_Mr. Fox Talbot's Patents._---The injunction moved for by Mr. Fox Talbot,
as reported in _The Times_ of Saturday last, reminds us of a Query which we
have been sometimes asked, and which may just now be brought forward with
advantage, namely: If Mr. Talbot's patents extend to the collodion process,
how comes it that the earliest practisers of the collodion art had to make
their own researches? We know one skilful photographer whose experiments
were so extensive before he made any tolerable pictures, that his spoiled
glass and cuttings were more than a man could lift.
* * * * *
Replies to Minor Queries.
_The Olympic Plain_ (Vol. ix., p. 270.).--I have just seen, in examining
the contents of a German periodical, that in May, 1853, a proposal was
submitted to the public by Professor Ross, of the University of Halle, for
setting on foot a subscription to defray the expense of making excavations
in Olympia, thus anticipating, by nearly a year, a recent suggestion to the
same effect in "N. & Q." Professor Ross expatiates at considerable length
(see _Jahrbücher für Philologie und Pädagogik_, vol. lxviii. p. 203.) on
the advantages to be derived, as regards the arts, the literature, and the
history of Greece, from the exploration of so celebrated a spot; but,
notwithstanding all his arguments and eloquence, the amount of the
subscriptions, after the lapse of nine months, only amounted, in February,
1854, to about 38l. As this sum was so utterly inadequate for the object
intended, it was resolved to devote it to excavations in Mykenæ. Professor
Ross takes occasion to pay a high tribute of praise to Lord Aberdeen, for
the service rendered by his Lordship in discovering the treasury at Mykenæ.
The facilities at Olympia for carrying on excavations are stated by
Professor Ross to be very great. It is but a few miles distant from the
sea, on the banks of a navigable river, and opposite to the very populous
island of Zante; so that workmen, and means, and helps of all kinds can
easily be procured. It was intended to give the superintendence of the
excavations to Professor Alexander Rizo Rangabe, of the University of
Athens, who was to be supplied with an adequate staff of artists, &c.
Whatever discoveries might be made, were to become the property of the
Greek nation. Travellers were to be permitted to visit the excavations
during their progress, and to see all that was going on; and it was thought
that a considerable number might be attracted to the spot, as the Austrian
steamers convey passengers weekly in three or four days from Trieste to the
western coast of the Morea.