7. A silvered copper plate was now tried with a moderate warmth. Mercurial vapours brought out good images of the gold and copper; the silver marked, but not well defined.

8. Having repeated the above experiments many times with the same results, I was desirous of ascertaining if electricity had any similar effect : powerful discharges were passed through and over the plate and discs, and it was subjected to a long-continued current without any effect. The silver had been cleaned off from the plate; it was now warmed with the coins and medals upon it, and submitted to discharges from a very large Leyden jar : on exposing it to mercurial vapour, the impressions were very prettily brought out, and, strange to say, spectral images of those which had been received on the plate when it was silvered — thus proving, that the influence, whatever it may be, was exerted to some depth in the metal.

9. I placed upon a plate of copper, blue, red, and orange-coloured glasses, pieces of crown and flint glass, mica, and a square of tracing paper. These were allowed to remain in contact half an hour. The space occupied by the red glass was well marked ; that covered by the orange was less distinct, but the blue glass left no impression; the shapes of the flint and crown glass were well made out, and a remarkably strong impression where the crown glass rested on the tracing paper, but the mica had not made any impression.

10. The last experiment repeated. After the exposure to mercurial vapour, heat was again applied to dissipate it : the impression still remained.

11. The experiment repeated, but the vapour of iodine used instead of that of mercury. The impressions of the glasses appeared in the same order as before, but also a very beautiful image of the mica was developed, and the paper well marked out, showing some relation to exist between the substances used and the vapours applied.

12. Placed the glasses used above, with a piece of well-smoked glass, for half an hour, one-twelfth of an inch below a polished plate of copper. The vapour of mercury brought out the image of smoked glass only.

13. All these glasses were placed on the copper, and slightly warmed : red and smoked glasses gave, after vaporisation, equally distinct images, the orange the next, the others left but faint marks of their forms; polishing with Tripoli and putty powder would not remove the images of the smoked and red glasses.

14. An etching, made upon a smoked etching ground on glass, the copper and glass being placed in contact. The image of the glass only could be brought out.

15. A design cut out in paper was pressed close to a copper plate by a piece of glass, and then exposed to a gentle heat; the impression was brought out by the vapour of mercury in beautiful distinctness. On endeavouring to rub off the vapour, it was found that all those parts which the paper covered amalgamated with mercury, which was rubbed from the rest of the plates : hence there resulted a perfectly white picture on a polished copper plate.

16. The coloured glasses before named were placed on a plate of copper, with a thick piece of charcoal, a copper coin, the mica, and the paper, and exposed to fervent sunshine. Mercurial vapour brought up the images in the following order :—Smoked glass, crown glass, red glass, mica beautifully delineated, orange glass, paper, charcoal, the coin, blue glass — thus distinctly proving that the only rays which had any influence on the metal were the calorific rays. This experiment was repeated on different metals, and with various materials, the plate being exposed to steam, mercury, and iodine : I invariably found that those bodies which absorbed or permitted the permeation of the most heat gave the best images. The blue and violet rays could not be detected to leave any evidence of action, and as spectra imprinted on photographic papers by light, which had permeated these glasses, gave evidence of the large quantity of the invisible rays which passed them freely, we may also consider those as entirely without the power of effecting any change on compact simple bodies.

17. In a paper which I published in the Philosophical Magazine for October, 1840, I mentioned some instances in which I had copied printed paper and engravings on iodized paper by mere contact and exposure to the influence of calorific rays, or to artificial heat. I then, speculating on the probability of our being enabled, by some such process as the one I then named, to copy pictures and the like, proposed the name of Thermography, to distinguish it from Photography.

18. I now tried the effects of a print in close contact with a well-polished copper plate. When exposed to mercury, I found that the outline was very faithfully copied on the metal.

19. A paper ornament was pressed between two plates of glass, and warmed; the impression was brought out with tolerable distinctness on the under and warmest glass, but scarcely traceable on the other.

20. Rose leaves were faithfully copied on a piece of tin plate, exposed to the full influence of sunshine; but a much better impression was obtained by a prolonged exposure in the dark.

21. With a view of ascertaining the distance at which bodies might be copied, I placed upon a plate of polished copper a thick piece of plate-glass, over this a square of metal, and several other things, each being larger than the body beneath. These were all covered by a deal box, which was more than half an inch distant from the plate. Things were left in this position for a night. On exposing to the vapour of mercury, it was found that each article was copied, the bottom of the deal box more faithfully than any of the others, the grain of the wood being imaged on the plate.

22. Having found, by a series of experiments, that a blackened paper made a stronger image than a white one, I very anxiously tried to effect the copying of a printed page or a print. I was partially successful on several metals ; but it was not until I used copper plates amalgamated on one surface, and the mercury brought to a very high polish, that I produced anything of good promise. By carefully preparing the amalgamated surface of the copper, I was at length enabled to copy from paper, line-engravings, woodcuts, and lithographs, with surprising accuracy. The first specimens produced exhibited a minuteness of detail and sharpness of outline quite equal to the early daguerreotypes and the photographic copies prepared with the chloride of silver.

The following is the process adopted by me, which I consider far from perfect, but which affords us very delicate images:—

A well-polished plate of copper is rubbed over with the nitrate of mercury, and then well washed to remove any nitrate of copper which may be formed ; when quite dry, a little mercury taken up on soft leather or linen is well rubbed over it, and the surface worked to a perfect mirror.

The sheet to be copied is placed smoothly over the mercurial surface, and a sheet or two of soft clean paper being placed upon it, is pressed into equal contact with the metal by a piece of glass, or flat board : in this state it is allowed to remain for an hour or two. The time may be considerably shortened by applying a very gentle heat for a few minutes to the under surface of the plate. The heat must on no account be so great as to volatilise the mercury. The next process is to place the plate of metal in a closed box, prepared for generating the vapour of mercury. The vapour is to be slowly evolved, and in a few seconds the picture will begin to appear; the vapour of mercury attacks those parts which correspond to the white parts of the printed page or engraving, and gives a very faithful but somewhat indistinct image. The plate is now removed from the mercurial box, and placed into one containing iodine, to the vapour of which it is exposed for a short time : it will soon be very evident that the iodine vapour attacks those parts which are free from mercurial vapour, blackening them. Hence there results a perfectly black picture, contrasted with the gray ground formed by the mercurial vapour. The picture being formed by the vapours of mercury and iodine, is of course in the same state as a daguerreotype picture, and is readily destroyed by rubbing. From the depth to which I find the impression made in the metal, I confidently hope to be enabled to give to these singular and beautiful productions a considerable degree of permanence, so that they may be used by engravers for working on.

It is a curious fact that the vapours of mercury and of iodine attack the plate differently; and I believe it will be found that vapours have some distinct relation to the chemical or thermo-electrical state of the bodies upon which they are received. Moser has observed this, and attributes the phenomena to the colours of the rays, which he supposes to become latent in the vapour on its passing from the solid into the more subtile form. I do not, however, think this explanation will agree with the results of experiments. I feel convinced that we have to do with some thermic influence, and that it will eventually be found that some purely calorific excitement produces a molecular change, or that a thermo-electric action is induced which effects some change in the polarities of the ultimate atoms of the solid.

These are matters which can only be decided by a series of well-conducted experiments ; and, although the subject will not be laid aside by me, I hope the few curious and certainly important facts which I have brought before you, will elicit the attention of those whose leisure and well-known experimental talents qualify them in the highest degree for the interesting research into the action of those secret agents which exert so powerful an influence over the laws of the material creation. Although attention was called to the singular manner in which vapours disposed themselves on plates of glass and copper, two years since, by Dr. Draper, Professor of Chemistry at New York, and about the same time to the calorific powers of the solar spectrum, by Sir John Herschel,* and to the influence of heat artificially applied, by myself, yet it is certainly due to M. Closer, of Königsberg, to acknowledge him to be the first who has forcibly called the attention of the scientific world to an inquiry which promises to be as important in its results as the discovery of the electropile by Volta.

As to the practical utility of this discovery, when we reflect on the astonishing progress made in the art of Photography since Mr. Fox Talbot published his first process, what may we not expect from Thermography, the first rude specimens of which exhibit far greater perfection than the early efforts of the sister art ?

As a subject of purely scientific interest, thermography promises to develop some of those secret influences which operate in the mysterious arrangements of the atomic constituents of matter, to show us the road into the yet hidden recesses of nature's works, and enable us to pierce the mists which at present envelope some of the most striking phenomena which the penetration and industry of a few " chosen minds" have brought before our obscured visions. In connection with photography, it has made us acquainted with subtile agencies working slowly but surely, and indicated physical powers beyond those which are already known to us, which may possibly belong to a more exalted class of elements, or powers, to which Light, Heat, and Electricity are subsidiary in the great phenomena of Nature.

* Philosophical Transactions, Part I., 1840, p. 50.