St Leonard’s College
Novr 2d 1842
Dear Sir,
I have searched in vain all the Edinr Libraries for the Royal Institution Journal containing Mr Wedgewoods Paper; <1> but I have found it reprinted in my own Copy of Nicholson’s Journal <2> 8vo vol. 3 p. 167 with a note of Sir H Davy’s <3> signed D.
If this Paper is identical, as I think it must be with it that in the Institute’s Journal, then it is clear that you, M. Arago & Mr Hunt <4> have all made a mistake in ascribing any part of the Paper to Sir H. Davy, or in supposing that he made any experiments whatever upon the subject. Arago directly ascribes to Davy the Expts mentioned in the paper, with the images in the Solar Microscope! All this is most unjust to Davy & also to Wedgewood, if I am right. I have referred to the subject in my Article, <5> & shall expect to hear from you on the subject as it is very important in the history of the Matter. If Nicholson has copied correctly, then Davy did no more than mention in the note, signed D, the experiments of Scheele, <6> Senebier, <7> Ritter <8> & Wollaston. <9>
Dr Adamson <10> was here today with his little book of Calotype Gems <11> for you, but he still requires to get a good positive of one of me before he can send it. What is the strength of your iodine solution [in] parts of the saturated salt. We use 8 of water to 1 of Saturated solution. Do you dip the paper in the solution, or wash it? and do you dry it in blotting paper, & is this blotting paper always new? Be so good as to answer these Questions. My Son <12> writes me that he never fails in taking positives, by dipping in the solution.
I am Dear Sir Ever Most Truly yrs
D Brewster
Notes:
1. The original publication of Wedgwood’s process was in Humphry Davy, ‘An Account of a Method of copying Paintings upon Glass, and of making Profiles, by the agency of Light upon Nitrate of Silver. Invented by T. Wedgwood, Esq. With Observations by H. Davy’, Journals of the Royal Institution, v. 1 no.9, 22 June 1802, pp. 170–174.
2. The Journal of Natural Philosophy, Chemistry and the Arts, founded in 1797 by William Nicholson (1753–1835). Nicholson’s Journal, as it was commonly called, ceased publication in 1814.
3. Sir Humphry Davy (1778–1829), natural philosopher.
4. Dominique François Jean Arago (1786–1853), French physicist, astronomer & man of science, and Robert Hunt (1807–1887), scientist & photographic historian.
5. See Doc. No: 04541. The article was a combined review of four photographic publications, in the Edinburgh Review, v. 76, no. 154, January 1843, pp. 309–344, with a supplementary note in April 1843, v. 76 no. 156, p. 563.
6. Karl Wilhelm Scheele (1742–1786), Swedish chemist.
7. Jean Senebier (1742–1809), Swiss pastor who worked on photochemistry in relation to plants.
8. Johann Wilhelm Ritter (1776–1810), German physicist who studied the role of light in chemical reactions.
9. William Hyde Wollaston (1766–1828), chemist, manufacturer, physicist, optician and medical researcher.
10. Dr John Adamson (1809–1870), physician and pioneer of photography. See A. D. Morrison-Low, ‘Dr John Adamson and Robert Adamson: An Early Partnership in Scottish Photography’, The Photographic Collector, v. 2, 1983, pp. 198–214.
11. The so-called ‘Tartan Album’, in the Fox Talbot Collection, the British Library. For a description of this album, see Ralph L. and Joanna L. Harley, ‘The “Tartan Album” by John and Robert Adamson’, History of Photography, v. 12 no.4, October–December 1988, pp.295–307. Fundamental flaws in the Harleys’ factual and conceptual analyses were discussed by Sara Stevenson, ‘The Tartan Album’, v. 13 no.3, July–September 1989, pp. 267–268. A reply by Ralph Harley was published as ‘The Tartan Album’, v. 14 no. 1, January–March 1990, pp. 97–98. [See Doc. No: 04628].
12. Captain Henry Brewster. See Graham Smith, ‘A Group of Early Scottish Calotypes’, The Princeton University Library Chronicle, v. 46 no. 1, Autumn 1984, pp. 81–94.