken on paper possessing less sensitiveness than was necessary for obtaining the negative. He set to work to discover a process by which positives could be secured in the camera by one operation. After numerous experiments he at last discovered the means by which this could be done, and of which the following is an outline: A sheet of iodised paper is excited with nitrate of silver, and, when dry, is exposed to light for a moment. It is now immersed in a solution of iodide of potassium, and dried. After exposure to light for one or two seconds its whole character becomes changed, for if exposed to the action of a developer it would not darken as before. While, therefore, the paper has beeu treated with the iodide it is placed in a camera, and the light it there receives prevents certain portions in proportion to the luminous action from being blackened by the subsequent action of the developer, while other parts become black. The exceeding value of this discovery, upon which we cannot now dwell, will be apparent to every scientific reader.
 
Having discovered a very rapid albumen process upon glass, Mr. Talbot, in 1851, tried in the laboratory of the Royal Institution the following remarkable experiment: A printed paper was fastened to a circular disc, which was caused to revolve very rapidly, by means of suitable wheels and machinery, and a camera was so placed as to have this paper in its focus. The room was then darkened and the wheels set in motion; and when the disc was spinning round with the utmost velocity capable of being attained the camera was opened, and the large electric battery belonging to the Institution was discharged. (It has since been found that the duration of the light produced by the discharge of a Leyden jar is about the ten-thousandth part of a second.) Upon the photograph being developed it showed an image of the rotating printed paper quite sharp and clear, as if it bad been motionless during the whole time of the exposure. We do not consider it necessary to give the details of the process by which the plate was prepared, suffice it to say that the albumen was salted with proto-iodide of iron, sensitised in a seventy-grain bath, exposed wet, and developed by a strong solution of protosulphate of iron.
 
Passing over a number of interesting researches we arrive at the last great discovery by Mr. Talbot that of photoglyphic engraving. Recollecting what had been published in the Transactions of the Royal Scottish Society of Arts by Mr. Ponton, in 1839, with regard to certain properties in bichromate of potash, Mr. Talbot, in 1852, made experiments with a view of discovering whether, by means of a thin coating of gelatine and bichromate of potash applied to a metal plate, he could not produce a surface that would become hardened in some parts, so as to resist the action of an etching solution, remaining in other parts permeable by such solution. These investigations were crowned by the discovery of a singularly delicate and beautiful method of producing engraved steel plates, in which all the details were faithfully rendered. But this very delicacy and perfection prevented the process from coming into general use, owing to the great care required in the printing of impressions. However, it paved the way for other processes which are now employed commercially.
 
From what we have written our readers will perceive the important extent to which photography has been indebted to this veteran experimentalist.
 
Regarding his social life we have little to say. He was a decendant of a branch of the noble house of Shrewsbury. As a landlord he was beloved by his tenants, who never applied in vain to him for advice or assistance in their troubles. He was somewhat brusque in manner, but possessed a kindly heart. He seemed to prefer downright contradiction to anything that partook even of encomium; and when, in 1863, we first made his acquaintance, that trait in his character was developed to a most noticeable extent. In a manner that we thought decidedly " snappish " and that at our first interview with him Mr. Talbot almost demanded our opinion of a photoglyphic portrait of Sir David Brewster he had recently executed, inquiring whether we had ever seen anything finer. We had, many times. " Do you know," he almost thundered, " that Sir David Brewster, Mr. Cosmo Innes, and numerous other men capable of judging, have pronounced that to be the very finest engraving I have ever produced?" We replied that we did not care what were the opinions of these men the picture was not the best that he had produced; not only so, but it was very, very far from being equal to others of his pictures that, in point of fact, it was the worst photoglyph we had ever seen, scarcely reflecting credit upon the advance he had already made. He stared for a moment, as if totally unaccustomed to have his works criticised in such a rough fashion, and, after a few words, he explained that his own opinion entirely coincided with ours; the picture, in hin estimation, was a very poor one, but we had been the first to have the honesty to say so to his face. And thus was the ice broken. We have now in our possession a very large packet of letters received from Mr. Talbot at various intervals since that period. When we last conversed with him we understood him to say that he either had been, or was about to be, engaged in experiments with a view to obtain photographs in natural colours. Alas! that " slow-consuming age " should have overtaken the venerable savant before he solved this problem; for no man was better constituted than the late Mr. Fox Talbot for undertaking investigations in heliochromy.
 
The remains of the deceased scientist repose in Lacock Cemetery. The funeral, which took place on Friday last, was numerously attended by the tenantry, tradesmen, and neighbouring gentry. All the shops in the neighbourhood were closed, and a muffled peal was rung as a last mark of respect to the lamented gentleman.
 
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