威廉·亨利·福克斯·塔尔博特William Henry Fox Talbot

威廉·亨利·福克斯·塔尔博特今天通常以这个名字的这种形式为人所知。然而，他非常不喜欢这种形式，并总是表明他希望被称为塔尔博特 F 塔尔博特或H F 塔尔博特。我们在本文中至少会在某种程度上遵从他的愿望，称他为塔尔博特（或塔尔博特）。

塔尔博特的父亲是William Davenport塔尔博特，母亲是Elisabeth Theresa塔尔博特-Strangways。哈罗德·达文波特塔尔博特拥有威尔特郡的Lacock Abbey，该庄园自1500年代以来一直为塔尔博特家族所有，但这只是因为两位丈夫采用了妻子的塔尔博特姓氏，以避免塔尔博特家族姓氏消亡。Lady Elisabeth塔尔博特-Strangways是塔尔博特Thomas塔尔博特-Strangways（Ilchester第二伯爵）的长女，来自一个活跃于最高政治圈的家庭。鉴于这些家族的地位，人们可能会认为塔尔博特会出生在一个富裕的家庭，但恰恰相反，当他出生时，Lacock Abbey负债30,000英镑，这在当时是一笔巨款。财务问题并不是这个家庭唯一的困难，因为达文波特塔尔博特去世时，塔尔博特只有五个月大，使Lady Elisabeth处于相当棘手的境地。然而，塔尔博特的母亲是一位相当杰出的女性，非常聪明且受过良好教育。她对政治非常感兴趣，能流利地说法语、拉丁语和希腊语。她对Lacock Abbey庄园的巧妙管理意味着塔尔博特最终不会面临财务问题。

当然，Lady Elizabeth的家族拥有多处房产，塔尔博特和他的母亲在不同时期居住在其中一些地方。她于1804年与Charles Feilding上尉（他后来晋升为海军少将）结婚。他是塔尔博特尽职的继父，从那时起塔尔博特从未缺少父爱。Elizabeth和Charles婚姻所生的女儿们分别出生于1808年和1810年。塔尔博特八岁时遇到了天文学家威廉·赫歇尔，同年他进入Rottingdean寄宿学校[2]：-

他是个才华横溢的学生，求知欲强，但天生极度害羞且离群索居。

1810年，塔尔博特进入哈罗公学，一直待到1815年，之后他在家中接受了两年私人辅导，完成了大学前的准备。童年时，他就对世界表现出极大的好奇心，兴趣异常广泛，尤其对数学、语言、政治、植物学、光学和天文学感兴趣。他在学校喜欢化学，并因在实验化学品时引发爆炸而惹上麻烦。1817年，他进入剑桥大学三一学院，在那里赢得了希腊语诗歌奖，并于1821年以古典学奖章毕业，数学成绩排名第十二数学荣誉学位考试一等及格者（Wrangler）（即在一等荣誉学生排名中位列第十二）。此时他已年满21岁，正如我们上文提到的，他母亲对拉科克修道院庄园的巧妙管理使其恢复了健康的财务状况，如今已摆脱了他出生时所面临的债务。塔尔博特从庄园获得了可观的收入。1822年，他当选为新成立的皇家天文学会的会士。他努力从事数学研究，但也喜欢在欧洲大陆广泛旅行；他尤其高兴访问意大利。

塔尔博特撰写了关于elliptic integrals的论文，建立在莱昂哈德·欧拉、阿德里安-马里·勒让德、卡尔·古斯塔夫·雅各布·雅可比和尼尔斯·阿贝尔的工作基础上。到1824年在慕尼黑遇到约翰·赫歇尔（他8岁时遇到的威廉·赫歇尔的儿子）时，他已经发表了六篇数学论文，两人有许多共同的科学兴趣，例如都是优秀的数学家和皇家天文学会的会士。他们很快成为密友，塔尔博特的兴趣更多地转向了光的研究。苏格兰物理学家弗洛伦斯·南丁格尔·大卫 Brewster当时也在进行光的实验，他发表了塔尔博特的多篇文章。塔尔博特因其数学工作于1831年当选为皇家学会的会士。除了数学和物理学的工作外，塔尔博特还发表了天文学方面的著作。1833年10月20日，他与来自德比郡马克顿的康斯坦斯·芒迪结婚。此后不久，他当选为奇彭纳姆的国会议员，任职至1835年。1835年选举后，他将继续对政治保持兴趣，但在那次选举中他选择不再竞选议会席位。

1833年10月，他在意大利时，一个将改变他一生的重要想法出现在他脑海中。这是他带着妻子康斯坦斯去法国、瑞士和意大利度假的一部分。他正试图在意大利北部的科莫湖上用camera lucida（一种绘图仪器，不要被“camera”这个词混淆——这种仪器与摄影无关）画素描。在1844年出版的The Pencil of Nature的引言中，塔尔博特解释了他在那个十月日子里在意大利的想法：-

1833年10月，我在意大利科莫湖可爱的岸边自娱自乐，用明箱画素描，或者更确切地说，我应该说，试图画它们；但成功的程度微乎其微……在多次徒劳的尝试后，我放下了仪器，得出结论：它的使用需要事先具备绘画知识，不幸的是我并不具备。然后我想再次尝试一种我多年前试过的方法。我反思了暗箱的玻璃透镜在其焦点处投射到纸上的自然绘画画面的无与伦比的美丽——那些仙境般的图画，瞬间的创造，注定会迅速消逝……正是在这些思考中，我产生了一个想法……如果能把这些自然图像永久地印在纸上并固定下来，那该多么迷人啊！

他从意大利回来继续担任议会议员，但到1834年春天，他已住在拉科克修道院进行摄影实验。他在化学和光方面的专长是他成功的重要因素。约翰·赫歇尔对塔尔博特的实验非常感兴趣，并设计了许多至今仍在使用的术语。他将塔尔博特在涂有适当选择化学品的纸上产生的倒像命名为“负片”，并将塔尔博特完善的用进一步化学品处理纸张以防止光进一步作用的过程命名为“定影”。我们有一张塔尔博特于1835年8月制作的负片样本，它是拉科克修道院南廊的奥里尔窗的照片。负片的副本在拉科克展出，我在那里非常愉快地观看了塔尔博特早期实验的展品。以下是塔尔博特自己的描述：-

……我用一个大箱子做了一台[暗箱]，图像由固定在另一端的一只好物镜投射到箱子的一端。这装置装上感光纸后，在一个夏日午后被拿出去，放在离一座受阳光良好照射的建筑物约一百码处。大约一小时后，我打开箱子，发现纸上呈现出那座建筑物非常清晰的影像，只是处于阴影中的那些部分除外。在这一技艺分支上的少许经验告诉我，用较小的暗箱，效果会在较短的时间内产生。于是，我做了几个小箱子，在里面装上焦距较短的透镜，用这些我获得了非常完美但极小的照片……

塔尔博特找到了一种方法，把他的负片印回到感光纸上，从而对所拍摄场景作出正确的再现。此外，他还能从单张负片印出多份副本。然而，摄影并非他唯一的兴趣，在接下来的几年里，他继续研究数学和光，而没有公开他的摄影发现。1837年，他以Further observations on the optical phenomena of crystals为题向皇家学会作了贝克讲座，并于1838年因数学成就从皇家学会获得皇家奖章。

到1838年秋天，塔尔博特重新开始他的摄影工作，并开始考虑写一篇论文提交给皇家学会，描述他的发现。然而在1839年1月，他震惊地读到弗朗索瓦·阿拉戈和达盖尔的一则公告，声称达盖尔已经开发出一种从暗箱获得永久图像的方法。塔尔博特迅速采取行动宣传自己的工作，在得知法国公告后不到一周就将他的照片样本寄给伦敦皇家研究院，并在几天后写信给弗朗索瓦·阿拉戈声称优先权。他于1839年1月31日向皇家学会提交了一篇关于他的摄影方法的论文Some account of the art of photogenic drawing。然而，塔尔博特后来关于摄影的论文，学会选择不予发表。1840年，塔尔博特取得了进一步的辉煌进展，发现如何使用化学物质在感光纸仅曝光很短时间后从中显现图像。他以calotype为名为此过程申请了专利。

有两个因素意味着塔尔博特的方法不会像达盖尔的方法那样得到广泛使用。其一仅仅是达盖尔免费公开了他的方法，而塔尔博特则向任何使用其方法的人收费；其次，达盖尔的方法产生的影像要清晰得多。尽管如此，任何人看到塔尔博特制作的影像，都不能不为其极美所打动。1844年，他出版了Pencil of nature，这是第一本用照片插图的书；我们上文已引用了其中的文字。他的摄影专利给他带来了糟糕的境遇，因为当他试图用这些专利阻止他人使用类似方法时，法院于1854年裁定他是[2]：——

……摄影的真正发明者，但裁定较新的方法不在他的专利范围之内。这些充满敌意的诉讼严重玷污了塔尔博特的声誉，以致由此产生的偏见至今仍不断出现在历史文献中。

他确实因摄影工作从皇家学会获得了一些认可，于1842年被授予该会的伦福德奖章。19世纪40年代后期，他经历了一段健康不佳的时期，但在接下来的十年里他的健康又有所好转，能够以与19世纪30年代大致相同的精力进行研究。他致力于用墨水制作图像，并就其印刷方法取得了更多专利。尽管他从未靠自己所开发的方法取得商业成功，但他正走在通往由照相版印刷的现代方法的完全正确的道路上。

塔尔博特的家是拉科克修道院，但他在苏格兰度过了很多时间。他在19世纪40年代初访问了爱丁堡，并于1845年出版了Sun Pictures of Scotland，其中包含苏格兰的照片，包括爱丁堡王子街上的司各特纪念碑。从1855年起，在接下来的大约12年里，他每年肯定有一部分时间住在苏格兰。1863年，他被爱丁堡大学授予荣誉学位：——

……由于他在文学和科学上的卓越地位，以及他的发现给社会带来的益处。

他晚年的兴趣并非只与摄影相关，他对考古学越来越感兴趣，是最早翻译尼尼微楔形文字的人之一。2中Schaaf写道：-

这位发明家的名字保存在各个科学领域中：在数学中，有塔尔博特曲线；在物理学中，有塔尔博特定律和塔尔博特（一种光能单位）；在植物学中，有两个物种以他命名；在天文学中，月球上有一个环形山以他命名；还有一种艺术的持久见证，这种艺术在社会中已变得如此普遍，以至于其产品有时对我们来说就像他的潜影一样不可见。在他的一生中，塔尔博特出版了七本书和近六十篇科学和数学文章。

在最后几年，他患有心脏病，这是他去世的原因，去世地点是他在拉科克修道院的书房。

Henry Fox Talbot is usually known today under this version of his name. However, he greatly disliked this version and always made it known that he wished to be Henry F Talbot or H F Talbot. We shall at least go some way towards his wishes and refer to him as Talbot (or Henry) throughout this article.

Henry's father was William Davenport Talbot and his mother was Elisabeth Theresa Fox-Strangways. Davenport Talbot owned Lacock Abbey in Wiltshire which had been in the possession of the Talbot family since the 1500s but this only happened because two husbands took their wife's name of Talbot to keep the Talbot family name from dying out. Lady Elisabeth Fox-Strangways was the eldest child of Henry Thomas Fox-Strangways, second earl of Ilchester, and was from a family which moved in the highest political circles. Given the status of the families one might expect Henry to be born into a wealthy but, on the contrary, when he was born, Lacock Abbey was £30,000 in debt, this being a substantial sum in those times. Financial problems was not the only difficulty the family had, for Davenport Talbot died was Henry was only five months old leaving Lady Elisabeth in a somewhat tricky situation. Henry's mother was a rather remarkable woman, however, being highly intelligent and very well educated. She was very interested in politics and fluent in French, Latin, and Greek. Her skilful management of the Lacock Abbey estate would mean that Henry would eventually face no financial problems.

Of course Lady Elizabeth's family owned a number of properties and Henry and his mother lived in a number of these at different times. She married Captain Charles Feilding (he was later promoted to a Rear-Admiral) in 1804. He was a devoted step-father to Henry who never lacked a father's love from that time. Daughters from the marriage of Elizabeth and Charles were born in 1808 and 1810. Henry met the astronomer William Herschel when he was eight years old, in the same year as he entered Rottingdean boarding school [2]:-

He was a brilliant student and eager to learn, but was painfully shy and reclusive by nature.

In 1810 Henry went to Harrow school where he remained until 1815 after which his preparation for university was completed with two years private tuition at home. As a boy he had shown great curiosity about the world and remarkably wide interests, particularly in mathematics, languages, politics, botany, optics, and astronomy. He had enjoyed chemistry at school and got himself into trouble over causing explosions while experimenting with chemicals. He entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1817 and there he won prizes for Greek verse, and graduated with the classical medal in 1821 being twelfth wrangler in mathematics (that is he was placed twelfth in the ranked list of First Class students). He had now reached the age of 21 and, as we mentioned above, his mother's skilful management of the Lacock Abbey estate had restored it to a healthy financial position now free from the debts it faced at the time of his birth. Talbot received a healthy income from the estate. He was elected a Fellow of the newly founded Royal Astronomical Society in 1822. He worked hard at mathematical research but also enjoyed himself travelling widely on the Continent; he was particularly pleased to visit Italy.

Talbot wrote papers on elliptic integrals, building on work of Euler, Legendre, Jacobi and Abel. By the time he met John Herschel in Munich in 1824 (the son of William Herschel whom he had met at age 8) he had published six mathematics papers and the two had many scientific interests in common, for example both were fine mathematicians and fellows of the Royal Astronomical Society. They quickly became firm friends and Talbot's interests turned more towards the study of light. David Brewster, the Scottish physicist, was also experimenting with light at this time and he published a number of Talbot's articles. Talbot was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1831 for his mathematical work. In addition to his work on mathematics and physics, Talbot also published on astronomy. On 20 October 1833 he married Constance Mundy from Markeaton in Derbyshire. Shortly after this he was elected to serve as Member of Parliament for Chippenham which he did until 1835. He would continue to have an interest in politics after the election of 1835 but he chose not to stand for Parliament again in that election.

An important idea, which would change his whole life, came to him while he was in Italy in October 1833. This was part of a holiday to France, Switzerland, and Italy that he was taking with his wife Constance. He was trying to make sketches on Lake Como in the north of Italy using a camera lucida which is a drawing instrument (do not be confused by the word camera - this instrument had no relation to photography). In the introduction to The Pencil of Nature which he published in 1844, Talbot explains his thoughts in Italy on that October day:-

[I]n October, 1833, I was amusing myself on the lovely shores of the Lake of Como in Italy, taking sketches with a camera lucida, or rather, I should say, attempting to make them; but with the smallest possible amount of success ... After various fruitless attempts I laid aside the instrument and came to the conclusion that its use required a previous knowledge of drawing which unfortunately I did not possess. I then thought of trying again a method which I had tried many years before. [I] reflected on the inimitable beauty of the pictures of nature's painting which the glass lens of the camera obscura throws upon the paper in its focus - fairy pictures, creations of a moment, and destined as rapidly to fade away ... It was during these thoughts that the idea occurred to me ... how charming it would be if it were possible to cause these natural images to imprint themselves durably and remain fixed upon the paper!

He returned from Italy to continue his work as a Member of Parliament but by the spring of 1834 he was living at Lacock Abbey carrying out experiments with photography. His expertise in chemistry and light were important factors in his success. John Herschel was very interested in Talbot's experiments and devised many of the terms still in use today. He gave the name "negative" to the inverted image that Talbot was producing on his paper covered with suitably chosen chemicals, and "fixing" to the process that Talbot perfected of treating the paper with further chemicals to prevent further action by light. We have an example of a negative produced by Talbot in August 1835 which is a picture of the Oriel window in the South Gallery at Lacock Abbey. A copy of the negative is on display at Lacock where I have greatly enjoyed viewing the exhibits from Talbot's early experiments. Here is Talbot's own description:-

... I constructed [a camera obscura] out of a large box, the image being thrown upon one end of it by a good object-glass fixed at the opposite end. The apparatus being armed with a sensitive paper, was taken out in a summer afternoon, and placed about one hundred yards from a building favourably illuminated by the sun. An hour or so afterwards I opened the box and I found depicted upon the paper a very distinct representation of the building, with the exception of those parts of it which lay in the shade. A little experience in this branch of the art showed me that with a smaller camera obscura the effect would be produced in a smaller time. Accordingly I had several small boxes made, in which I fixed lenses of shorter focus, and with these I obtained very perfect, but extremely small pictures ...

Talbot was able to find a way to print back his negatives onto sensitive paper giving a correct representation of the scene pictured. Moreover he could print multiple copies from a single negative. Photography was not his only interest, however, and he continued to work on mathematics and on light over the next few years without making public his photographic discoveries. He gave the Bakerian lecture to the Royal Society in 1837 with the title Further observations on the optical phenomena of crystals and he received the Royal Medal from the Royal Society in 1838 for his mathematical achievements.

By the autumn of 1838 Talbot took up again his photographic work and began to contemplate writing a paper to be submitted to the Royal Society describing his discoveries. However in January 1839 he was shocked to read an announcement by Arago and Daguerre claiming that Daguerre had developed a means of obtaining permanent images from a camera obscura. Talbot quickly moved to publicise his own work sending examples of his photographs to the Royal Institution in London less than a week after he heard of the French announcement, and he wrote to Arago claiming priority a couple of days later. He submitted a paper Some account of the art of photogenic drawing on his photographic methods to the Royal Society on 31 January 1839. Later papers by Talbot on photography, however, the Society chose not to publish. In 1840 Talbot made further brilliant advances, discovering how to use chemicals to bring out an image from his sensitive paper after it had only been exposed for a very short time. He patented the process under the name calotype.

Two factors meant that Talbot's process would not achieve the widespread use that Daguerre's process did. One was simply that Daguerre made his process freely available while Talbot charged a fee for anyone to use his, and secondly Daguerre's process produced much sharper image. This said, however, nobody can look at the images produced by Talbot without being impressed by their great beauty. In 1844 he published Pencil of nature the first photographically illustrated book; we have quoted from the text above. Things went badly for him over his photographic patents for when he tried to use them to prevent others using similar methods, the court ruled in 1854 that he was [2]:-

... the true inventor of photography but ruled that newer processes were outside his patent. The acrimonious proceedings had stained Talbot's reputation so severely that the prejudices raised continue to surface in historical literature.

He did gain some recognition from the Royal Society for the his photographic work with the award of their Rumford medal in 1842. He went through a period of bad health towards the latter years of the 1840s but his health improved again in the next decade and he was able to undertake research with much the same vigour as he had in the 1830s. He worked on producing images in ink and took out further patents regarding his printing processes. Although he never achieved commercial success with methods he was developing, he was going down precisely the right path towards modern methods of printing from a photographic plate.

Talbot's home was Lacock Abbey but he spent much time in Scotland. He visited Edinburgh in the early 1840s and published Sun Pictures of Scotland in 1845 which contains photographs of Scotland including the Scott Monument on Princes Street in Edinburgh. From 1855 he certainly lived for part of each year in Scotland during the next 12 years or so. He was awarded an honorary degree by Edinburgh University in 1863:-

... because of his pre-eminence in literature and science, and the benefits his discoveries have conferred upon society.

His interests during his later years were not exclusively associated with photography and he became increasingly interested in archaeology being one of the first to translate the cuneiform writing from Nineveh. Schaaf writes in [2]:-

The inventor's name is preserved in various scientific fields: in mathematics, there is Talbot's curve; in physics Talbot's law and the Talbot (a unit of luminous energy); in botany two species are named after him; in astronomy a crater of the moon is named after him; and there is the persistent testimony of an art that has become so pervasive in society that its products are sometimes as invisible to us as are his latent images. In his lifetime, Talbot had published seven books and nearly sixty scientific and mathematical articles.

During his final years he suffered from heart disease and this was the cause of his death which occurred in his study at Lacock Abbey.