Patent GB-573490-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to the photographic preparation of tabular records
IPC: G03B27/46
Filed: 1944-05-09
Abstract: 573,490. Photographic copying apparatus. BRISTOL AEROPLANE CO., Ltd., and MORITZ, N. K. May 9, 1944, No. 8833. [Class 98 (i)] Apparatus for compiling a tabular record from a series of records of uniform size comprises a roll-film camera, a magazine for the records, a drum having suction mouths spaced around its periphery and mounted to rotate so as to move each mouth in succession across the mouth of the magazine and then through the field of the camera, means for illuminating the record and exposing the film while the record is in said field, driving means for rotating the drum continuously and the film in the camera synchronously, and suction means for creating a partial vacuum in each suction mouth as it moves across the mouth of the magazine so that the mouth picks up the topmost record in the magazine, the suction means remaining operative until the mouth has passed through the field of the camera, whereafter the mouth is opened to the atmosphere, discharging the record. Provision is made for varying the instant in the passage of each record card through the field of the camera at which the film is exposed to select the portion of the card that is to be recorded. The film is driven intermittently, or continuously if the speed of the card feed is high enough, and the card is illuminated in the exposure zone either by an intermittently illuminated lamp controlled from the card-feed mechanism, or by a continuouslyilluminated lamp obscured intermittently by a shutter similarly controlled. As shown, a casing 97 encloses between a card-delivery stack container 103 and a card-receiving stack container 105, a motor 94 driving a suction pump 93 (Fig. 2, not shown). The containers are inclined so as to converge towards the axis 98 of a hollow, card-feeding drum 90 rotated by the pressure on one of its end-plates of a friction roller 148 driven from the motor 94 through a gear-box 102 and flexible shaft 147. The camera 91 is mounted on the base of the casing with its lens upwardly directed, and a lamp 92 is mounted between the upper ends of the stack containers to illuminate each card as it passes across the exposure zone, direct light from the lamp being shielded from the camera by a hood 101. The motor gear-box 102 drives intermittently, through cable 143 and maltese-cross mechanism 142, the film in the camera, and also drives, through cables 154, 155, screwed shafts 152, 157 which, through threaded collars 151, 158 gradually raise and lower respectively platforms 104, 106 on which the stacks 95, 96 rest, so that the topmost card in each lies adjacent to the drum 90. The pump driven by motor 94 is connected to. one end 115 of the shaft 98 upon which the drum turns ; this shaft is fixed and perforated within the drum, and at its other end is connected by a flexible pipe 117 to an elongated nozzle 123 held with adjustable pressure against the margin of the end-plate of the drum by a spring-biassed arm 121 secured to the shaft 98. Enclosed within the cylindrical wall of the drum around its periphery are ducts 132 each having an adjustable valve 135 whereby it may be put in communication with one or more of spaced slots 125 disposed parallel to the duct in the adjacent surface of the drum. Thus, with the pump in operation, air is drawn from the drum (acting as a suction reservoir) and in consequence from the duct 132 with which the nozzle 123 for the moment co-operates, so that air is sucked in through the adjacent slots ; the nozzle 123 is so disposed and elongated that this suction begins as a duct passes the top of the container 103 and continues until the duct reaches the top of container 105, with the result that the top card in container 103 is drawn on to the drum, is carried by it across the exposure zone, and is then released and deflected into container 105 by an adjustable guide 161. The film feed of the camera is so actuated that the film is fed in the intervals between the passage of successive cards across the exposure zone. The circuit of the lamp 92 is energized, each time that a card crosses the exposure zone, by means controlled by a pair of electrical contacts, one in the form of a conducting band encircling the drum, and the other a spring-biassed conducting roller 140 adjustably mounted on the hood 101, connection between these contacts being broken to establish the lamp circuit when a record card held on the drum passes between them. The lamp 92 is of the gas-filled discharge type, operated for instantaneous discharge by a triggering electrode in the manner disclosed in Specification 568,840. It may be replaced by an enclosed continuously-energized lamp which illuminates the exposure zone, at intervals synchronized with the card- and film-feed movements, through a rotating sector shutter, or are comprising a pair of multi-vaned oppositely-rotating members mounted on parallel axes. To allow of record cards of different thicknesses, the friction roller 148 driving the drum 90 is adjustable towards or away from the drum shaft, so that thin cards may be picked up more frequently than thick cards, and the levels of the tops of the stacks 95, 96 are maintained. A clutch between motor 94 and gear-box 102 permits suction to be raised in the drum 90 before the copying mechanism is started.