TALBOT3820

44 Queen Ann S^t London – ¹

Feb. 27. 1839

Dear Sir

Your letter was only forwarded to me today, or I should have replied to it sooner – I beg your acceptance of the inclosed photograph² representing a gauze ribband ³ –: I believe it is fixed, but you can try whether it is or not; if the sunshine should injure it I will change it for another – I described my process in its most essential particulars to the Royal Society Thursday;⁴ and the account was copied into the Literary Gazette & Athenæum ⁵ of Saturday – There are however various minutiæ, which if attended to improve the results. The only objection I can possibly have to Sir D. Brewster’s ⁶ showing the few specimens I sent him, is, that they give no adequate idea of the method, or of any part of it, being in fact the only things that I happened to have disposable the morning I sent them – But I begged him to understand that so far from being the ne plus ultra of photogenic performance they were literally the ne minus ultra ⁷ and I hope he said so to the friends to whom he may have shown them.– Daguerre’s ⁸ secret is certainly for sale; but then he asks 10,000£ for it. I am in great hope of improvement in the sensibility of my paper; and intend making fresh experiments on the subject.

I am glad to see you have undertaken the question of the penetration of solar heat into the Earth, with so much zeal.⁹ The differences which you have found attributable to the nature of the soil, are much greater than I should have anticipated. I should be glad if at least one of the stations possessed a double set of thermometers, 20 or 30 yards distant from each other, for the sake of verifying that it is the soil which makes this difference–

Believe me Dear Sir Yours most truly

H. Fox Talbot

M^r Fox Talbot
Feb. 1839
With Photogenic Drawing