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Lacock Aug. 9 / 58

D^r Sir

I shall be happy to give you an engraved plate, for your new Periodical, and will Shortly forward some specimens to choose from. I shall be glad if You will employ M^r Brooker (78 Margaret S^t Cavendish Square) to print off the impression for You, as he has rendered me much service in this matter – Please to inform me of the name of Your Publisher, and when Your first N^o will appear. The process is improving rapidly although as yet no other hand than mine has laboured at it – but great improvements will doubtless be made by others – The engraved steel plate is itself a beautiful photograph bearing microscopic examination – The impression with ink on paper loses some of the minute details – This is in the nature of things & cannot be helped – Although I have not yet published the process, I have spoken freely of it to various persons, and therefore should be glad to Know if you can tell me, whether any mention of it has got abroad –

I have not yet decided what to do with the invention – perhaps some of the leading Publishers & Printsellers might be invited to form a Company (limited of course) to carry it out, in conjunction with a few other persons. All photographs that are sufficiently transparent can be engraved in this manner – Old Engravings can be copied and are published &c. The scientific facts upon which the process is founded are among the most beautiful in Photography, which as you know is an Art fertile in singular novelties

I remain Yours very truly

H. F. Talbot