Letter from Dr. Frédéric Kuhlmann to Dr. Ernst Becker asking him to show his formal letter concerning the drawings at the Musée Wicar to the Prince Consort

Kuhlmann asks Becker to show the Prince his formal letter (see VIC/ADDA10/85/229) announcing the Lille society's authorisation for the reproduction of the Musée Wicar's drawings, and to obtain the Prince's consent to the society's request [for the drawings to be published under the Prince's patronage].

He also asks Becker to thank the Prince for having his (Kuhlmann's) publications on silicious applications reproduced, and for the trials he has ordered at royal residences. In response to Becker's observations in his letter of 28 July on the experiments at Osborne (see VIC/ADDA10/85/223 which also refers to Becker's letter), Kuhlmann states that these cannot reflect the progress made at Lille in trials he has personally supervised. He suggests that the Prince should send an architect or a painter attached to the Royal Household to Lille; he is sure this would lead to considerable changes in the painting of palaces and public monuments in England. Or he could send specimens of paints to Becker to show the progress he has made. Becker himself has been able to see the benefits of silicious paint with artificial sulphate.

Kuhlmann goes on to comment on the article in the Journal of the Royal Society of Arts of 22 July by F. Ransome which Becker sent him. He gives credit to Ransome for his claim to have been making artificial stone since 1844 by heat-fusing stone fragments with silicate, but he himself developed other methods and applications using silicates, which he published from 1841 onwards. He does not, however, attach much importance to these questions of priority; his aim is not personal ambition but the development of human knowledge.
Kuhlmann developed a silicious paint to conserve monuments and the facades of buildings.

Related Material: For related correspondence, see VIC/ADDA10/85/223 and VIC/ADDA10/85/229.