32 lk;iit-painti\g. 



But as these pictures exist only on the surface of the silver plate, it 

 cannot be used in this state to multiply copies by printing. Galvanic 

 electricity has been used with tolerable success for the purpose of etch- 

 ing the lines deeper and fitting the plate foi the press, so that with re- 

 gard to such designs it has been beautifully said that there were "drawn 

 by light, and engraved by lightning. " 



Mr. H. Fox Talbot, who disputed with Daguerre, the honor of the 

 original invention of light-pictures, instead of confining himself, as the 

 latter did, to their fixation upon metallic plates, endeavored to produce 

 them on paper. He tried various metallic compounds, both singly and 

 variously combined, for the purpose of producing a paper sufllciently 

 sensitive and easily managable. His labors led to some very interesting 

 and useful results, an account of some of which he published in 1839. 

 In the 1st vol. of this Journal, p. 17, a correspondent has given us an 

 interesting account of the application of the Bi-chromate of Potassa to 

 the copying of prints, music, embroidered patterns, leaves, &c., and of 

 which he has kindly presented some specimens to the Linn^an Cabinet. 

 It iloes not, however, appear that any metallic compounds, except those 

 of silver, have been used with much advantage in either of the branches 

 of light-painting. 



Mr. Talbot has at length, succeeded in preparing a sensitive paper, 

 which seems to leave nothing wanting for the production, with ease, of 

 the most admirable sun-pictures or " Talbottypes " as they are called. 

 A late number of the "London Art Union " is embellished with a sun- 

 picture, which is a view of the chief place in the city of Orleans, France, 

 in which the shadow of the houses and square, the reading on the signs 

 of the houses, and the people and vehicles in the streets &c. can be seen 

 depicted with the most minute exactness. With this extremely sensi- 

 tive paper pictures of all objects, animate and inanimate, can be taken 

 with as much ease, fidelity and beauty as with the Daguerreotype. The 

 pictures are however, ?ie^a/if(?, that is the lights are shades and the shades 

 lights j but this can easily be corrected by taking a copy of the original 

 — all copies of the first will be positive. A great advantage of the Tal- 

 bottype is that the pictures are on paper, and can be bound up and used 

 as engravings and prints. 



Without going into a detailed account of the method of preparing 

 Talbot's paper, which he calls "Kalotype" paper, or taking pictures on 

 it, it will perhaps, be proper to make a general statement concerning 

 them. Good writing paper is washed on one side with nitrate of silver 

 moderately diluted, dried and then immersed in a dilute solution of io- 

 dide of potassum and again dried. When the paper is required for use. 



