New or Improved Apparatus for Controlling and Effecting the Discharge of Flash Lamps and the Release of Photographic Shutters.
Year: 1890

page_text: Date of Application, 6th Mar., 1890
Complete Specification Left, 6th Dec., 1890-Accepted, 10th Jan., 1891
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
New or Improved Apparatus for Controlling and Effecting the
Discharge of Flash Lamps and the Release of Photographic
Shutters.
I, ROBERT SLINGSBY, of 168 High Street, Lincoln, Photographic Artist, do hereby
declare the nature of the said invention to be as follows:-
In taking photographs by the aid of what are known as flash lamps, difficulty has
heretofore been experienced in effecting the release of the instantaneous shutter of
the photographic camera, and the discharge of the flash lamps simultaneously in such
a manner that the said shutters shall be open (for say one tenth or less portion of a
second for example) during a fraction of the time in which the flash lamps are
illuminating the object to be photographed (which fraction may be say one half of
a second for example); and this difficulty occurs especially when it is required to
discharge a number, or a battery, as it is technically called, of flash lamps, and a
number of corresponding photographic shutters at the same time:
The object of the present invention is to obviate the aforesaid difficulty by
providing an apparatus whereby the release of the shutter or shutters, and the
discharge of the flash lamp or lamps, can be effected and controlled in such manner
that the opening and closing of the shutter or shutters shall take place during the
time the corresponding flash lamp or lamps is or are giving its or their illuminating
effect, the two operations of opening and closing the shutter or shutters, and of
discharging the flash lamp or lanips, being effected by one and the same. mechanical
movement.
For this purpose I employ a bellows connected by tubes with the flash lamps
to be discharged; this bellows is actuated by a lever or other suitable device. The
indiarubber ball, or other suitable device for releasing the shutters, is also connected
by a tube or tubes to the shutter releasing apparatuses of the camera or cameras, and
is secured in position in the apparatus, now being described, in such manner that the
same lever, or other instrument, that operates the lamp discharging bellows, also acts
It will now be
directly or indirectly upon, and squeezes, the said indiarubber ball.
understood that on actuating the aforesaid lever, or other instrument, the bellows and
indiarubber ball are both operated upon at the same time, and consequently the flash
lamps connected with the bellows are discharged and the shutters connected with the
indiarubber ball are released at the same time also.
In order to provide for the necessity, which sometimes arises, of causing the shutters
to be released at an earlier or later instant of time with reference to the moment of
discharge of the flash lamps, I provide adjustments whereby the lever or other
actuating instrument is caused to act sooner or later on either the shutter releasing
ball, or on the flash lamp discharging bellows, as may be desired.
The tubes, connecting the flash lamps to the bellows, may be coupled to the latter
in any suitable way, but I prefer to employ a nozzle, connected directly to the bellows,
of a diameter suitable for the greatest number of lamps the bellows is capable of
supplying to this nozzle may be applied connecting pieces with apertures pro-
portioned to suit the tubes of any number of lamps it may be desired to employ. I
also sometimes connect the tubes, from the flash lamps to the bellows, by means of a
junction piece or distributor, consisting of a hollow box shaped somewhat like the rose
of a garden watering pot and having short nozzles fixed in the side there of corre-
sponding to where the perforations are usually made in that article. The tubes from
the lamps are connected to the said short nozzles and the junction piece or distributor
is connected by a suitable pipe to the bellows. Any desired number of these junction

page_text: preces or distributors may be connected by branch pipes to the main pipe leading
from the bellows.
The employment of one or more of these junction pieces or distributors tends to
equalize the pressure of air in the various tubes leading to the lamps.
Dated this 6th day of March 1890.
R. SLINGSBY.
W. H. Beck,
Per S. E. Gunyon,
115, Cannon Street, London, E.C., Agent.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
New or Improved Apparatus for Controlling and Effecting the
Discharge of Flash Lamps and the Release of Photographic
Shutters.
I, ROBERT SLINGSBY, of 168 High Street, Lincoln, Photographic Artist, do hereby
declare the nature of the said invention and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the accompanying sheet of drawings and to the
letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say:-
In taking photographs by the aid of what are known as flash lamps, difficulty has
heretofore been experienced in effecting the release of the instantaneous shutter of the
photographic camera, and the discharge of the flash lamp simultaneously, in such a
manner that the said shutter shall be open during a fraction of the time in which the
flash lamp is illuminating the object to be photographed. Moreover such opening of
the shutter should preferably take place at the commencement of the flash, because
the eyes of the sitter are generally caused to droop or close by the bright flash of
light, and it is therefore desirable in order to secure satisfactory results in portraiture,
as regards the eyes of the sitter, that the camera shutter should be opened an I closed
at the beginning of the flash and before the sitter's eyes have drooped or closed.
The object of the present invention is to obviate the aforesaid difficulty by providing
an apparatus whereby the release of the shutter or shutters and the discharge of the
flash lamp or lamps, can be effected and controlled in such manner that the opening
and closing of the shutter or shutters shall take place at the commencement or at any
other part of the time during which the corresponding flash lamp or lamps is or are
giving its or their illuminating effect, the two operations of opening and closing the
shutter or shutters, and of discharging the flash lamp or lamps, being effected by one
and the same mechanical movement.
In the drawings hereto annexed
Figure 1 is a longitudinal sectional elevation, and Figure 2 a transverse sectional
elevation taken on the line X X of Figure 1, of apparatus constructed in accordance
with my invention.
A is a bellows connected by one or more tubes B with the flash lamp or lamps to
be discharged. These lamps are not shown in the drawings as they may be of
ordinary construction, and form no part of the present invention. C is the air inlet
valve and D the air outlet valve of the bellows. This bellows is supported on a base
board E, and is actuated by a lever F turning on a fulcrum G in the standard H,
which is also secured to the base board E. The lever F is pin-jointed to the upper-
end of the link I, the lower end of which is pin-jointed to the upper or moveable board
of the bellows. Any other suitable devices may be employed for actuating the bellows.
The indiarubber ball J or other suitable known device for releasing the camera
shutter or shutters, is supported on a bracket K, and is connected by one or more
tubes L to the shutter-releasing apparatus or apparatuses of the camera or cameras, and
is so placed and secured in position in the apparatus that the same lever F, or other
instrument that operates the lamp discharging bellows A, also acts directly or

page_text: indirectly upon, and squeezes the said indiarubber ball J, or otherwise acts appro-
priately upon the particular releasing device employed.
It will now be understood that on actuating the lever F, or other equivalent
actuating instrument, the bellows A and indiarubber ball J are both operated upon
at the same time; and consequently the lamps connected with the bellows are
discharged, and the shutters connected with the indiarubber ball are released at the
same time also.
Instead of employing a separate device such as the indiarubber ball J for example,
for effecting the release of the camera shutters, the tube or tubes L may be connected
directly to the bellows A, or to a tap or taps M connected therewith, so that the air
compressed by the bellows acts both to discharge the lamps and to release the camera
shutters.
In order to provide for the necessity, which sometimes arises, of causing the
shutters to be released at an earlier or later instant of time with reference to the
moment of discharge of the flash lamps, I provide adjustments whereby the bellows
actuating instrument acts sooner or later on the shutter releasing ball. One arrange-
ment for this purpose is shown in Figure 1. N is a disc which presses upon the
indiarubber ball J when the lover F is pressed down. This disc is provided with a
screwed stem O which passes through a hole in the lever F, and has adjusting nuts P
by which the said disc N can be adjusted at any desired height, within certain limits,
on the lever F. By adjusting the disc N into a higher or lower position with
reference to the lever F, the indiarubber ball J is acted upon thereby at a corre-
spondingly later or earlier instant of time. A similar effect may be attained by
making the bracket K adjustable vertically on the standard H. When the tube L is
connected to the bellows A by a tap M the release of the camera shutter may be
delayed by closing the said tap M more or less so as to throttle the air passage and
thereby retard the action of the air upon the releasing mechanism, and conversely the
release may be accelerated by opening the said tap more or less.
The tubes connecting the flash lamps to the bellows may be coupled to the latter in
any suitable way; but I prefer to employ a nozzle, connected directly to the bellows,
of a diameter suitable for the greatest number of lamps the bellows is capable of
supplying. To this nozzle may be applied connecting pieces with apertures pro-
portioned to suit the tubes of any number of lamps it may be desired to employ. The
tubes from the flash lamps may also be connected to the bellows by means of a
junction piece or distributor such as is described in the Specification of a Patent
granted to me and bearing date the Second day of January 1890, such junction piece
or distributor consisting of a hollow box, shaped somewhat like the rose of a garden
watering pot and having short nozzles fixed in the side thereof corresponding to
where the perforations are usually made in that article. The tubes from the lamps
are connected to the said short nozzles, and the junction piece or distributor is con-
nected by a suitable pipe to the bellows. Any desired number of these junction pieces
or distributors may be connected by branch pipes to the main pipe leading from the
bellows.
The employment of one or more of these junction pieces or distributors tends to
equalise the pressure of air in the various tubes leading to the lamps.
In order to facilitate the release of the camera shutter, I employ in connection with
such shutter a small bellows, for the purpose of disengaging the retaining pawl or
click, instead of the ordinary indiarubber ball, or cylinder and piston or plunger,
whereby I obtain much more power, and greater certainty of action.
This arrangement is illustrated, in Figure 3 of the drawings which shows so much
of a shutter box of a camera as is necessary to illustrate the application of a bellows
to the purpose in question. Q is the bellows, L the tube connecting the said bellows
to the releasing ball, such as that shown at J in Figure 1 for example, or to the tap M
as shown in Figure 2. This bellows Q is not provided with valves but may have a
spring which tends to keep it constantly collapsed when not distended by the com-
pressed air sent into it from the releasing ball J or from the bellows A. R is the
pawl or click for liberating the shutter actuating mechanism. This pawl or click is

page_text: acted upon by the arm S projecting from the moveable part of the bellows Q so that
when the latter is distended by the pressure of the air driven into it by the ball J, or
the bellows A, the end of the said pawl or click is pushed by the arm S so as to
release the shutter actuating mechanism.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
First The new or improved apparatus for controlling and effecting the discharge
of flash lamps, and the release of photographic shutters, consisting of a bellows A, a
shutter releasing device J, and means of actuating both simultaneously, combined
and operating substantially as hereinbefore described, and illustrated in Figures 1
and 2 of the drawings.
Second-The new or improved apparatus for controlling and effecting the discharge
of one or more flash lamps, and the release of one or more photographic shutters,
consisting of a bellows A and air tubes connecting the said bellows to the flash lamp
or lamps, and to the camera shutter releasing device or devices, so combined and
arranged that the actuation of the said bellows effects the simultaneous discharge of
the flash lamp or lamps, and the release of the photographic shutter or shutters, sub-
stantially as hereinbefore described, and illustrated in Figure 2 of the drawings.
Third In apparatus for controlling and effecting the discharge of flash lamps and
simultaneously therewith the release of photographic shutters, means for regulating
or adjusting the instant of releasing the photographic shutters with reference to the
discharge of the flash lamps, substantially as hereinbefore described, and illustrated in
Figures 1 and 2 of the drawings.
Fourth In releasing apparatus for photographic camera shutters the use of a
bellows for the purpose of effecting the release of the shutter actuating
mechanism substantially as hereinbefore described, and illustrated in Figure 3 of the
drawings.
Loted this 6th dow of Desember 19071
Unted this th
Af December 19071
R. SLINGSBY.
Per W. H. Beck,
115, Cannon Street, London, E.C., Agent.