Improvements in Toys, applicable also for Advertising Purposes.
Year: 1895

page_text: Date of Application, 1st Oct., 1895-Accepted, 29th Feb., 1896
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Toys, applicable also for Advertising Purposes.
I, WILLIAM CARLTON FARNUM of the Town of Arlington, in the County of
Bennington, State of Vermont, U.S.A., Inventor, 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 :-
The mechanism constituting the subject-matter of this Patent is designed to hold
and manipulate a series of picture cards containing the designs of successive stages
of a continuous action or movement, which cards or pictures are intermittently,
successively but rapidly presented directly to the eye of the observer without the
interposition of any aid or obstruction to vision, and its successful operation depends
upon the law of the persistency of visual impressions.
The characteristics which distinguish this invention from the thaumatrope,
zoetrope, and kindred devices heretofore devised for producing optical illusions of
the character above referred to, are these :-In the former the designs are separate
and detached from each other and move forward when approaching the site of
observation, face foremost, that is to say the presentative movement towards the
eye is substantially in the line of the axis of vision, instead of passing across it at
right angles as in the latter class of devices or apparatus where the successive
designs are displayed on a practically endless ribbon or strip which moves laterally
across the path of vision. In the use of this invention such aids to the eye as
screens to partially cover the moving pictures, observation slots or holes and
kindred optical aids may be and are dispensed with, the desired optical impression
being perfect without them.
The drawings fully illustrate the invention, wherein :
Figs. 1, 6 and 7 exhibit elevation of three different modifications of my tropograph
in which the aforesaid application of the resilient hinge is shown;
Fig. 2 is a top plan of the toy shown in Fig. 1 ;
Fig. 3 shows the position of parts seen in Fig. 2, as they appear just as the card
escapes the guard;
Fig. 4 is a face view of one of the cards showing its connection with the pivot
wire about which it turns ;
Fig. 5 is an edge view of a modification seen in Fig. 6;
Fig. 8 is a plan of a transverse section of the modification shown in Fig. 7 ;
Fig. 9 is an edge view of a metallic card-fastening as related to the pivot-wires;
Fig. 10 is a detail view of the same metallic fastening.
For the purpose of carrying out my invention a series of desigus printed or
impressed upon cards are prepared on the same principle as are exhibited on
designs for pictures for use in the thaumatrope, the zoetrope and other analogous
devices, for producing visual impressions of objects in action representing
progressive changes of position in the same object. The construction and mode of
use of these cards and the several modifications will first be described after which
the features of the invention will be pointed out in the claims.
It is obvious that the cards can be employed to display advertising announcements
as shewn in Figs. 1 & 6.
In Fig. 1, I have shown a handle frame 1 having three projecting arms all alike,
or as many more or less as may be desired, upon the outer end of each of which a
guard 6 is erected so as to obstruct the path of the cards as they are rotated around
the axis of the frame. This frame has a handle 2 by which the apparatus is firmly

page_text: held by one hand while it is operated by the other. Through the axis of the
handle extends the crank-shaft 8 which is turned by the crank 3. Upon this shaft
a reel made up of the two heads 4, 4, and the pivot wires 7, 7, 7, is firmly fixed so
as to revolve, with the crank. In connection with this reel a series of cards 9, 9, 9,
each provided with two eyeletted holes 10, 10, are provided, and two rubber
bands 11, which are passed through the eyelet holes and looped around the pivot
wires as shown in Fig. 2. The cards are too broad to swing around in a radial
position and clear the guards 6, 6, 6, but by analyzing Fig. 2 it will be seen that as
the reel is turned beyond a position it moves the card out of a radial position it
raws its outer end from behind the guard thus leaving it free to swing around
into its normal idle position, under the contraction of the rubber bands. When all
the parts are assembled the contraction of the rubber bands holds all the cards and
pivot wires in proper relative position as shown in the drawings.
The instrument is used as follows:-
The rubber bands are first slipped over the reel heads, then with a hook first
passed through one of the eyelet holes in the card, the band' is caught and drawn
through and one of the pivot wires entered through such loop. Then with the
hook draw a loop of the other band through the other eyelet hole and further enter
the pivot wire through that loop. So proceed with all the cards and wires until all
the cards and wires are engaged. After which enter the bottom euds of the wires
in the lower head of the reel and place the top head of the reel in position. The
guard 6 a prevents the instrument from turning in the hand while the crank is being
turned. As the crank is turned the card on the left is gradually drawn from
beneath the guard-lip 66 and the moment it escapes it the contraction of the
rubber bands flops the card instantly over to its position on the right where it
remains at rest an instant before it has passed along to the next section of the
instrument. By rapidly turning the crank the picture on the right becomes
practically a continuous one as to its fixed outlines and a constantly changing one
as to its variable ones.
The modifications seen in Figs. and 6 consist of two parallel bars 12, 12,
mounted on a handle 2 and carrying rollers 15, 15, at each end of the frame
so constituted, one of which rollers has a crank attached to it whereby it may be
rotated and the other rests in a spring-supported bearing a,-14. Around these
rollers one or more bands 13, 13, run, to which the cards 18 are attached. When
the bands are in their normal condition and the cards at rest they all lie down flat
upon each other as they appear on the upper and lower sides of Fig. 5, but if one
of them is folded back upon the bands, such act of folding doubles the band upon
itself as seen on the upper right hand of Fig. 5, thus producing compression of the
spring 14, the expansive tendency of which is to distend the rollers and thus to
straighten the hands. At one end of the frame the guard 19 is attached for the
purpose of arresting the outer ends of the cards while the butt-ends are being
carried around the roller and the bands are being folded as shown. This guard in
this case answers in function to the guard 6, 6, of Fig. 1. Thus when the bands
are rotated by the crank and the ends of the cards are caught and held by
the guard 19 the picture stands at display until its butt is withdrawn around
the roller far enough to pull its outer end out from under the guard, when, the
spring 14 acting to straighten the bands, the card is suddenly flopped over
A chain
backwardly upon its fellows to be succeeded by its trailing: follower.
can be used in place of a non-elastic band with spring 14, or an elastic band may
be used without the spring.
In Fig. 7, I have shown a different kind of pivot wire and a different means
of connecting the card with the wire. In this case I have bent the ends of
the wires over to the shape shown, thus creating a conical pivot on each end
thereof which are seated in pivot sockets 30, 30, provided therefor in both
reel-heads 20 and 21. The returned end 23 a of the pivot wire-23 may be termed
a "tang," and the rubber bands 24, 24, are stretched around the wires so as to
come between the main wire and the tangs as shown. Thus if the reel is rotated

page_text: s for instance in the act of turning the crank 3 the bands will be folded back as
hown in Fig. 8 owing to the advance movement of the cards being impeded by
he guard 27 and after passing the guard the resiliency of the bands will act to
restore them to their first position. The cards are attached to the pivot wires 23
by means of the metallic fastenings 25 applied as seen in Fig. 9, the ends passing
through the card and are bent down as shown. The cards are connected with
the reel by passing the tangs of the pivot wire through the eyes two of the
fastening 25.
This modification is operated in the same way as that shown in Fig. 1.
Although the element of resiliency in the attachment of the design to its base
of support contributes largely to the production of the most striking impressions in
the use of this instrument it is not indispensable and the same effect in kind can be
produced without its use. Fig. 5 furnishes an illustration in point, here a resilient
feature resides in the spring 14 which yields as each card passes the guard, but the
observer will notice that the cards in revolving about roller 15 are spread open and
separated in such a way as to display the successive designs squarely to the eye by
a motion which swings them individually, separately and successively into a plane
perpendicular to the axis of vision and although such movement is not retarded or
qualified by the interposition of a stop or guard, as previously described, yet the
optical impression of progressive motion is well established and sustained as long as
the traveling motion of the band 13 is kept up.
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
clann is:-
1. A tropograph consisting of a series of substantially separate display cards
each attached by a resilient connection with a movable carriage, which is mounted
on a non-movable frame-work provided with stops located in the path of movement
of the cards, whereby the cards while being withdrawn from engagement with stops
stand momentarily comparatively at rest, and provisions connected therewith for
rotating said card carriage, substantially as specified.
2. A series of display cards, each of which is attached by a resilient hinge
connection to a common base of support so as to lay the cards normally in the same
direction, means for rotating.said base of support in a direction to distend said
hinges, in combination with one or more arresting guards for arresting the otherwise
free ends of the cards, substantially as specified.
3. In an advertising device, a tropograph consisting of a hand frame provided
with the card arresting guard or guards, a card supporting base mounted on said
frame adapted by means, substantially as shown, to be rotated thereupon, and a
series of display cards each attached to said base by a resilient hinge connection
normally adapted to lay the cards so that their free ends shall be presented
towards the arresting guards when the supporting base is rotated, the whole being
combined and arranged to operate substantially in the manner described and for
the purpose specified.
Dated this 1st day of October 1905
S. S. BROMHEAD,
97 Newgate Street, London, Patent Agent.