The Pencil of Nature

Talbot, William Henry Fox Talbot (1800 - 1877) - English chemist and physicist, inventor of the negative-positive process in photography, that is, a way to obtain a negative image on photosensitive material from which you can get an unlimited number of positive copies: (calotypes from the Greek words kalos - beautiful and typos - imprint), later it was given the name tolotype, born on February 11, 1800 in Melbury Abbas (Dorset county), studied first with private teachers, then at Harrow, graduated from Trinity College of Cambridge University He studied mathematics, botany, crystallography, decoding cuneiform texts, was elected a member of the Royal Astronomical Society, the Linnaeus Society, the Royal Society of London.The idea of ​​the photographic process originated with the scientist in 1833. Talbot tried to copy the views of nature using a pinhole camera. But he did not possessed drawing skills, so he wanted to capture the image that he saw in the pinhole camera. Talbot knew that light can affect the properties of various materials, and invented such a photosensitive material. In 1834, Talbot invented photosensitive paper. The images obtained on it were fixed with a solution of sodium chloride (ordinary table salt) or potassium iodide. The first photographs of Talbot were simple photograms, i.e. Photocopies obtained by contact. Then he “combined” a pinhole camera with a microscope with natural illumination and received a positive photo print from the negative.