27 Upper Baker St N. W. <1>
Jany 13 1858
Dear Talbot
On the 29th I am going to give an Evening at the Royal Institution <2> “On molecular impressions by light & Electricity” Can you kindly let me have some specimens of your gelatine & galvano process? <3> if so you will much oblige
Yours very truly
W H Grove
Notes:
1. North West; London had been divided into postal districts that became part of each address.
2. There was a regular Friday evening lecture at the Royal Institution, Albemarle Street, London.
3. In October 1852 Talbot had taken out a patent [no. 565, 29 October 1852; detailed specifications filed 29 April 1853] for Improvements in the Art of Engraving. This was a contact process using gelatin sensitised by potassium bichromate, on a steel plate, the resultant image then being etched into the steel. For a detailed description, see H. J. P. Arnold, William Henry Fox Talbot: Pioneer of Photography and Man of Science (London: Hutchinson Benham, 1977), pp. 273–275.] However, in April 1858 Talbot took out another patent, no. 875, for an improved process that he called ‘photoglyphic engraving’. It might have been this process that is referred to here. Neither of Talbot’s photo-engraving processes involved galvanic action: that was the process devised by Paul Pretsch (1808–1873), Austrian photographer & inventor; founder of the Photogalvanographic Company.