Falmouth
Sept^r 1^st 1841

Sir

I submit to you a few Specimens of what I am doing with the Ferro-cyanate of Potash on Iodide of Silver ^<2> - the Camera views are the results of three and five minutes - the others of as many seconds -

I have today noticed that your preparation the gallo-nitrate of silver will call out the invisible impression from my paper - but I have not done anything that would answer to copy from yet -

I am in great expectation of being enabled to remove the yellow iodide entirely from the paper without at all impairing the dark parts - this will much facilitate the copying of original camera views -

I am Sir Yours very respectfully
Rob^t Hunt

[The envelope for this letter is in a private collection]
H^y Fox Talbot Esq^r
Sir Ch^s Lemons's Bart
Carclew
Penryn ^<1>
Lacock Abbey
Chippenham
Wilts

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Notes:

1. Talbot visited his uncle at Carclew in August 1841 and took some photographs. The fact that Hunt knew he was there, close by, suggests that they might have met face to face.

2. True cyanates are uncommon and rather unstable; Hunt and his contemporaries were actually working with potassium ferrocyanide. Hunt tried a range of different chemical variations of the 'Calotype' process, and other photographic processes, such as the Daguerreotype. His endeavors were published as an overview of existing photographic processes in, A popular treatise on the art of photography, including daguerréotype, and all the new methods of producing pictures by the chemical agency of light (Glasgow: Griffin, 1841).