Museum Practl Geology
Jermyn St
St James’s
19 March 1852
My dear Sir,
Although a great many good names have been received for the Photographic Society <1> – as yet nothing has been done – There will be a meeting when Mr Fenton, <2> who is now in Lancashire, returns to London. As I had the task of opening the question of the patent I deem it my duty, in honesty to yourself and all parties – to inform you that many gentlemen amateurs will not admit your right to interfere with them in any way – as they pursue Photography for their own amusement – and they state they would not allow belong to a society which admitted your right by any agreement – It appears to be the general opinion that the decision in Mr Colls <3> case cannot affect a question which has been a great many times decided – that no action can be against a man unless he uses a patent right for profit – profit being strictly interpreted by buying & selling –
I write, I beg you to understand, not as expressing any opinion of my own, but to inform you of the opinion entertained by others. – Had the Vice-Chancellor when allowing the injunction – admit the aggressor to pursue the process for his own pleasure – do you not see what a door was left open for him to defraud you still. – Allow me to assure you again that I consider your proposal most liberal – it may probably be received by the pro-tem committee – at the same time I feel I ought to put you in possession of facts –
I am My dear Sir Yours very truly
Robt Hunt
H Fox Talbot Esqr
Notes:
1. The Photographic Club had been formed in 1847. In 1851 it was proposed to put the Club on to the more formal footing of a photographical society ‘for the disinterested advancement of the Photographic Science’. This raised the question of WHFT’s patent, many members feeling that his process should be given to the world. [See H. J. P. Arnold, William Henry Fox Talbot: Pioneer of photography and man of science (London: Hutchinson Benham, 1977), p. 188.]. Talbot’s relations with the Society never became really happy. It subsequently became the Royal Photographic Society.
2. Roger Fenton (1819–1869), photographer & lawyer.
3. Richard Colls, photographer, London.