Photograph courtesy of Cameras From Daguerreotypes to
Instant Pictures by Brian Coe
Around the same time, in England, William Henry Fox Talbot, a scholar
and scientist, began experiments aimed at capturing the elusive image of
the camera obscura and by the summer of 1835 he had produced what he called
"photogenic drawings". These were negative images of leaves,
lace and other objects produced by contact printing them onto paper
impregnated with silver chloride.
Talbot also found that by using a very strong solution of common salt
(Sodium Chloride) that he could fix or retain these images so that they
could be preserved.
He established that these negative images could be used to print any
number of positive copies and by August 1835 he was making images of his
home Lacock Abbey.
Talbot was startled by the news of Daguerre's discovery and announced
his own to the Royal Institute in London on the 25th of January 1839
This process was a negative positive process and is close to what we
use today.
Talbot's next discovery was a process which he called "Calotype".
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