for which a guinea each had been paid, and taken
too, by a celebrated artist, that our poorest Daguerreotypists would be
ashamed to show to a second person, much less suffer to leave their
rooms.
CALOTYPE, the name given to one of the methods of Photogenic drawing on
paper, discovered, and perfected by Mr. Fox Talbot of England, is
precisely in the same predicament, not only in that country but in the
United States, Mr. Talbot being patentee in both. He is a man of some
wealth, I believe, but he demands so high a price for a single right in
this country, that none can be found who have the temerity to purchase.
The execution of his pictures is also inferior to those taken by the
German artists, and I would remark en passant, that the Messrs. Mead
exhibited at the last fair of the American Institute, (of 1848,) four
Calotypes, which one of the firm brought from Germany last Spring, that
for beauty, depth of tone and excellence of execution surpass the
finest steel engraving.
When Mr. Talbot's patent for the United States expires and our
ingenious Yankee boys have the opportunity, I have not the slightest
doubt of the Calotype, in their hands, entirely superceding the
Daguerreotype.
Let them, therefore, study the principles of the art as laid down in
this little work, experiment, practice and perfect themselves in it,
and when that time does arrive be prepared to produce that degree of
excellence in Calotype they have already obtained in Daguerreotype.
It is to Professor Samuel F. B. Morse, the distinguished inventor of
the Magnetic Telegraph, of New York, that we are indebted for the
application of Photography, to portrait taking. He was in Paris, for
the purpose of presenting to the scientific world his Electro-Magnetic
Telegraph, at the time, (1838,) M. Daguerre announced his splendid
discovery, and its astounding results having an important bearing on
the arts of design arrested his attention. In his letter to me on the
subject, the Professor gives the following interesting facts.
"The process was a secret, and negociations were then in progress, for
the disclosure of it to the public between the French government and
the distinguished discoverer. M. Daguerre had shown his results to the
king, and to a few only of the distinguished savans, and by the advice
of M. Arago, had determined to wait the action of the French Chambers,
before showing them to any other persons. I was exceedingly desirous
of
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