Talbotype, << TAL buh typ or TAWL buh typ, >> was one of the first two photographic processes that marked the beginning of photography. Talbotype and the other process, daguerreotype, were introduced in 1839 (see Daguerreotype ). The name talbotype honors its inventor, William H. Fox Talbot, an English classical archaeologist and translator. Calotype is another word for the talbotype process and the prints made by the process.
Fox Talbot made sheets of paper sensitive to light by bathing them in solutions of common salt and silver nitrate. He then exposed the paper to light from images projected by a lens within a device known as a camera obscura (see Camera obscura ). Since silver salts turn dark where light falls upon them, he created negatives when he exposed the paper to the images. Further chemical treatment made the negatives permanent. Fox Talbot used the negatives to print positives onto other sensitized sheets. The negative-positive concept of photography used today is based on this process. Fox Talbot’s The Pencil of Nature (1844) was the first photographically illustrated book.
