A NEW AND IMPROVED PHOTOGRAPHIC CAMERA
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Haseltine, of the "International Patent
Office," No. 100, Fleet Street, in the City of London, American Barrister,
for the Invention of "A NEW AND IMPROVED PHOTOGRAPHIC CAMERA."—A
communication from abroad by Allen Benjamin Wilson, of Waterbury,
Connecticut, United States.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said George Haseltine at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition and Declaration,
on the 7th June 1862; pursuant to the 9th Section of the Patent Law
Amendment Act, 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
HASELTINE, of the "International Patent Office," No. 100, Fleet Street, in the
City of London, American Barrister, send greeting.
WHEREAS I am in possession of an Invention for "A NEW AND IMPROVED
PHOTOGRAPHIC CAMERA," and have petitioned Her Majesty to grant unto me, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, Her Royal Letters Patent for the
same, and have made.solemn Declaration that the said Invention has been
communicated to me from abroad by Allen Benjamin Wilson, of Waterbury,
Connecticut, United States.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said George Haseltine, do hereby declare
that the following Complete Specification, under my hand and seal, fully
describes and ascertains the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner

page_text: the same is to be performed, in and by the following statement, reference
being had to the annexed Drawings making a part of said Specification and
the letters marked thereon, in which the same letters represent the same parts
in each Figure.
Figure 1 is a side view of my improved photographic camera box; Figure 2
is a top view of the same; Figure 3 is a sectional side view cut through the
centre; Figure 4 is a front view of the combined bath and plate holder,
surrounded by the box in section, and with the funnel and key attached;
Figure 5 is a back view of the same.
A represents the box; B, the camera tube; C, the door; D, the key; E,
the crooked stem funnel; F, the back spring the negative plate holder; G,
the negative glass; H, H, the journals; I, the channel through which the
baths flow forth and back from the tunnel to the negative glass; J, the throat
of the same.
The usual method of taking a negative for a photograph is as follows:-
After placing the camera and adjusting the focus, the plate for the negative is
to be prepared, being first coated with collodion it is immersed in a bath of
nitrate of silver, which immersion must take place in a dark chamber; it is
then placed. in the camera and exposed to the object. After exposure the
negative plate is retaken to the dark chamber and the picture developed by the s
second bath. After that it may be washed off in the light.
This process carried on out of doors is not unattended with difficulties. First,
the absence of a dark room often necessitates carrying and pitching a tent;
second, carrying baths to be unsealed and scaled at every move; third, wind
and dirt endanger the bath when open, and it is liable to be upset and lost in
the dark room or tent; fourth, working and keeping work clean in the dark,
and exposure of hands and clothing to the influence of chemicals; fifth, loss of
time in travelling back and forth between the camera and the dark chamber,
first to sensitize and then to develop. To save pitching a tent, a dark room is
sometimes obtained in a dwelling or out-house not too remote from the object. 3
The success of the undertaking is very much a matter of luck, depending upon
a series of delicate manipulations carried on in the dark.
My purpose is to avoid these vexations and troubles and to reduce the
process by mechanical aids to so simple a matter that a person may take a
picture without soiling his fingers; and the pedestrian be equipped with the 3
stand in his hand, camera box under his arm, two phials and a few plates in
his pocket. I accomplish this by employing a hox A wide and high enough
to contain the negative plate holder K, in one end of which is the ordinary
camera tube B, and at the other a door C shutting tight, making the box a

page_text: .dark chamber. Near the centre of the sides of the box are bearings L, L, in
which the holders of the focus and negative glasses may turn up and down;
.they are turned by a key inserted from the outside of the box into a square
hole in the left journals.
5 I combine the holder for the negative glass and the bath in one instrument.
This holder and bath is made of hard rubber to resist chemicals. It has a
rubber packed joint and spring and snap at the back to hold the negative glass
fluid-tight in its position. It is of course open in front to secure exposure.
The right journal is hollow, and into it fits an adjustable crooked stem funnel
inserted from the outside of the box. It is crooked to keep out light and to
facilitate pouring out as well as in through a single orifice in the journal.
To use the instrument.-The focus glass holder being placed in the bearings
the key turns it perpendicular, and the focus is obtained. That glass being
removed, the negative glass is coated with collodion placed on the rubber
packing of the plate holder, and secured by the spring and snap, the collodion
towards the lens. It is then placed horizontally in the bearings in the box,
the door shut, the key inserted in the left, and the tunnel in the right journal.
From a phial nitrate of silver is then poured into the crooked stem tunnel,
through which it passes and flows evenly over the surface of the collodion-
covered plate. After a proper time for sensitizing has elapsed, the turning of
the key turns the plate perpendicular, and the nitrate of silver runs off the
plate and back through the crooked stem tunnel, which turns down as the plate
assumes the perpendicular into the phial. The pláte is then exposed to the
object through the lens. The key turns the plate horizontal again, and the
second or developing bath is introduced and removed as was the first. The
tunnel and key may then be removed, and the negative cleaned in the light.
After removing the plate the bath holder should be thoroughly cleansed.
tooth brush is aș handy an instrument as any for the purpose.
A
The same results may be reached in this way:-Place the combined bath and
plate holder perpendicular, introduce a tube down its back to the bottom,
admit thereby the bath under the plate and let it flow upward, a slide with a
fluid-tight joint will be required in front of the negative glass to be removed
when the point of exposure is reached, also a second tube at the bottom to
draw off the baths.
The advantages of my method are obvious, I get rid of the slide and second
fluid-tight joint of the second tube; less silver is wasted, and every part of the
plate equally immersed.
In using the instrument after giving the baths it is necessary to wash out
the channel and throat before taking another picture, because the iron of the

page_text: developing bath unfavorably effects the next silver bath. To avoid this washing
I also use a double channel tube and funnel such as is shewn in Figs. 6 and 7,
whereby the sensitizing and developing baths may always be given through
their separate channels S and D.
In using the double channel tube and funnel, it is better to insert the com-
bined bath and plate holder at the side of the camera box instead of the rear,
lest by withdrawing the tube there should be a slight mixture of the chemicals
from the baths not being entirely drawn off.
What I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is,--
First, a negative plate and bath holder having a hollow journal channel and
throat, constructed and operating substantially as and for the purposes
described.
Second, the hollow journal described for introducing and withdrawing the
baths.
Third, a double channel tube and funnels, constructed and operating
substantially as and for the purposes described.
Fourth, the combination of negative plate and bath holder, having a hollow
journal channel and throat as one instrument, with the crooked stem funnel
constructed and operating substantially as described.
Fifth, giving the combined negative plate and bath holder the capacity of 2
assuming horizontal and perpendicular positions at will, in the manner and for
the purposes described.
Sixth, the combination of camera box crooked stem funnel, hollow journal,
channel, and throat, and fluid-tight holder, substantially as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Haseltine, have hereunto set my 2
hand and seal, this Seventh day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.
GEORGE
TLACITING
INE. (..)