1378
Calotype Process
Talbot continued with his experiments attempting to
make the paper sensitive enough to be easily used in
a camera and trying different methods for fi xing the
image after exposure. His friend, Sir John Herschel,
recommended the use of ‘hyposulphite of soda’ as the
best fi xing agent and after some months of experiments,
Talbot began to use that for the vast majority of his work.
The photogenic drawing process was successful as far
as it went, but Talbot took a large leap forward in his
work when he discovered in September 1840 that a short
exposure to light was enough to create a latent image on
the paper which could then be brought out by chemical
development. This single change brought exposure times
down from minutes or hours to seconds.
More than an improvement on Photogenic Drawing,
the Calotype was virtually a new process. Although he
had given his Photogenic Drawing process free to the
world, through the urging of his mother and his friend
Sir David Brewster, Talbot took out a patent on the
calotype. The restriction of this patent, along with the
widespread public delight about the daguerreotype, was
blamed for slowing further development of photography
on paper during the 1840s. Frederick Scott Archer’s
introduction of photography on glass in 1851 was the
fi rst serious commercial challenge to the daguerreotype
and was quickly taken up by photographers in England.
Talbot believed that the basic concept of Archer’s pro-
cess differed little from his calotype process. In 1852,
at the urging of the Royal Society and the Royal Soci-
ety of Arts, Talbot relinquished his patent rights for all
amateurs, scientists and artists with the exception of
commercial portraiture, which he felt he had to retain
to protect the business of those who had already taken
out a license from him.
In 1854, Talbot brought suit against a photographer
named Martin Laroche (real name William Henry
Sylvester) claiming that Laroche’s use of the collodion
process violated his patent rights. Although Talbot had
the support of Sir John Herschel and Sir David Brewster,
the judgment assigned Talbot credit as the inventor of the
photographic process on paper, but ruled that Archer’s
process was outside his patent and was therefore avail-
able for public use.
Photoengraving
Talbot’s desire to create images that were both repro-
ducible and permanent was not to be found in silver
printing processes. Talbot made his last photograph in
- His mother’s death in 1846 and his prolonged
illness throughout the late 1840s brought an end to
his experiments using the calotype process. Although
Talbot’s experiments with photography ended in 1845,
in the early 1850s he picked up his earlier researches
on printing photographs by way of a printing plate and
ink. By 1852 he had created his fi rst successful photo-
engraving process, which he patented. Later changes
brought about a greatly improved process, which he
called Photoglyphic engraving, taking out a patent on
it in 1858. These two photographic engraving processes
were the foundation for photogravure printing.Talbot’s Later Years
From the mid 1850s until his death in 1877, Talbot
turned much of his intellectual energy to deciphering
Assyrian cuneiform tablets held by the British Museum.
Along with Sir Henry Rawlinson and George Smith of
the British Museum, Talbot was one of the major transla-
tors of this previously unintelligible script.
In 1863, Talbot was awarded an honourary Doctor of
Laws degree from Edinburgh University for his “pre-
eminence in literature and science, and the benefi ts that
his discoveries have conferred on society.
Talbot died in his study at Lacock Abbey on the
17th September 1877 and was buried in the cemetery
at Lacock. His entire estate, including all of his pho-
tographs and scientifi c notebooks, were left to his son
Charles Henry. When Charles died in 1916 he left
everything to his niece Matilda Gilchrist Clark who
then changed her name to Talbot. She was a great
promoter of her grandfather’s work and it was through
her that large collections of his work were lodged with
the Science Museum (now at the National Museum of
Photography, Film and Television) and the Royal Pho-
tographic Society with smaller collections given to the
Smithsonian. In 1944, Matilda donated Lacock Abbey
and its estates to the National Trust. The contents of the
house, including his photographs and papers remained
with the family and are now in the William Henry Fox
Talbot Trust collection.
Although usually referred to as Fox Talbot in both
contemporary and modern texts, he preferred Talbot
and usually signed himself Henry F Talbot or HF Tal-
bot. The use of H Fox Talbot Esq. on the title page of
Pencil of Nature is probably the origin of this use of
the family name.
In addition to a number of published articles and
pamphlets on mathematics and other subjects, Talbot
also published seven books: Legendary Tales in Verse
and Prose (1830); Hermes or Classical and Antiquar-
ian Researches (vol. 1 1838, vol. 2 1839); The Antiq-
uity of the Book of Genesis—Illustrated by Some New
Arguments (1839); The Pencil of Nature (published in
fascicles from June 1844 to April 1846); Sun Pictures
in Scotland (1845); English Etymologies (1847).
Roger WatsonSee also: Archer, Frederick Scott; Brewster, Sir