William Henry Fox Talbot / 威廉·亨利·福克斯·塔尔博特
William Henry Fox Talbot is known throughout the world as the man who invented photography.
威廉·亨利·福克斯·塔尔博特被全世界称为发明摄影的人。
Willian Henry Fox Talbot was a very clever man.
威廉·亨利·福克斯·塔尔博特是个非常聪明的人。
He was a graduate of Cambridge University and a polymath.
他是剑桥大学的毕业生，也是个博学多才的人。
His scientific interests included mathematics, chemistry, astronomy, botany, philosophy, Egyptology, classical literature and art history.
他的科学兴趣包括数学、化学、天文学、植物学、哲学、埃及学、古典文学和艺术史。
Before he was 35 years old, he had already published four books and twenty-seven scientific papers on a variety of subjects.
在他35岁之前，他已经出版了四本书和二十七篇关于各种主题的科学论文。
He was also a member of Parliament in the House of Commons.
他也是下议院的议员。
In 1833 he was married and was on his honeymoon in Italy.
1833年他结婚了，正在意大利度蜜月。
On the shores of Lake Como, he was wanting to paint a picture of the beautiful landscape.
在科莫湖的岸边，他想画一幅美丽风景的画。
William Henry Fox Talbot had no great skill as an artist so his constructed a device that would project an image of the landscape onto his sketch pad.
威廉·亨利·福克斯·塔尔博特作为艺术家并没有太大的技巧，所以他发明了一个装置，可以将风景的图像投影到他的素描本上。
He then used a pencil to trace the feature of the buildings, trees and mountains on the paper.
他接着用铅笔在纸上描绘建筑、树木和山脉的特征。
However, when he looked at the finished drawing he was very disappointed.
不过，当他看到完成的画时，他非常失望。
The picture looked nothing like the scene before his eyes.
这张图像和他眼前的场景完全不一样。
William Henry Fox Talbot, frustrated by the results of his original device, constructed a new device.
威廉·亨利·福克斯·塔尔博特对他原始设备的结果感到沮丧，于是制造了一个新设备。
This was a small wooden box with a lens at the front.
这是一个前面有镜头的小木箱。
It projected the image onto a piece of frosted glass at the back where the artist could trace the image on a piece of paper pressed onto the glass.
它把图像投射到后面的磨砂玻璃上，艺术家可以在压在玻璃上的纸上描绘图像。
Although this was an improvement, William Henry Fox Talbot was still unhappy with the results.
虽然这有所改善，但威廉·亨利·福克斯·塔尔博特对结果仍然不满意。
He thought to himself that it would be a good idea if he could find a way for the images to imprint themselves onto the sheet of paper.
他心想，如果他能找到一种方法让图像将自己印在纸上，那将是一个好主意。
He then started looking for substances that would react to light in order to form an image on the paper.
他接着开始寻找能对光反应的物质，以便在纸上形成图像。
Within a few months he found that paper soaked in salt and silver nitrate would darken if left out in the sun.
几个月后，他发现浸泡在盐和硝酸银中的纸张如果放在阳光下会变暗。
Initially he used this method to make precise tracings of biological specimens.
最初，他使用这种方法对生物标本进行精确追踪。
William Henry Fox Talbot had invented photography i.e. drawing with light.
威廉·亨利·福克斯·塔尔博特发明了摄影，也就是用光绘画。
As he continued to improve the photographic process, he remembered his attempts at creating landscape images in Italy.
随着他不断改进摄影过程，他想起了自己在意大利拍摄风景照片的尝试。
He used his photographic process to create images of Lacock Abbey which was close to his home.
他用他的摄影技术拍摄了离他家很近的拉科克修道院的照片。
These images are now known to be the first photographs ever produced.
这些图片现在被认为是第一张拍摄的照片。
Occupied with other matters, William Henry Fox Talbot did little to improve his photographic process for several years.
由于忙于其他事务，威廉·亨利·福克斯·塔尔博特在几年内对他的摄影过程几乎没有做什么改进。
However, January 1839, a Frenchman called Louis Daguerre invented a wholly different process for recording photographic images on metal plates.
不过，1839年1月，一个叫路易·达盖尔的法国人发明了一种完全不同的在金属板上记录摄影图像的过程。
This development spurred Talbot into improving his process by reducing exposure times and trying make the images fully permanent.
这一发展促使 Talbot 通过减少曝光时间并尝试使图像完全永久来改进他的流程。
In 1840, William Henry Fox Talbot found a way of reducing exposure times to seconds and a method to help stop the images fading.
在1840年，威廉·亨利·福克斯·塔尔博特找到了一种将曝光时间缩短到几秒的方法，还发明了一种防止图像褪色的方法。
In less than a decade William Henry Fox Talbot had produced a whole new method of producing complex images for botanists, historians, travellers and artists.
在不到十年的时间里，威廉·亨利·福克斯·塔尔博特创造了一种全新的方法，可以为植物学家、历史学家、旅行者和艺术家制作复杂的图像。
However, William Henry Fox Talbot, was not satisfied with the results of his photographic processes.
然而，威廉·亨利·福克斯·塔尔博特对他的摄影过程的结果并不满意。
Over the next 25 years, he went onto developing and perfecting a method for turning photographic images into printing plates.
在接下来的25年里，他开始开发和完善一种将照片图像转化为印刷版的方法。
Despite his improvements, the images produced by his earlier photographic processes deteriorated very quickly.
尽管他有所改进，但他早期摄影过程产生的图像很快就变质了。
For this inventor, converting his photographic images into a permanent printed form was his ultimate gaol.
对于这个发明家来说，把他的照片转化为永久的印刷形式是他最终的目标。