Royal Polytechnic Insn
March 18th 1842 –
Dr Sir
We shall not be closed more than a week, & hope by that time to have Dr Ryan <1> back again from the Country when arrangements will be made for commencing the Lectures on the Calotype <2> – Captn Ibbetson <3> is going on with the experiments daily –
I have the honor to be Sir Your Obt Servt
Robt J Longbottom
Hy Fox Talbot Esq.
Notes:
1. Prof John Ryan, MD (1810–1876), chemist at the Royal Polytechnic Institution, London.
2. The lectures on 'Mr Fox Talbot's Calotype Process' were started in July when the Royal Polytechnic Institution's new rooms onto Cavendish Square were opened - they met with great success. Undoubtedly some visitors also came to see Richard Beard's Daguerreotype studio, based there. See Doc. No: 04428.
3. Levett Landon Boscawen Ibbetson (1799-1869), Geologist, inventor, organiser and early photographer.