[author’s copy]

M^r Crookes

Lacock
March 19

D^r Sir

I send today in a railway parcel 2 steel plates properly prepared for etching – you have only to pour the etching liquid upon them – They require no previous process – I have put on the resin uniformly.

As you find a difficulty, I would advise you to omit the copal for the present until you have had more practice. The use of the copal is to give a grain – Without it the etching usually prints pale & feeble, but not always, and if you can manage to dispense with it, it will simplify the manipulation.

I have tried to do so myself lately. I failed on copperplates but on a steel plate I obtaind [sic] an etching of which I enclose a copy, & which though not good, seems to intimate that etchings may be obtained without the use of resins – I send you the steel plate itself from which this view of some College Gate at Oxford was printed. You will see that the shadows are without any regular grain, but if the plate will print that is all we require.

The Plates represent Paris & Madrid. The dark spot on the print enclosed, is caused by the plate having got rusty before it was printed from. They sh^d be waxd [sic] the same day they are made, to insure safety.

I promised M^r de la Rue to try & engrave his Moon – But though he told me he was going to send me a copy, up to the present time I have not received it, & therefore cannot try that experiment at present. By the way I think you told me you had done some views of the Moon yourself – I should be happy to try them.

I have been rather ailing myself, otherwise sh^d have started for Scotland before now – but on Monday I think I shall certainly set off – w^ch will interrupt my photoglyphic labours for some weeks –

I remain Yours truly
H. F. Talbot

P.S. I have had so many things to think of, that the separate copies of my account of the Engraving process escaped my recollection – I shall be much obliged if Mess^rs P & G. will send me 50 Copies. x If you will omit the copal, yet nevertheless you should heat the plate after making the photographic image on it. Perhaps, if you should succeed in etching the 2 plates, you will send me proofs of them, w^ch I sh^d be glad to see.

address – 11 Randolph Crescent
Edinburgh.