Numerous improvements have been introduced, but still physical difficulties, such as those which he has indicated, surround the photographic processes, and even where M. Biot has proved wrong in his conjectures, his remarks form a curious chapter in the history of the art.

Mr. Talbot's description of his process, the patent for which is dated 1841, is as follows :—*

Take a sheet of the best writing-paper, having a smooth surface, and a close and even texture. The water-mark, if any, should be cut off, lest it should injure the appearance of the picture. Dissolve 100 grains of crystallized nitrate of silver in six ounces of distilled water. Wash the paper with this solution with a soft brush on one side, and put a mark on that side, whereby to know it again. Dry the paper cautiously at a distance from the fire, or else let it dry spontaneously in a dark room. When dry, or nearly so, dip it into a solution of iodide of potassium, containing 500 grains of that salt dissolved in one pint of water, and let it stay two or three minutes in the solution. Then dip the paper into a vessel of water, dry it lightly with blotting-paper, and finish drying it at a fire, which will not injure it even if held pretty near: or else it may be left to dry spontaneously. All this is best done in the evening by candlelight : the paper, so far prepared, is called iodized paper, because it has a uniform pale-yellow coating of iodide of silver. It is scarcely sensitive to light, but nevertheless it ought to be kept in a portfolio or drawer until wanted for use. It may be kept for any length of time without spoiling or undergoing any change, if protected from sunshine. When the paper is required for use, take a sheet of it, and wash it with a liquid prepared in the following manner :—

* Mr. Talbot, by a letter in the Times of August 13, 1852, gives to the public the right of using any of his patents for any purpose not involving the production of portraits from the life. The letter is printed in the Appendix.

Dissolve 100 grains of crystallized nitrate of silver in two ounces of distilled water; add to this solution one-sixth of its volume of strong acetic acid. Let this be called mixture A.

Make a saturated solution of crystallized gallic acid in cold distilled water. The quantity dissolved is very small. Call this solution B.

Mix together the liquids A and B in equal volumes, but only a small quantity of them at a time, because the mixture does not keep long without spoiling. This mixture Mr. Talbot calls the gallo-nitrate of silver. This solution must be washed over the iodized paper on the side marked, and being allowed to remain upon it for half a minute, it must be dipped into water, and then lightly dried with blotting-paper. This operation in particular requires the total exclusion of daylight; and although the paper thus prepared, has been found to keep for two or three months, it is advisable to use it within a few hours, as it is often rendered useless by spontaneous change in the dark.

Paper thus prepared is exquisitely sensitive to light; an exposure of less than a second to diffused daylight being quite sufficient to set up the process of change. If a piece of this paper is partly covered, and the other exposed to daylight for the briefest possible period of time, a very decided impression will be made. This impression is latent and invisible. If, however, the paper be placed aside in the dark, it will gradually develope itself; or it may be brought out immediately by being washed over with the gallo-nitrate of silver, and held at a short distance from the fire, by which the exposed portions become brown, the covered parts remaining of their original colour. The pictures being thus procured, are to be fixed by washing in clean water, and lightly drying between blotting-paper, after which they are to be washed over with a solution of bromide of potassium, containing 100 grains of that salt, dissolved in eight or ten ounces of water; after a minute or two, it is again to be dipped into water, and then finally dried.

Such was, in all its main features, the description given by Mr. Talbot in his specification of his process for producing the Calotype, or beautiful picture (as the term signifies): he, in a second patent, included the points stated in the next section.