Improvements in Hand and other Photographic Cameras.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 28th Mar., 1896
Complete Specification Inft 31th Do
1000 Ararated
12th Cob 1007
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Hand and other Photographic Cameras.
I, WILLIAM JAMES LANCASTER, of Colmore Row, in the City of Birmingham,
Manufacturing Optician, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:-
This invention has relation to hand and other photographic cameras having
magazines or stores of plates, and has for its object principally, the transferring of
exposed plates from a pile or series within the magazine to a store chamber
suitably situated for their reception and wherein they may remain until required for
development.
The camera consists of an upright wood or metal box fitted at front with a lens,
sbutter and other like fittings, and with a closing lid hung so as to swing vertically
and form, when up, a screen for the interception of the suns rays for preventing
them from falling upon the lens.
The top is fitted with a view finder and the back is provided with a lid and is
divided horizontally off into two compartments extending some distance into the
camera, one compartment which is the magazine for containing the unexposed plates
is in line with the lens, whilst the other is a chamber for the reception of the
exposed plates which have been transferred from the magazine, which is separated
from the front part of the camera by upright and narrow styles or guides extending
into the camera from the two opposite inner walls of the same, and against which
the foremost plate of series comes and is there held with the others of the series
behind it by the pressure of one of a pair of counterpoised spring arms jointed to
and carried by the inside of the hinged back of the camera.
Running horizontally within a false or hollow bottom is a flexible panel or
Venetian shutter with the fore end extending through a slit crossing the floor of
the camera immediately adjacent to the guides or styles as aforesaid and whose
opposite edges run within grooves terminating the ends of the slit. The outside
bottom of the camera is gapped and wherein a pull-and-push runs when the panel
is pushed forwards or drawn backwards.
Assuming that a series of plates have been placed resting upon their edges
within the magazine, and with one arm of the following-up spring impinging on
the back of the rear plate and with the flexible panelling (which consists of a series
of jointed-together strips of wood or other material adapted to run within grooves)
drawn back and with the front of the foremost plate resting against the styles, then
by running forward the flexible panelling after the first plate has been exposed, its
forward end then strikes the underside edge of the carrier of the said first plate
and lifts it vertically through a second and coincident slit in the partition between
the magazine and the store, which are located oue above the other, and so is passed
into the said store.
Attached to the two opposite sides of the back of the store chamber and within
the path of the entrance slit, are two flat or tongue springs (adapted to clear the
entrance to the store chamber) with the free ends overhanging and extending
inwardly into the chamber and beyond the vertical range of the slit, so that as a
plate ascends from the magazine and becomes clear of the slit through which it is
pushed by the flexible sliding panel which runs horizontally in the bottom of th
camera and then vertically up the front of the magazine, it is pressed backwardly
by the said tongue springs and is there held upright by a second arin of the
counterpoised spring. Immediately the panel recedes, the space vacated by it is

page_text: occupied by the next plate of the series, which after exposure, is transferred to the
store by the same means as the first one and this is repeated until the whole of the
series has been transferred from the magazine to the store, which is effected by
successive runnings of the panel.
The plates, which it is understood are carried in metal frames or "carriers" and
which stand on edge or are disposed in piles according to the position of the
magazine relative to the camera box, are pressed forwards by a pair of equipoised
spring arms with their inner ends jointed upon a common horizontal pivot carried
on the inside hinged back of the camera, and with a coiled or mouse-trap spring
threaded on the pivot and with the free ends of the wire from which it is made
bearing respectively upon the back of these arms, which are like unto leaves anl
tend to close together bookwise. The tips of these arms, which are preferably
rounded off, impinge upon the backs of the plates within both magazine and store
(when the latter contains any) and thereby the pressure exercised remains constant
and the angle between the arms never change consequent upon the plates being of
a given number and the transfer of a plate from one chamber to another simply
causes the combined arms to rock in following up the plates.
Thus assuming a dozen plates to be within the magazine, then the successive
transfer of them to the store chamber does not change the pressure of the armis on
the plates, as the angles between the arms always remains constant.
If necessary the back lid may be provided with supplementary tongue springs
whose free end bear upon the plates in the compartments.
Dated this 27th day of March 1896.
I, WILLIAM JAMES LANCASTER of 37 Colmore Row, in the City of Birmingham,
Manufacturing Optician, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement :-
This invention has relation to hand and other photographic cameras having
magazines or stores of plates, and has for its object principally, the transferring of
exposed plates from a pile or series within the magazine to a store chamber
suitably situated for their reception and wherein they may remain until required for
development.
The camera consists of an upright wood or metal box fitted at front with a lens,
shutter and other like fittings, and with a closing lid hung so as to swing vertically
and form, when up, a screen for the interception of the suns rays for preventing
them from falling upon the lens.
The top may be fitted with a view finder and the back is provided with a lid and
is divided horizontally off into two compartments extending some distance into the
One compartment, which is the magazine for containing the unexposed
plates, is in line with the lens, whilst the other is a chamber for the reception of the
exposed plates which have been transferred from the magazine, which is separated
from the front part of the camera by upright and narrow styles or guides extending
inwardly from the two opposite inner walls of the same, and against which the
foremost plate of the series comes and is there held with the others of the series
behind it by the pressure of one of a pair of compensating spring arns jointed to
and carried by the inside of the hinged back of the camera.

page_text: Running horizontally within a false or hollow bottom is a flexible panel or
Venetian shutter with the fore end extending through a slit crossing the fl or or
bottom of the camera immediately adjacent to the guides or styles as aforesaid and
whose opposite edges run within grooves terminating the ends of the slit. The
outside bottom of the camera is gapped and wherein a pull and push piece runs
when the panel is pushed forwards or drawn backwards.
Assuming that a series of plates have been placed resting upon their edges within
the magazine, and with one arm of the following-up spring impinging on the back
of the rear plate and with the flexible-panelling (which consists of a series of
jointed-together strips of wood or other material adaptel to run within grooves)
drawn back and with the front of the foremost plate resting against the styles, then
by running forward the flexible panelling after the first plate has been exposed, its
forward end strikes the underside edge of the carrier of the said first plate and lifts
it vertically through a second and coincident slit in the partition between the
magazine and the store, which are located one above the other, and so is passed into
the said store.
Attached to the two opposite sides of the back of the store chamber and within
the path of the entrance slit, are two flat or tongue springs (adapted to clear the
entrance to the store chamber) with the free ends overhanging and extending
inwardly into the chamber and beyond the vertical range of the slit, so that as a
plate ascends from the magazine and becomes clear of the slit through which it is.
pushed by the flexible sliding panel which runs horizontally in the bottom of the
camera and then vertically up the front of the magazine, it is pressed backwardly
by the said tongue springs and is there held upright by a second arm of the
following up spring. Immediately the panel recedes, the space vacated by it is
occupied by the next plate of the series, which after exposure is transferred to the
store by the same means as the first one and this is repeated until the whole of the
series has been transferred from the magazine to the store, which is effected by
successive runnings of the panel.
The plates, which it is understood are carried in metal frames or "carriers" and
which stand on edge or are disposed in piles according to the position of the
magazine relative to the camera box, are pressed forwards by a pair of equipoised
spring arms with their inner ends jointed upon a common horizontal pivot carried
on the inside hinged back of the camera, and with a coiled or mouse-trap spring
threaded on the pivot and with the free ends of the wire from which it is made
bearing respectively upon the back of these arms, which are like unto leaves and
tend to close together book wise. The tips of these arms, which are preferably
rounded off, impinge upon the backs of the plates within both magazine and store
(when the latter contains any) and thereby the pressure exercised remains constant
and the angle between the arms never changes consequent upon the plates being
of a given number and the transfer of a plate from one chamber to another simply
causes the combined arms to rock in following up the plates.
Thus assuming a dozen plates to be within the magazine, then the successive
transfer of them to the store chamber does not change the pressure of the arms on
the plates, as the angles between the arms always remains constant.
If necessary the back lid may be provided with supplementary tongue springs
whose free ends bear upon the plates in the compartments.
Figure 1 of the accompanying drawings represents a section of a magazine hand
camera provided with plate-transferring mechanism and other adjuncts constructed
according to my invention.
Figure 2 represents an end view of the camera, with the back lid opened right
out and showing the compensating following up spring fitted to the inside of the
said door, which, when in position, constitutes the back to the magazine and store
chamber respectively. The plate in the act of being transferred is shown in dotted
lines.
Figure 3 represents a part vertical section, alike unto Figure 1, but with a part
of the plates in the magazine transferred to the store after exposure. It also shows

page_text: one of the said plates in act of being transferred from one chamber to the other by
the running back of the flexible panel.
Figure 4 is an underside plan, with a part of the bottom broken away in order
to show how the flexible panel runs between the actual bottom of the camera and
a false bottom forming the floor to it.
Figure 5 is an elevation, partly in horizontal section, of a part of the sliding
panel upon an enlarged scale, and Figure 6 is a vertical section of the same.
The same letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the several figures
of the drawings.
a is the camera box, having at the back of it, an upper store chamber a¹, and a
magazine or lower chamber a, within which latter, the unexposed plates rest upon
their edges until required for exposure.
At the forward end of the said camera box is a vertically swung or
closing lid a³,
which when turned up into the position represented in Figure 1, forms a screen for
preventing the suns rays entering the lens b, which is provided with a shutter b',
and is in a direct line with the chamber a leading to the magazine a', through the
aperture a.
Running within the space a', located in the bottom as, of the camera, and with
its fore end e', impinging against the bottom edge d', of the carrier of the foremost
plate d, of a piled, in the magazine, is a flexible panel or Venetian shutter c, with
a pull and push piece c, sliding within a gap a. Running vertically coincident
with the outlet a, of the channel a', are side races alo, and a slit or opening all, in
the partition a', whilst situated within the store chamber a' at the two opposite
sides of the opening all, are tongue springs e, which press the plates transferred into
the store in a direction indicated by the arrow, which said plates are also impinged
upon by the second arm f, of the following up spring f, whose first arm, impinges
upon the back of the rearmost plate of the series in the magazine. The axis, of
these arms is surrounded by a coiled spring f, whose ends respectively bear upon
the said arms. The said plates in the magazine are also pushed up against the
front of the said chamber by the pusher springs g.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
First. In photographic hand and other cameras, transferring exposed plates from
the magazine to the store chamber, or from one part of a camera to another, through
the medium of a running flexible panel or shutter, whose end is made to impinge
upon the edge of a plate or carrier coming within its path.
Secondly. In photographic hand and other cameras, the combination with two
chambers in communication with one another by a slit or opening, of a flexible or
sliding panel entering one of the said chambers through a second slit or opening
coming coincident with the first named slit, substantially as and for the purpose
described and set forth.
Thirdly. In photographic hand and other cameras, providing the same with a
pivoted following-up spring having two arms adapted to bear respectively against
the plates or plate carriers in the magazine and store chamber substantially as aud
for the purpose described. and set forth.
Fourthly. The general construction, arrangement and combination of the parts
of hand and other photographic cameras, substantially as and for the purpose
described and set forth.
Dated this 23rd day of December 1896.
WILLIAM JAMES LANCASTER,
By Henry Skerrett,
24 Temple Row, Birmingham, Agent for Applicaut.