Dear Mr Talbot,
I am at present writing an Article <1> on what has been done in Photography during the last 14 years, & would be glad to give an account of what you have accomplished since that time. If you think it would be proper, I would like also to give the history of the lawsuit about your Patent, <2> the result of which was disgraceful to the Parties concerned in it.
Perhaps you may have the goodness to suggest any point I may be likely to overlook.
I am Ever Most Truly yrs
D Brewster
Allerly Melrose
Decr 14th 1861
Notes:
1. D. Brewster, ‘On discoveries and inventions in Photography’, Photographic Society Journal, v. 7, 1862, p. 183.
2. Although in 1852 Talbot had relinquished his photographic patents as far as amateur photography was concerned, he retained them for professional portrait-photography, and won several injunctions against practitioners who infringed them. However, in 1854 he pursued a case against one Martin Laroche, who, he claimed, had infringed two important elements of his patents. The trial took place in December 1854 and Talbot lost. [For an account of this significant case, and the opposition to Talbot’s patents, see H. J. P. Arnold, William Henry Fox Talbot: Pioneer of Photography and Man of Science (London: Hutchinson Benham, 1977), pp. 199–209; see also Doc. No: 06994.]