Improvements in Screens for Magic Lanterns or Optical Lanterns.
Year: 1892

page_text: Date of Application, 27th Oct., 1892
Complete Specification Left, 19th July, 1893-Accepted, 19th Aug., 1893
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Screens for Magic Lanterns or Optical Lanterns.
I, WILSON MARSHALL, of Column House, Shrewsbury, in the County of Salop
Mechanical Engineer do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:-
My invention consists of the improvements hereinafter described in the screens
on the front or back of which images produced by a magic or optical lantern are
thrown or projected.
The said screens constructed according to my invention are portable and are
fitted in a case from which they can be quickly raised and stretched for use.
When not in use they can be quickly restored to and protected by their cases.
In making a screen for a magic lantern or optical lantern according to my
invention I proceed as follows. I make a box having a length somewhat greater
than the width of the screen and of a depth and breadth suitable for the reception
of one or two screens and their rollers. The said box is open at its upper side, but
when the screen is not in use and is rolled up in the box the upper side of the box
is covered in the way hereinafter described and the screen protected.
In the said box a light spring roller of the kind used for rolling up maps, blinds
and the like is mounted on bearings and the screen is attached by its lower edge to
the said roller.
To the top edge of each end of the box, a strip of wood is hinged, the two strips
being taper and when turned down upon their hinges lie edge to edge on the box
and constitute a lid. These strips carry near their lower ends springs the free ends
of which bear against the ends of the box, the parts of the said ends of the box on
which the springs bear being so formed that the said springs hold the said strips
in their open or closed position, the action of the said springs somewhat resembling
the action of the spring of a pocket knife. The free ends of the hinged strips have
on their inner sides hooks. The upper end of the screen is connected to a rod
somewhat similar to an ordinary blind rod. The ends of the said rod have eyes
which when the screen is raised or unrolled hook onto the hooks at the ends of the
hinged strips.
In order to make the screen ready for use the hinged strips forming the lid of
the box are raised into a vertical position and are retained in that position by their
springs. The screen is raised by a ring attached to the middle of its top rod and
the hooks being engaged with the eyes described the screen is stretched in a vertical
plane and is ready for use. When the screen is not in use the eyes are unhooked
from the hooks and the screen allowed to be drawn into the box by the action of
the roller springs. The hinged strips being turned down upon the box the screen
is protected from dust and injury.
The box may be made of sufficient breadth to hold two rollers and screens one
of the screens being of an opaque material and the other of tracing paper or other
transparent material, the former being used for receiving images from a lantern in
front and the other for receiving images from a lantern behind the screen.
Dated the 27th day of October 1892.
W. T. WHITEMAN,
Agent for the Applicant.

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Screens for Magic Lanterns or Optical Lanterns.
I WILSON MARSHALL, of Column House, Shrewsbury in the County of Salop,
Mechanical Engineer do hereby declare the nature of my invention and in what
manner the same is to be performed to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement :-
My invention consists of the improvements hereinafter described in the screens
on the front or back of which images produced by a magic or optical lantern are.
thrown or projected.
The said screens constructed, according to my invention are portable and are
fitted in a case from which they can be quickly raised and stretched for use.
When not in use they can be quickly restored to and protected by their cases.
In making a screen for a magic lantern or optical lantern according to my
invention I proceed as follows:- make a box having a length somewhat greater
than the width of the screen and of a depth and breadth suitable for the reception
of one or two screens and their rollers. The said box is open at its upper side but
when the screen is not in use and is rolled up in the box, the upper side of the box
is covered in the way hereinafter described and the screen protected.
In the said box a light spring roller of the kind used for rolling up maps blinds
and the like is mounted on bearings and the screen is attached by its lower edge to
the said roller.
To the top edge of each end of the box, a strip of wood is hinged, the two strips
being taper and when turned down upon their hinges lie edge to edge on the box
and constitute a lid. These strips carry near their lower ends springs the free ends
of which bear against the ends of the box, the parts of the said ends of the box on
which the springs bear being so formed that the said springs hold the said strips
in their open or closed position, the action of the said springs somewhat resembling
the action of the spring of a pocket knife. The free ends of the hinged strips
have on their inner sides hooks. The upper end of the screen is connected to a
rod somewhat similar to an ordinary blind rod. The ends of the said rod have
eyes which when the screen is raised or unrolled hook onto the hooks at the ends.
of the hinged strips.
In order to make the screen ready for use the hinged strips forming the lid of
the box are raised into a vertical position and are retained in that position by their
springs. The screen is raised by a ring attached to the middle of its top rod and
the hooks being engaged with the eyes described the screen is stretched in a vertical
plane and is ready for use. When the screen is not in use the eyes are unhooked
from the hooks and the screen allowed to be drawn into the box by the action of
the roller springs. The hinged strips being turned down upon the box the screen
is protected from dust and injury.
The box may be made of sufficient breadth to hold two rollers and screens one
of the screens being of an opaque material and the other of tracing paper or
other transparent material, the former being used for receiving images from a
lantern in front and the other for receiving images from a lantern behind the
screen.
Figure 1 of the accompanying drawings represents in side elevation and Figure 2
in end elevation, a portable screen for a magic lantern or optical lantern constructed
according to my invention, the said screen being represented in its raised or
unrolled and stretched condition ready for use;
Figure 3 represents in plan and Figure 4 in cross section the screen rolled upon
its spring roller and the box closed by the turning down or folding of the hinged
side strips or supports upon the box;
Figure 5 represents the same view as Figure 3 with the folded side strips or

page_text: For the purpose of exmforting the roned up screen and TLS TOTICT
within the box;
Figure 6 represents a portion of Figure 1 in longitudinal section drawn to a
larger scale and
Figure 7 represents in cross section a portable double screen constructed
according to my invention.
The same letters of reference indicate the same parts in the several figures of
the drawings.
a is the box open at its top and containing the light spring roller on which the
screen c is rolled, when not in use, the said roller b being mounted and turning in
the bearings, 6 at the ends of the inside of the box as best seen in Figures 5
and 6. The said spring roller is of the kind commonly employed for rolling up
maps, blinds and the like. The screen c is attached by its lower edge to the spring
roller and its upper edge is connected to a rod d resembling an ordinary blind rod;
e, e are the taper strips or supports which when in their raised or upright position
support the screen in its unrolled and stretched state for use. The lower ends of
the taper strips or supports e, e arc. hinged at e, e to the ends of the box a (see
Figure 6) and are capable of being raised into a vertical plane as represented in
Figures 1 and 2 for supporting the stretched screen and of being turned down into
a horizonal plane for closing the top of the box. When turned down upon their
hinges the strips e, e being taper fic edge to edge on the box and constitute a lid
as seen in Figures 3 and 4. The taper strips or supports e, e are held in their
raised and turned down positions respectively by means of the springs f, near
their hinged ends. When the strips or supports e, e are in their raised positions
the free ends of the springs travel over and press upon the vertical ends of the
box and hold the said strips in their raised positions as represented in Figures 1
and 6. When the strips or supports e, e are turned down for closing the box, the
said springs, take the positions indicated in dotted lines in Figure 1 and con-
tinuous lines in Figure 3 and their free ends pressing on the top of the box hold
the strips firmly in their turned down positions.
The free or unhinged ends of the hinged strips or supports e,e are provided on
their inner sides with hooks g, and the ends of the rod d of the screen are
provided with eyes h, h which in the unrolled and stretched position of the screen
can be hooked upon the hooks g, g on the ends of the said strips.
When the screen is not in use the parts occupy the respective positions repre-
sented in Figures 3, 4 and 5: that is, the screen is rolled upon the spring roller b
and the rod d carrying the eyes h, h at its ends is placed between the roller and
one of the longer sides of the box (see Figure 5) the open top of the box being
closed and its contents protected by the lid formed by the folded taper strips or
supports e, e which are held in their places by the springs, f. The whole of the
parts of the screen are thus packed in a box so that the screen is rendered very
portable besides being protected.
In order to make the screen ready for use, the hinged strips or supports e, e are
raised upon their hinges e, e into the vertical position represented in Figures 1
and 2 and are retained in that position by the springs ff. The screen c is
unrolled from the spring roller & in the box a and the said screen raised by the
ring i at the middle of its rod d and the hooks 9,9 on the ends of the strips e, e
being engaged with the eyes h, h on the screen rod d, the screen is stretched and
supported in a vertical plane and is ready for use, the parts occupying the
respective positions represented in Figures 1 and 2. On unhooking the screen
from the hooks the screen is allowed to be drawn into the box by the action of
the roller springs and the box is closed by the turning down of the strips e, e as
before described.
In a double screen the box has the breadth represented in the cross section
Figure 7, that is, the said box is sufficiently broad to hold two rollers b, b side by
side and the rods of the screens, one of the screens being inade of an opaque
material and the other of some transparent material, for the purpose hereinbefore

page_text: pointed out. In the double screen, the hinged taper strips e,e are sufficiently broad
to cover when folded down the top of the broad box.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my invention
and the manner in which the same is to be performed I declare that I claim
as my invention of "Improvements in screens for magic lanterns or optical
lanterns";-
Portable screens for lanterns consisting essentially of an oblong box open at top,
the said box containing a spring roller or spring rollers on which the screen or
screens is or are rolled after use and from which it or they is or are unrolled for
use, the said box having hinged to its ends taper strips or supports which when
raised into a vertical position are employed for supporting the raised and stretched
screen and when turned down serve as a lid for closing the open top of the box
and protecting the screen or screens, the several parts being constructed and com-
bined or arranged and used substantially as hereinbefore described and illustrated
in the accompanying drawings.
Dated the Seventeenth day of July 1893.
WILSON MARSHALL.