Dec. 17

Dear Grove

I have remedied the defect in the Specimen which is executed conjointly on Iodised Paper, & Collodionized Paper, ^<1> which you pointed out, caused by the overlapping of the 2 papers. I [illegible deletion] dismounted them, cut off the overlapping part & then remounted them as before – the image had not penetrated through the front of the paper to its back, therefore your objection (though properly taken) was [illegible deletion] removed on examination – As to M^r Reades claims, ^<2> I believe that he will only produce one specimen done by him before the date of my patent viz. the magnified image of a flea.

Indeed we expect that any other specimens produced by him will be recent ones, made for the purposes of the present Trial. ^<3>

We also think Hunt ^<4> has no specimen of his process described in the Transactions ^<5> for 1840 and that anything shewn by him will be quite recently made.

[page torn away]

Yours truly
H. F. Talbot

P.S. M^r Bolton ^<6> hopes you will object to the Defendant producing copies of my specificat^ns of my other patents, on the grounds that (not only they are nihil ad rem ^<7>) but more particularly that the summons to produce the originals were was only served on him at 4 oclock Saturday evening (yesterday)

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Notes:

1. See Doc. No: 07074 for the half-collodion-coated/half-iodised paper demonstration-sheets.

2. Rev Joseph Bancroft Reade (1801–1870), microscopist & photographer, testified for the defense that he had employed gallic acid in 1839, before WHFT used it to develop the calotype, which evidence the defense used to discredit WHFT’s claim that the calotype was new and his invention. In 1859 Reade contradicted this stance, writing, “I did not realise the master fact that the latent image which had been developed was the basis of photographic manipulation” [see J.B. Reade to Lyndon Smith, 16 December 1859 as published in British Journal of Photography, 1 March 1862, pp. 79–80]. In 1854 WHFT sought an injunction against Martin Laroche (his real name, William Henry Silvester), a professional portrait photographer who employed the collodion process. WHFT then found himself having to defend his right to his patents and even his claim to the invention of photography on paper. See all letters relating to Talbot v. Laroche, which took place 18–20 December 1854.

3. That is, Talbot v. Laroche.

4. Robert Hunt (1807–1887), scientist & photographic historian.

5. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. See Doc. No: 07095 for more information on Hunt’s paper.

6. John Henry Bolton (1795–1873), solicitor, London.

7. Nothing to the purpose; irrelevant.