days ago I fell on a most striking instance of the effect of violet light in producing a chemical compound of a singular

nature - a platinate of lime which I mention to you that you may remind me to tell B. of it.”

Herschel’s ‘platinate of lime’ (calcium chloroplatinate) was a compound quite similar to what was later used in commercial platinum printing. Herschel’s notebook entries and sketches clearly show that he was letting light make simple patterns in the test-tube solutions by masking areas with opaque paper. The experiment bears a striking similarity to the earlier and more familiar work with silver salts by Johann Heinrich Schulze.^®®

On Sunday, 26 June 1831, the group met and Herschel recorded in his diary that he "Breakfasted at Babbage’s - Brewster - Talbot -

Herschel to Babbage, 23 June 1831, The Archives of the Royal Society.

^^See Joseph Maria Eder (translated by Edward Epstean), History o f Photography, (New York: Columbia h

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Drinkwater - Rob* Brown."^®^ This informal gathering of friends might have been forgotten had it had not been for a French researcher’s publication a year later of an experiment remarkably similar to what Herschel had demonstrated at Babbage’s/®’ Herschel, in Hamburg, quickly dispatched a letter to Dr. Charles Daubeny, chairman of the Chemical section of the

British Association for the Advancement of Science, who read it at the meeting in Oxford in 1832. Herschel’s sudden need to establish his separate priority of invention presaged what Talbot would later face in Daguerre’s announcement.

The letter read before the British Association was summarized in Brewster’s Philosophical Magazine under the title of "On the Action of Light in Determining the Precipitation of Muriate of Platinum by Lime-water:"

when a solution of platinum in nitro-muriatic acid...is mixed with lime-water, in the dark, no precipitation to any considerable extent takes place.... But if the mixture...is exposed to sunshine, it instantly becomes milky, and a copious formation of a white precipitate...takes place...the same takes place more slowly in cloudy sunlight.*®*

^‘^^Herschers Diary, 1831. Herschel Collection, Humanities Research Center, The University of Texas at

Austin. The men referred to were probably Joseph Drinkwater, a chemist, and Robert E. Brown, a chemist and geologist. There is also a possibility that this was the botanist, Robert Brown, the subsequent owner of Franz Bauer’s 1827 Niépce plates. Herschel also recorded in his diary that Brewster visited Slough on 29 and 30 June. Unfortunately, no written reaction by Talbot has been located. His diary for that period was a small one, and under Sunday 26 June he merely recorded that he had "Breakfasted with NF Babbage - Brewster - Herschel - Brown." Lacock Collection.

^^A.B., "Influence chimique de la lumière et formation de la humboldtite neutre par un mcyen

photomètrique," Journal de Pharmacie et des Sciences Accessoires, v.l8 n.3, March 1832, pp. 117-123. In fact,

the light sensitivity of platinum salts had been investigated in 1826 and 1828 by Professor Johann Wolfgang Dobereiner of the University of Jena; see Eder, p. 172 and 177.

^^^J.F.W. Herschel, "On the Action of Light in Determining the Precipitation of Muriate of Platinum by Lime-water; being an Extract from a Letter of Sir John F. W. Herschel, K.H., F.R.S., &c. to Dr. Daubeny"

(letter dated 12 June 1832 and read before the British Association 22 June 1832), The London and Edinburg

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Herschel’s father had earlier investigated the varying properties of different parts of the spectrum; now, his son followed suit/®^

This remarkable action is confined to the violet end of the spectrum. I have exposed tubes of the mixed liquids immersed in the sulphuric tincture of red rose-leaves, to strong sunshine for whole days, and [it is]...altogether insensible to red light; but the moment it is taken out of the red liquor and held in free sunshine, the usual precipitation takes place as copiously as if it had been all the time kept in total darkness. Even yellow liquids suffice to defend it.*®*

Herschel had been interested for some time in the coloring matter extracted from flowers. In 1842, he would publish numerous photographic processes based on their light sensitivity; here, however, they merely served as convenient color filters. He found the light-caused precipitate a "remarkable one" and was able to modify it in several ways. It would dissolve in nitric acid, but could again be precipitated by nitrate of silver. In exploring this solution, Herschel reminded his readers of a property that could have solved the earlier lament of Wedgwood and Davy for the lack of a fixer:

the precipitate, which is of a high orange colour, and which is a true platinate of silver, is easily distinguished from muriate of silver...by its insolubility in the liquid hyposulphites.*®®

^^Sir William Herschel had discovered the existence of the infrared rays and had mostly been concerned with the unequal distribution of heat in various parts of the spectrum. See Eder, p. 128.

^•’^Herschel, "On the Action," p. 59. ^'"^Herschel, "On the Action," p. 59

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Finally, since this letter was primarily designed by Herschel to defend his claims to priority, he called into testimony a number of scientific figures.

The above facts were observed by me nearly two years ago, and have been shown by me to a great many individuals at various times in the interval; among whom I may mention...Sir D. Brewster, Mr. Babbage, Mr. Talbot, and others, in London, last summer.... I mention these circumstances merely as ascertaining my early and independent observation of a fact which, at the time of its discovery, I considered to be sui generis, and which I cannot regard as of slight importance either in a photological or chemical point of view.*®’

This and other chemical efforts faded from Herschel’s immediate interest as he began planning an extended astronomical expedition to the Cape of Good Hope. Talbot wrote to Herschel on March 4, 1833, that he had heard the rumor that Herschel was departing for the Cape, and added,

I saw a very pretty experiment last Friday at the Royal Institution by which it is demonstrated that the electric spark is never continuous, however close the bodies are between which the sparks pass; but that on the contrary galvanic electricity gives a continuous discharge. This has brought to my mind a train of experiments which I formerly executed, attended with interesting results, one of which astonished me much when I first beheld it. It is a method of rendering the image of a body which in the most rapid motion entirely fixed,

Schaaf Ch. II: The Beauty of the First Idea 115

SO that you can see what happens to it under such circumstances, with as mtich ease as if it were at rest/®*

Nearly twenty years later, Talbot would apply this stroboscopic effect in what is considered the first high-speed electronic flash photography/®® In the present letter, he went on to confess that

I don’t know why I have suffered these experiments to slumber in my portfolio for seven years; but I am now thinking of presenting them in the form of a short paper to the Royal Society.

It was this procrastination, this failure to publicly record what he had discovered, that would prove so devastating to Talbot when he was superceded in the announcement of the art of photography. In Herschel’s reply of March 7, 1833, he confirmed his Cape plans and hoped that they could keep in regular communication:

In my banishment (for though self-inflicted it will still be to a certain extent an exile) I shall feel much gratified by hearing from time to time of any of your proceedings...

Herschel was particularly encouraging about Talbot’s experiments in physical optics, observing that he was

^^Letter, Talbot to Herschel, 4 March 1833. HS17:268, Archives of The Royal Society.

^^^.H.F.Talbot, "On the Production of Instantaneous Photographic Images," The Athenaeum, n. 1258, 6

December 1851, pp. 1286-7. Talbot said that "it will probably be in the recollection of some of your readers that in the month of June last a successful experiment was tried at the Royal Institution in which the photographic image was obtained of a printed paper fastened upon a wheel, the wheel being made to revolve as rapidly as possible during the operation." This type of phenomena had been of interest to him for some

time. In his Notebook M in 1835, he postulated on a "Chamber illuminated w* intermittent light. Let a

partition be built across it. An argand lamp shines thro’ a hole in this partition. A clock turns a wheel

rapidly, which closes the hole during of its revolution." Talbot suggested various entertainment devices and

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aware you are in possession of a number of curious a

interesting things in optical science and taking on every branch of that subject views of no ordinary kind...

Herschel said that he had often wondered that Talbot

should not have embodied them in some more impressive a permanent form than you have hitherto thought it worth while to do. I am very glad therefore that you entertain the idea of communicating some of them to the R.S. in the form of a paper, and I hope when you have fairly begun doing so you will not leave off till you have added to our knowledge by a large stock of new facts and to our philosophy by a copious disclosure of principles.**®

Talbot replied on March 9* offering that he would

be most happy to send you, during your residence at the Cape, not only whatever little contributions I may have the good fortune to make to the cause of science, but any other publications on the these subjects which you may wish to have....

He added that

I almost envy you your intended residence in South Africa, which possesses I am told serene skies a a wholesome climate. It is moreover a most favoured country with respect to its

Schaaf Ch. II: The Beauty of the First Idea 117

vegetable productions, and botany is a science to which I am particularly attracted.... I almost think of troubling you with a request that through your means I may be enabled to employ some gardener or labouring man of intelligence in collecting seeds and roots in different parts of the Colony which I may afterward hope to see flourishing in my greenhouse in Wiltshire.***

Herschel replied on March 25**‘ that

I shall be very happy to be useful to you in the way you mention at the Cape provided you will give me full instructions what to do being myself entirely without judgment in all matters relating to the vegetable world.

This was hardly true, but Herschel also responded warmly to Talbot’s offer to send packages of scientific papers. Herschel’s offhand comment that

I do not know whether you are chemically disposed - if so the process for the purification of uranium annexed may interest you**’

led to Talbot’s oft-quoted reply in a letter of March 27®^ that

I am not much of a chemist, but sometimes amuse myself with experiments.***

^^^Letter, Talbot to Herschel, 9 March 1833. HS17:269, Archives of The Royal Society. ^^^Letler, Herschel to Talbot, 25 March 1833. LA33-14, Fox Talbot Museum, Lacock. ^^^Letter, Talbot to Herschel, 27 March 1833. HS17:270, Archives of The Royal Society.

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The pace of preparation for Herschel’s trip was picking up. On May 30% he wrote Talbot a brief and suggestive note about optics, apologizing that

I write in a hurry as I am now unfortunately compelled to do everything - my days a hours being numbered and more pressing on me than I can accomplish.**^

Talbot left on June 2T* for the continent and was still out of the country when Herschel departed for South Africa in November. As the fates would have it, this was the very period in which Talbot made the imaginative leap to conceiving the art of photography. Only a matter of weeks separated the last communication between the two friends and the birth of this idea, an idea that they almost certainly would have shared with excitement.

Later, Henry Talbot himself had difficulty reconstructing exactly how his invention of photography was born. Perhaps some of this confusion can be traced to great changes in his personal life. On December 20% 1832, after a long period of floundering, Talbot married Constance Mundy. Ten days before this he had been elected to the House of Commons. In this era of the Reform Bill, Parliamentary matters were so pressing that it wasn’t until the following summer that the couple was able to escape on what amounted to a delayed honeymoon. It was during this trip that the idea of photography came about:

One of the first days of the month of October 1833, I was amusing myself on the lovely shores of the Lake of Como in Italy, taking sketches with Wollaston’s Camera Lucida, or rather I should say, attempting to take them: but with the

Schaaf Ch. II: The Beauty of the First Idea 119

smaller possible amount of success. For when the eye was removed from the prism - in which all looked beautiful - I found that the faithless pencil had only left traces on the paper melancholy to behold.***

Henry’s embarrassment at his failure was perhaps intensified by the group situation in which he found himself. As was typical of their times and station, the various members of the extended Talbot family ranged across the continent, going their separate ways at times, then periodically reassembling at a predetermined location. It was in the context of a lively family gathering that the art of photography was conceived. Caroline and her husband. Lord Valletort, joined the Talbots. Her letter of October is suggestive of the social climate under which Hemy operated:

L® V. joined me yesterday = while he went to the Villa Serbelloni, with which he was enchanted, we sketched at Bellagio ot visited afterwards the Villa Sommariva - this morning wandered about a delightful mountain above the house, covered with Chestnuts, vines, figs a olives. Alas! we are just off, the moment the steamboat arrives from Domaso - - but one cannot always stay here. They go tomorrow to Lugano for letters, via Milan - tomorrow we go there from Como.**®

^^^Talbot, introduction to The Pencil o f Nature.

^^‘^Letter, Caroline Mount Edgcumbe to Eiisabeth Feilding, 8 October 1833, from Cadenabbia. Fmt Talbot Museum, Lacock. Thqr visited the Villa Carlotta, owned by the notorious art collector Giovanni Battista Sommariva (1760-1826). After his death, his son transferred some of the collection from Paris to Lake Como.

See Francis Haskell, ^4» Italian Patron of French Neo-Classic Art, the Zaharoff Lecture for 1972 (Oxford;

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Talbot kept a tiny travel diary in which he recorded in skeletal form his day to day movements/*’ It also contains a scattering of brief observations on local customs and scientific matters but no explicit account of his thinking. September and early October were spent travelling about the towns of Lake Como, an area Talbot had visited before with Captain Feilding and his mother.*** Like many a British traveller before and since, much of his travel was centered around the picturesque lakeside resort village of Bellagio, and it was in this area that Talbot found himself in the first days of October. After again meeting up with Henry and Constance, Caroline wrote to her mother that "the latter part of the time they were here, I entirely gave up to drawing...."**®

A handful (perhaps nearly the full output?) of Henry Talbot’s camera lucida drawings survive.*’® Most of these carry little or no inscription but some can be related to locations in his diary. A few, such as the one labelled Villa Melzi, 5*^ Ocf 1833, seem to emerge as having been more important to Talbot. If one considers the assessment of the struggling artist, it could indeed be regarded as "melancholy to behold." Was this the frustrating drawing that inspired the invention of photography? Everything fits. The subject was attractive and stimulating. Caroline had arrived that morning from Como, undoubtedly with sketchbook in hand: "we spent that

^^^Talbot Diary, 1 May -1 6 October 1833. Lacock Collection.

^^^Talbot wrote to Captain Feilding on 4 October 1833, reminiscing about their travels and their stay at the Villa Serbelloni (near Bellagio): "Caroline recognised the red hangings of Horatia’s bed, a the prints a engravings in my mother’s room, unchanged." LA(H)33-17, Fox Talbot Museum, Lacoek. Long after this, in 1847, Caroline wrote to Heniy from Como: "Here we are again once more in dear beautiful Italy, looking just as it did in those happy days of Varese, whose distant blue mountains I had a glimpse of today..,." Letter, Caroline Mt. Edgcumbe to Henry Talbot, 3 November 1847. Fox Talbot Museum, Lacock.

^^^tter, Caroline Mount Edgcumbe to Elisabeth Feilding, 5 December 1833. Fox Talbot Museum, Lacock.

^^^ost importantly in an album in the Talbot Collection, The National Museum of Photography Film and Television, Bradford.

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day entirely at the Villa Meizi a Serbelloni."^^' Constance created a virtually identical - but far more accomplished - view of the same scene as her husband, probably at the same time.^^ Unless his ego departed substantially from that of other men of the period, Talbot’s melancholy must have been intensified by his young wife’s easy mastery of the camera lucida. Lady Elisabeth’s skill in drawing would also have been in mind. However, the idea for photography must have been Henry’s alone, and quite possibly one he kept to himself at the time. Only eight years later, visiting Giovan Amici, Caroline would write to ask Henry to

pray send him the account of the original discovery, as amongst us all we have contrived to forget it.^^

A decade before this 1833 trip (and also in Italy), Talbot had attempted to use the camera obscura for drawing, but found it