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Document number: 09189
Date: 29 Jan 1839
Recipient: BIOT Jean Baptiste
Author: TALBOT William Henry Fox
Collection: PUBLISHED
Last updated: 28th May 2013

[The original letter has not been traced and this letter is inferred from the statement that Biot made that was reported in Comptes Rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l' de l'Académie des Sciences, v. 8 no. 5, 4 February 1839, p. 172: “a la suite de la communication précédente de M. Arago, M. BIOT dit qu'il a aussi reçu de M. Talbot une lettre absolument pareille” (following the previous communication of M. Arago, M. BIOT said he also received from Mr. Talbot an absolutely identical letter). Arago's letter, as published, is Doc. No: 03777, which is the text duplicated below. Both of these letters may well have originally had the more complete text found in WHFT's letter to Alexander von Humboldt - see Doc. No: 03778.

Londres,
le 29 janvier 1839.

"Messieurs,

"Dans peu de jours j'aurai l'honneur d'adresser à l'Académie des Sciences, une réclamation formelle de priorité, de l'invention annoncée par M. Daguerre <1> dans ses deux points principaux:

"(1.) La fixation des images de la camera obscura

"(2.) La conservation subséquente de ces images, de sorte qu'elles peuvent soutenir le plein soleil.

"Très occupé, en ce moment, d'un Mémoire sur ce sujet, dont la lecture sera faite à la Société royale après-demain, <2> je me borne à vous prier d'agréer l'expression de toute ma considération.

"H. F. Talbot,
"Membre de la Société royale de Londres."


[Translation:]

London,
29 January 1839

Gentlemen

In but a few days I shall have the honour of addressing to the Académie des Sciences, a formal claim of precedence, of the invention announced by Mr Daguerre in its two principal points:

(1.) The fixing of the images of the camera obscura

(2.) The subsequent preservation of these images, in such a way as they might withstand direct sunlight.

Most occupied, at the moment, with a work on this subject, which will be read at the Royal Society the day after tomorrow, I shall content myself with asking you to accept the expression of all my consideration.

H.F. Talbot
Member of the Royal Society of London.


Notes:

1. Arago announced, at the meeting of 7 January 1839, the invention of the daguerreotype by Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre (1787-1851), French artist, showman & inventor. See 'Fixation des images qui se forment au foyer d'une chambre obscure', Comptes Rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l' de l'Académie des Sciences, v. 8 no. 1, 7 January 1839, pp. 4-7.

2. WHFT, 'Some Account of the Art of Photogenic Drawing, or the Process by which Natural Objects may be made to Delineate Themselves without the Aid of the Artist's pencil', read before the Royal Society 31 January 1839, a report of which was published in Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, v. 4 no. 36, pp. 120-121.