[from a copy made by Constance Talbot]

69 Fleet S^t London
Feb: 4^th / 58

Sir,

We beg to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of the 2^nd Ins^t & cheerfully give you what information we can in relation thereto, as by our process we can not and do transferred engravings from flat steel dies, after having been hardened, to steel rollers which had been previously softened, & after hardening the latter, replace them upon steel Plates, so we can easily transfer them to copper instead of steel, or to any number of copper plates. we should say however that in practice, we find it almost universally, the most satisfactory & economical mode, is to keep altogether to steel, as the copper takes but few impressions of good work, while the former will print many thousands, but we understand by your letter that the steel Plates you allude to, are already engraved, & if so, unless they were done by a person who understood the transferring business, & did all his work with the tool, & no part by biting, we believe it would impossible to take a good transfer

Again, if your Plates are upon ordinary thin steel they must be well case-hardened, or they would not give a transfer & a thin plate would be likely to warp in the hardening, which would likewise be fatal to the transfer: the chances therefore are very greatly against the success of any attempt to accomplish what you desire.

If one of your Plates is of very little value (say 20/ or 30/) & you wished it, we would try the experiment for you as it that would be attended with very little expence to anybody but we should decline trying a valuable one, at least in the first instance

we always pursue the following course in regard to transfers – the original plate or die is made of the best thick steel ½ an inch or more in thickness: we then bring it to a perfectly true surface & soften it when the engraving whether by hand or lathe is engraved placed upon it<.> it is then hardened & a round piece of steel having been turned polished & softened is placed over it in a transferring press, when the impression is taken on the roller: this again is hardened, after which it becomes for all purposes of works the original, from which any reasonable number of steel or copper plates can be prepared: but these latter plates, as well as all which precede them must be quite true & accurate or they will not take the transfer

Probably the foregoing will prevent your investigating the subject any further but if not we would say that we have not manufactured any transferring presses but for our own use, & Know of no one in this country that does

An adequate press made by any one would be expensive, but and when you had it can you afford the services of persons who fully understand the hardening & softening of engraved Plates & dies & of transferring them, for without this competency, commercial success would be impossible

We are Sir faithfully yours

H. F. Talbot Esq
F. R. S. &c

[envelope:]
H. F. Talbot Esq^re
4 Atholl Crescent
Edinburgh
[stamped:] TOO LATE G.P.O.