HF The History of Photography 600pág

The calotype and other paper processes in Great Britain 179
been regarded in consequence with anything but friendly feelings by the zealous
and disinterested amateurs of the art.39
The best indication of the worth of some of Talbot's patents 'which would never
have been granted had there been a scientific board to examine the merits of them
and test their originality'40 -a criticism which must have weighed hard on a Fellow
of the Royal Society-are the many disclaimers which he entered later on. Of his
calotype patent of 1841, containing six points, four were disclaimed; of his patent of
1 849, containing five points, four and a half were disclaimed; and of his patent of.
1851, containing two points, one point was wholly and the other partly disclaimed.
For the sake of presenting as objective a picture as possible of the stagnation of
photography in England we have gone into this matter in greater detail than its
retrospective importance would perhaps warrant. Talbot is sometimes presented as
a misunderstood and much maligned man suffering from the enmity of photographers.
One can sympathize with the neglected inventor; but as usual there are two
sides to the story, and as we have seen, the photographers' annoyance was well
founded. Ill feeling increased when it transpired that English photographers could
not avail themselves of the waxed-paper nor of the albumen-on-glass processeswhich
had both been freely published in France-except by taking out a licence from
Talbot. In consequence, photography made much greater strides in France, and
English photographers looked with envy across the Channel. Considering that
Gustave Le Gray's and Niepce de Saint-Victor's processes differed entirely from the
calotype specification-except, of course, in the general principle of putting a lightsensitive
coating on paper or glass-the English argued that 'in taking out a licence
from Talbot they would almost acknowledge his right to patent the sun'. And that
they resolutely refused to do. In 1851 there occurred, however, two events which
were soon to change the position radically.
The first was the Great Exhibition, which was not only the first international
exhibition, but also included the first important display of photography. A total of
700 photographs were exhibited by six nations. As a result, lovers and students of
the art in all parts of England were brought into contact with the work of Continental
and American photographers and with specimens of processes about which
they had so far only read and been unable to employ. To many it revealed the isolation
in which they had been working. The American daguerreotypes were technically
superior to those of any other nation; in photography on paper the French were
unrivalled (at least according to the Jurors, for even Hill and Adamson's portraits
received only 'Honourable Mention') ; while in the albumen-on-glass process
Scottish photographers rivalled the French. As in other fields, the Great Exhibition
greatly stimulated the dissemination of new ideas and the development of novel
methods, and since the pleasure of giving and receiving instruction was mutual, the
desire arose before long to unite 'all those gentlemen whose tastes have led them to
the cultivation of this branch of natural science' in a full-scale society.
The second event which was to have far-reaching repercussions was FREDERICK
SCOTT ARCHER's publication of the collodion or wet plate process in March of that
year. This constituted not only a marked improvement on all previous photographic
methods, but was the first process free from patent restrictions by its inventor.
FORMATION OF THE PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
ROGER FENTON, who had studied art with Gustave Le Gray in the studio of Paul
Delaroche in Paris, and had there first become acquainted with the new art, went