Penny post begins in UK, the pre-paid flat rate stamp (the 'penny black', right) guaranteeing delivery anywhere in the country; 112,000 letters are posted in London and use of the mail service grows rapidly hereafter.
February 24
Bayard publishes details of his photographic method but fails to match the impact of Daguerre's technique.
May 6
Adhesive postage stamps (penny blacks) are introduced in Britain.
May 8
Twopenny stamps are introduced in Britain.
September 21
W H Fox Talbot [right] includes gallic acid in the silver nitrate solution for his photographic system, revealing the latent image and significantly reducing the exposure time.
•
Samuel Morse and Cooke and Wheatstone, the latter pair already operating a system in London, respectively patent telegraph systems in the US.
Dr John William Draper of New York photographs the moon on daguerrotypes.
•
First chromolithographs ('chromos') printed in the US are made by Englishman William Sharpe, who has settled in Boston.
•
(Antoine-Joseph) Adolphe Sax
(1814-1894) [right] invents the saxophone.
1841
April 10
New York Tribune (later Herald-Tribune) is first published.
July 17
First edition of humorous magazine Punch, edited by Mark Lemon. It continues regular publication until 1992.
August
Fox Talbot licenses Henry Collen (1798-c1872) as the first professional photographer, or calotypist.
•
Claudet, in Britain, reduces photographic exposure time to one minute.
•
Leipzig publisher (Christian) Bernhard Tauchnitz (1816-1895) [left] issues its first paperback books, beginning with a series of English-language titles aimed at the European tourist trade but not available for copyright reasons in the UK. The first title is Pelham by Edward Bulwer-Lytton. The books are issued in paper covers [right], which can then be bound by purchasers in their own bindings.
The importance of the growing travelling public as a market for books is increasingly exploited over the coming decade.
•
Alexander Bain and John Barwise are granted a British patent (no 8783) for an electric clock.
1842
•
Alexander Bain in Scotland proposes a facsimile device, although not for photographic images. It is patented in 1843.
•
Mudie’s Circulating Library founded in Britain by C E Mudie.
•
Illustrated London News is launched, making extensive use of engravings and woodcuts for illustrations.
News of the World newspaper is launched in Britain at the relatively low price of 3d.
October 1
Seaside excursions by railway are first offered in England by Rowland Hill from London to Brighton. Day trips [in the Punch cartoon, right—the boy is asking for a three-hour trip for one shilling, ha ha] and holidays become immensely popular, eventually stimulating the demand for beach and promenade photography and picture postcards.
December 17
Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol is first published.
•
English artist John Calcott Horsely RA designs the first Christmas card.
•
Gutta percha, the natural latex substance exuded by the palaquium tree [right], found in Malaysia, is introduced into the UK; among other uses it is developed as the waterproof covering for telegraph cables.
1844
May 24
Samuel Morse
[left] sends the first electric telegraph message: 'What God hath wrought'.
spring??
Fox Talbot opens a calotype printing works at Reading, England.
June
Fox Talbot prints at Reading and publishes the first of a six-volume series, The Pencil of Nature, each containing 24 calotypes, that appear between now and April 1846.
•
Sir David Brewster’s ‘stereopticon’, a refracting stereoscope, is built by Frenchman Jules Duboscq.
Chronomedia index
Penny post begins in UK, the pre-paid flat rate stamp (the 'penny black', right) guaranteeing delivery anywhere in the country; 112,000 letters are posted in London and use of the mail service grows rapidly hereafter.
W H Fox Talbot [right] includes gallic acid in the silver nitrate solution for his photographic system, revealing the latent image and significantly reducing the exposure time.
(Antoine-Joseph) Adolphe Sax
(1814-1894) [right] invents the saxophone.
Leipzig publisher (Christian) Bernhard Tauchnitz (1816-1895) [left] issues its first paperback books, beginning with a series of English-language titles aimed at the European tourist trade but not available for copyright reasons in the UK. The first title is Pelham by Edward Bulwer-Lytton. The books are issued in paper covers [right], which can then be bound by purchasers in their own bindings. 
Seaside excursions by railway are first offered in England by Rowland Hill from London to Brighton. Day trips [in the Punch cartoon, right—the boy is asking for a three-hour trip for one shilling, ha ha] and holidays become immensely popular, eventually stimulating the demand for beach and promenade photography and picture postcards.
Gutta percha, the natural latex substance exuded by the palaquium tree [right], found in Malaysia, is introduced into the UK; among other uses it is developed as the waterproof covering for telegraph cables.
Samuel Morse
[left] sends the first electric telegraph message: 'What God hath wrought'.