PHOTOGRAPHIC ACCESSORY DEVICE TO DISTRIBUTE SLIDES ONTO A TRANSPARENT SCREEN WITHOUT NEED TO MANIPULATE INDIVIDUAL SLIDES

Abstract: Accessory device for photography fit to easily distribute slides onto a light transparent screen and to subsequently regroup said slides into a stack with same sequence, without need to individually manipulate the slides, and fit to view many slides at the same time minimizing the area needed. The system comprises a properly shaped screen as well as a small slide dispenser box, for use in conjunction with said screen.

Description: "PHOTOSPAPHIC ACCESSORY DEVICE TO DISTRIBUTE SLIDES ONTO A TRANSPARENT SCREEN WITHOUT NEED TO MANIPULATE INDI IDUAL. SLIDES" DESCRIPTION The present invention concerns a device for photography meant to facilitate distributing of slides onto a light transparent screen, and their successive restacking in orderly sequence. Whoever owns many photo slides has often an interest to rapidly rewiew one or more decks of slides, for example to select and i r some specific slides; such rewiew is possible after spreading the slides of a deck onto a light transparent screen, against which to rewiew them directly . Ideally, distributing onto the screen and subsequent picking back up the slides should respect the original sequence, and not be too laborious; also o+ interest is to keep the screen area needed to a minimum, still satisfying what mentioned above. Transparent or luminous screens are commercially availabLe in various sizes, with surfaces fit to receive slides, for example in ins or in rows, we know of no systems so far available, that free the user -from manipulating slide to spread them onto the screen, and to repack them afterwards; to be noted that slides being rather thin makes them not so easy to pick up from the screen, and that manipulations risk to leave fingerprints onto tπe slides. Aim θ"f the present invention is to facilitate and speed up the above mentioned operations, freeing the user from individually manipulating the slides; a further plus is the high density of slides that can be obtained on the screen, regularly and automatica1 ly. These purposes are reached by the device object f the present- invention, which comprises a small dispenser box fit to hold a stack f slides within its side and bottom walls, and provided with a bottom slit through which slides can be released or captured one by one, as well as a transparent screen, whose surface designed to receive the slides is shaped with saw—tooth stripes, alternating with flat stripes lower in level than the minima of the saw— ooth profiles. Further characte istics of the invention shall become clearer f om the description cf a preferred but not exclusive version of said system, illustraded by the enclosed pictures by way of iiiustrating, n: - " o limiting the subject. Fig.l shows in two orthogonal views the mutual working position of the shaped screen and the dispenser box; except for the c.- ientation of the parts, which must be thought of rotaded with 5 the screen inclined as per fig.Ξ, the main design features as shown in fig.l, that is: the saw-tooth profile, with tooth hight 2 low enough to catch and extract only one slide 3 from the dispenser box L > , when this is made to slide in the extraction direction 5 on the sliderules 6, while the sides of same rules 10 act as lateral containment of the slides, which rests on flat sides 7; the slide above it escapes from the catch thanks to the bevel 8. Distance 9 between two successive teeth is such as to overlay slides, similar to roof tiles, by all the blank (frame) length. 15 The bottom 10 of the dispenser box is parallel and flush to the bottom of the screen stripe, so as to penetrate under slide 11 for capturing it and stacking it up, when the box is made to slide in direction IE. The front of the dispenser has slite S to facilitate loading and Ξ0 unloading the stack of slides. Fig.S shows the same screen obtained by properly shaping the lid of a box designed to hold many stacks of slides in a very compact way. To be noted that in working condition the screen is kept inclined Ξ5 for various reesons, among which: to facilitate distribution as well as pick up of slides; to inable back lighting from a table top ia p, with light reflecting on a metallized sheet resting cn tne DO - bottom pa; t, and finally for easier viewing Dy a sitting user . The functioning of tne aoove described system s as follows: to ioac- one must enter tne stac'*- of slides in the αisDense*- be . prepare- the screen ≤t the proper incline, one then axes tne dispenser slide downwards for each stripe wanted. To restacl-, slide the box in the opposite direction and sequence Cfro the last loaded stripe backwards).

Claims: AMENDED CLAIMS [received by the International Bureau 26 June 1990 (26.06.90); original claims 1 and 7 amended; other claims unchanged (1 page) ] 1) System to distribute slides onto a light trasparent screen, essentially comprising: a distributing box to house a stack of slides, provided with sides and bottom walls, and with a bottom slit through which slides can be released or captured one by one, as well as a light transparent --creen. whose surface to rest slides alternates saw-tooth stripes and fiat stripes, lower in level with respect of the mimima of the saw-tooth profiled stripes. Said saw-tooth -acting as a stop for the bottom slide of the stack- must have a pitch between teeth shorter than the slide side, so that the slides laid on the screen be slightly oveήapping onto each other. 2) System as per claim 1, with bevelled teeth, so as to combine a low enough tooth shoulder, to allow use with thin slide frames, and a clearance between spread slides compatible with thick frames. 3) System as per claim 1, provided with lateral containment rules, parallel to the saw-tooth profiles. 4) System as per claim 1, provided with light source incorporated under the transparent screen. 5) System as per claim 1, where the screen is obtained within the lid of a box designed to hold slides (for example subdivided in stacks by a system of fixed or mobile seets). ^ 6) Individual profiles, possibly interconnected to form a frame, to be applied onto a transparent screen, so as to shape its surface in such a way as to achieve the properties as per above claims. 7) System as per claim 1 with dispenser box (possibly different from the pick-up box) provided with a Qexing barrier to confine the outlet of frames so as to prevent output of more than one slide at a time, regardless of its thikness. STATEMENT UNDER ARTICLE 19 May I first stress a couple of points of my original application: -claim 2 reflects my determination to conceive one single device able to handle slides of any thickness not just the thin ones (about 1.25 mm, most popular in USA), but all thicker frames as well, up to the 3.25 professional frames! -claim 6 allows to extend the applicability to flat surfaces, hence to large illuminated tables, among other. I should now comment briefly on the amendments to the claims, submitted to have these claims more clearly cover aspects well present in the pictures and description of my original application. - claim 1: the amendment is added to stress the feature of the partial overlap of slides shown in fig.l, right hand side and on page 3, line 14. The overlap is an important feature, both to save screen space and to facilitate slides pickup (page 3, 15 to 18). - claim 7: the amendment clarifies that the dispenser box lets out just one slide at a time, regarless of thickness, thanks to a barrier provided on it, that lifts elastically when pushed out by the slide cought by the tooth. If we now turn to pat 4,226,038 (the one considered relevant by your report) may I kindly point out the following: 1-no provision is mentioned in it to handle any range of frame thicknesses and in fact this limitation is confirmed by the drawings: - while retrieving the slides are supposedly kept horizontal till just before falling thanks to the narrow side slots they have to go through (col. 4, lines 4 and foil, of text): now, if these slots are wide enough for the 3.25 mm frames, then when using thin frames these tend to jam onto each other, and to fall out of horizontal (this can easily be shown with a sample; at present I enclose a modified fig. 6 of pat. 4,226,038 to convey this concept). - while distributing, the above design allows the egress of just one slide at a time by confining the outlet between two rigid elements (back wall of carrier box and first rails): again, this cannot accomodate a wide range of thicknesses. 2-Finally, changing from distribut-ng to retriewng on that system implies to relocate the slide handler with respect to the screen after tilting the screen up and down; this is next to impossible if working with fixed lighted table and in the other cases clumsier than with our device, which allows to turn from distributing to retrieving by just inverting motion of the dispenser.

Inventors: DENTELLA ALESSANDRO, DENTELLA, ALESSANDRO
Applicants: DENTELLA ALESSANDRO, DENTELLA, ALESSANDRO
Application year: 1990
Main classification: G03B21
IPC codes: G03B21