[blind stamp] Royal Society of Edinburgh
Edinburgh
8 Mar 1856
My Dear Sir
I have just received yours of the 6th <1> & can assure you that the Royal Society <2> will be highly gratified by the handsome present which you offer them. It comes at an appropriate moment as we are taking pains to improve our Library, & at this very moment the Illustrated Catalogue <3> is on our lists for purchase.
I believe that Professor Kelland <4> is a very fit reference for the paper <5> which you mention & which I should be glad to receive when convenient as our meetings terminate on the 3d Monday of April.
I thought I might sp send the beautiful specimens of Photographic Engraving <6> to be exhibited at one of the Meetings of the R. Society where they excited much interest, I could not be Myself present & people were not clearly aware that they were the result of Chemical processes alone. This I presume is the case. If you are disposed to state anything explanatory of the process, even in a general way, it would I am sure be interesting to the Society.
I remain dear Sir Yours Sincerely
James D. Forbes
W. Fox Talbot Esq
Notes:
1. Letter not located.
2. Royal Society of Edinburgh.
3. Possibly the Jurors’ Reports of the Great Exhibition Illustrated with Photographs, 4 vols. [WHFT had received – in lieu of licence fees – a number of presentation copies: see Doc. No: 06778.]
4. Prof Philip Kelland (1808–1879), Scottish mathematician.
5. WHFT’s paper was read on 7 April 1856 and published in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, v. 21, pt. 3, 1857, pp.403–406.
6. See Doc. No: 07349; see also Doc. No: 07245. WHFT’s patent for the process was Improvements in Photographic Engraving, No. 565, November 1852.