IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR TAKING A SUCCESSION OF PHOTOGRAPHIC PICTURES AND FOR EXHIBITING SUCH PICTURES
Year: 1876

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Wordsworth Donisthorpe at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 9th November 1876.
WORDSWORTH DONISTHORPE, of 17, Porchester Terrace, in the County of Middlesex.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR TAKING A SUCCESSION OF PHOTOGRAPHIC
PICTURES AND FOR EXHIBITING SUCH PICTURES."
This Invention has for its object to facilitate the taking of a succession of photo-
graphic pictures at equal intervals of time, in order to record the changes taking
place in or the movements of the object being photographed, and also by means
of a succession of pictures so taken of any moving object to give to the eye a
representation of the object in continuous movement as it appeared when being
photographed.
In order to obtain a succession of photographic pictures I construct the camera to
receive a number of prepared plates one behind the other, and by mechanism I
cause the series of plates to move forward progressively, in such manner that as
soon as the foremost plate has been exposed for the required length of time the
whole series moves forwards a distance; the foremost plate which had previously
been exposed is then allowed to drop or is carried downwards into a receiver
below. The plate which then occupies the foremost position is in its turn exposed
to the light passing in through the lens of the camera, and after being exposed is
similarly deposited into the receiver, and so on in succession until the requisite
number of plates have been exposed.
The admission of light to the lens is controlled by a moveable screen which is
moved away when one of the plates is in position for having light thrown on to it
by the lens, and is brought in front of the lens whilst the plates are being shifted
from one position to another.
The mechanism for moving the plates and for moving the screen is driven at a
uniform rate, so that the plates are exposed one after the other at uniform intervals
of time.
The plates after being exposed in the camera and carried away by the receiver
are afterwards developed and set, and prints may subsequently be obtained from
them in any ordinary manner.
Apparatus arranged as above described may be employed for obtaining a record
of the movements of or changes taking place in any objects, and may be used

page_text: either for photographing objects direct or in conjunction with microscopes or
telescopes.
If the apparatus be arranged to take the succeeding pictures at sufficiently short
intervals of time they may be printed at equal distances apart upon a continuous
strip of paper, and this paper with the whole series of pictures upon it may be
used in the instrument known as the zootrope or phenakistoscope. To allow
of this the strip of paper may be wound on to a cylinder, and be unwound from it
at a uniform speed on to another cylinder, and so carried past the eye of the
observer, any ordinary means being used for ensuring that each picture shall only
be exposed momentarily to the observer. By this means the movements made by a
person or group of persons or of any other objects during the time they were being
photographed may be reproduced to the eye of the observer.