Improvements in Photographic Apparatus.
Year: 1887

page_text: Date of Application, 28th May, 1889.
Specification Accepted, 28th June, 1887.
[Communicated from abroad by HENRY SMITH CROCKER, of San Francisco, in
State of California, one of the United States of America, Merchant.]
Improvements in Photographic Apparatus.
I, ALFRED JULIUS BOULT of 323 High Holborn in the County of Middlesex,
M.I.M.E. 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 relates to improvements in apparatus for taking photographs by
which each sensitized plate has its portable folding camera attached and the use of
lenses for focusing the picture is obviated.
The objects of these improvements are to make each sensitized plate a complete
photographing camera without adding greatly to the weight or bulk of the plate and
which will be ready for immediate use at all times and places; also to greatly lessen
the cost of portable photographic apparatus for popular use and facilitate their
manipulation by the amateur and inexperienced, who may by their use always obtain
a good image as no focusing of the apparatus is required.
These objects are attained by the following means which are illustrated by the
accompanying drawings.
In a light tight folding box made of paper or other suitable material a diffraction
image is produced upon a sensitized plate by admitting the light which is reflected
from the object or objects being photographed through a minute aperture in the
apparatus placed at a suitable distance from and opposite to the surface of the plate
the size of the picture being varied by the distance at which the sensitized plate is
from the aperture relatively to the distance of the aperture from the objects being
photographed, the image under the varying circumstances remaining always equally
clear and well defined.
Figure 1 shows a longitudinal cross section of the complete apparatus the general
appearance and construction of which resembles the ordinary photographic camera,
with the sensitized plate in position for receiving an impression, but minus the usual

page_text: tube and lens their place being occupied simply by a small thin diaphragm D in the
front piece B having a minute central aperture or perforation A of about one
hundredth of an inch in diameter through which the light is admitted to the sensitized
plate P.
The stiff back C serves to protect the plate from mechanical injury and excludes the
light from the rear.
The sensitized plate being permanently fixed the removal of said plate necessitates
the destruction of the entire apparatus.
Such being the case it is readily seen that each apparatus is complete in itself, and
can be used but for one operation.
The folding portion E made of suitable flexible material for excluding all light
enables the front part which carries the visual aperture before described to be with-
drawn from near the surface of the sensitized plate to the limit of extension of the
folding part E by which means the size of the photographic image is regulated.
When not in use the aperture in the front is covered by an adhesive wafer W which
serves to exclude the light.
Figure 2 shows the apparatus in position for taking a photographic impression
the folding part distended and the wafer removed from the front or visual aperture.
Figure 3 shows the appearance of the apparatus when closed for transportation
before and after use.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said invention
as communicated to me by my foreign correspondent and in what manner the same is
to be performed I declare that what I claim is :-
A folding extensible light-tight box having a small aperture at the front and a
sensitized plate or film permanently fixed to the opposite end so that its removal
necessitates the destruction of the box together with a removable adhesive patch or
wafer for closing the aperture.