Patent GB-190929689-A (GB)
Title: An Improved Method of and Apparatus for Reproducing Solids, Statuary and the like.
Inventor: STORTI VITTORIO
IPC: B23Q35/122
Filed: 1909-12-18
Granted: 1910-12-19
Abstract: 29,689. Storti, V. Dec. 18. Artistic modelling.-Relates to the reproduction of statuary &c. by projecting a number of luminous lines on to the object to be reproduced, photographing the object to obtain plates corresponding to certain portions of the object, and reproducing the object in plastic wax by means of a cutter or knife which is indirectly controlled by a pointer device following the lines or profiles on the positive plates. According to the invention, the movement of the cutting-knife is controlled in correspondence with the intensity of an electric current which varies with, and is proportional to, the oscillations of a pointer device which is actuated to follow the profile lines on the positive plates. The pointer device controls and varies the current in a solenoid which controls an iron core forming part of the cutting-knife. The cutting-knife 12, Fig. 2, and solenoid 14 are mounted on a carriage 10, which slides vertically on a frame 11. The plate-holder 16 for the profile positives y is mounted on guides 15, which are integral with the carriage 10. The system of telescopic levers 22 connecting the plateholder 16 and the frame 10 serves to impart an alternating and properly timed movement to the holder. A block 17, Fig. 5, on the carriage 10 carries a metal angle-piece 19 with a point 20, which traverses the lines on the plate, thereby controlling a platinum filament 28 dipping into a capillary mercury tube. The current in the circuit 47, 48, 45 is thus varied according to the sinuosity of the profile lines, and this variation in the current is used to control the solenoid circuit 49, 50, 51, 52, 53. The solenoid controls the knife 12, which cuts from the block 32 a slice of wax proportionate to the amplitude of the oscillations of the point 20 as the carriage 10 is drawn down. The carriage is reciprocated by springs 37. A resistance 54 is used to vary the amplitude of the oscillations of the knife for different scales of reproduction. The wax block 32 is mounted so as to be rotatable on its own axis and is intermittently advanced by means of a screw shaft 25, Fig. 3. The block 32 is carried on a rotatable disk 31 mounted on the axis of a screw 33. The screw 33 is fixed to a carriage W, Fig. 9, on the shaft 25 and slides in a slot in the disk 23. The disk 23 is integral with, or carried by, a pivoted arm 24, which can be centred at different points 26, 27, or 28. The arcs 30<1> serves as surfaces upon which the disk 23 slides. At the end of each downward motion of the carriage 10 the circuits are automatically broken and the cutting-knife is automatically retracted by the spring 55. By means of a forked arm 38, Fig. 3, on the block 17 engaging the stop 39, Fig. 2, the pointer 20 is tilted and held away from the profile plate during the return movement of the carriage 10, at the end of which return it is replaced by contact of the arm with a stop 40. Simultaneously the ratchet-wheel 41 and screw shaft 18 are operated to shift the block 17 laterally to the next contour line. The wax block at the end of each upward movement of the carriage 10 is both rotated and moved along the arc 30<1> by means of a second forked arm 42, on the carriage, which engages a pawl 43, thereby actuating the wheel 44 and screw shaft 25. The wax block is thus advanced, and moves so that the knife cuts upon the block in succession the profiles in the same plane in which they were photographed. The length of the arm 24 should be proportionate to the distance between the object and the lantern projecting the lines on to the object. The disk 31 is able to describe an arc of 120 degrees. The disk 31 is rotated through 120 degrees for each of the three profile plates, taken from positions 120 degrees apart. Three holes 34 in the edge of the disk engage a stud 35 which serves as a stop. Models of different sizes can be obtained by modifying the resistances of the circuit 49, 50, 51, 52, 53 by the rheostat 54.