Improvements in Photographic Cameras.
Year: 1889

page_text: Date of Application, 2nd Jan., 1889
Complete Specification Left, 26th Aug., 1889-Accepted, 19th Oct., 1889
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Photographic Cameras.
I, OTTOMAR ANSCHÜTZ of Lissa, Province of Posen, kingdom of Prussia,
photographer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
My invention relates to photographic cameras principally designed for taking
instantaneous photographs, and its object is to provide means, firstly, for producing
photographs of the said kind which are clearer than those heretofore made; secondly,
for altering the time of exposure, and thirdly, for facilitating the adjustment of the
lens to the focus corresponding to the distance of the object to be photographed.
For the first purpose I provide the camera with a shutter having a slit and so
located within the camera as to move with the slitted portion along the rear wall of the
camera, i.e. the wall containing the exposure-opening. The shutter may be carried out
in different manners. It may for instance consist in two pieces of untransparent
cloth, so connected together as to leave the required slit between them, the outer edge
of one piece being fastened to a winding-barrel having combined with it a catching
and disengaging-mechanismen, while the outer edge of the other piece is attached to
india-rubber cords. Or the shutter is constituted by a light box open at two opposite
sides and arranged in the camera so as to be directed with the said sides respectively
towards the lens and towards the exposure-opening. This box is connected to the
camera by guiding-devices adapted to conduct the same with its slit across the exposure-
opening, and it is provided with a catching and disengaging-contrivance and springs
or india-rubber cords as in the first arrangement.
By means of a shutter which moves with its slitted part close to the sensitive
surface, as described, the said surface is exposed in successive strips to the full
action of the concentrated rays of light forming the picture, while dispersed rays are
excluded.
For altering the time of exposure, the shutter is provided with an adjusting-device
whereby the width of the slit can be varied. In the shutter of the first arrangement
the edges of the pieces of cloth forming the slit, are fitted with narrow metal
mountings, one of which constitutes a guide for a resilient sliding pall arranged to
engage with ratchet teeth formed on the said guide. From the top of this mounting
a cord is passed through eyes at the ends of the other mounting, then through an eye
at the bottom of the first mounting and finally to the pall, to which it is fastened.
The cord thus forms an adjustable connection between the two parts of the shutter, the
distance between the said parts being reduced when the cord is drawn upon by means
of the pall, whereas, when the cord slackened by disengaging the pall and shifting
it backward, the aforesaid springs or india-rubber cords cause the said distance to be
increased. The same contrivance may be applied to the shutter of the second arrange-
ment, provided only the walls forming the slit, or the ends of the said walls be made
movable in respect to each other.
For the purpose of facilitating the adjustment of the lens, the casing thereof is
provided at one end with a screw-thread with which it is screwed into a ring fixed to
the camera, so that the lens may be focussed by screwing the casing more or less in or.
out. Besides this, the casing is fitted with a pointer, and on the ring marks are made,
which show the position the pointer must have when the picture-surface is in the focus
corresponding to the distance indicated by any of the marks.
Dated the Second day of December 1888.

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Photographic Cameras.
I, OTTOMAR ANSCHÜTZ, of Lissa, Province of Posen, kingdom of Prussia,
photographer, 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 :-
My invention relates to photographic cameras principally designed for taking
instantaneous photographs, and its object is to provide means, firstly, for producing
photographs of the said kind which are clearer than those heretofore made;
secondly, for altering the time of exposure, and thirdly, for facilitating the adjust-
ment of the lens to the focus corresponding to the distance of the object to be
_photographed.
In the annexed drawings Fig. 1 is an outside view of a camera showing one of
my improvements. Fig. 2 is a transverse section of the camera on line ; Fig. 3
a longitudinal section on line y y, and Fig. 4 a horizontal section on line 2.
Figs. 5 and 6 are respectively a side-view and a front elevation of a part in detail,
drawn to a larger scale.
For the purpose of increasing the clearness of the photographs I provide the
camera with a shutter having a slit and so located in the camera as to move with
its slitted portion along the rear wall of the camera, i.e. the wall containing the
exposure-opening j¹. As shown by Figs. 2, 3 and 4, the shutter consists of two
pieces of unstransparent cloth d and d¹, connected together by a cord f, so as to
leave the required. slit between them. The piece is fastened with its outer
edge to a winding-barrel e¹ having combined with it a catching and disengaging-
mechanism, while the piece d runs over a guiding-barrel e and is attached with
its outer edge, at a², to india-rubber cords a, which are conducted over the barrel bi
and the pulleys 6 to hooks a¹, to which they are fastened. The said catching and
disengaging-mechanism consists in the ratchet-wheel g fixed to the barrel e¹, the
pall engaging by means of a spring with the wheel g, the pneumatic cylinder l'
having a piston with rod 12, which acts on the pall 4, and an india-rubber ball k,
Fig. 1, connected by a tube to the cylinder P, so that when the ball is compressed,
the air contained therein, will operate to disengage the pall from the wheel g, the
india-rubber cords a then rapidly pulling the shutter, which had previously been
wound on the barrel e¹ by means of the knob i, across the exposure-opening. The
mechanism, however, does not in itself form any part of my invention, and it may be
replaced by other mechanisms serving for the same purpose.
h
By means of a shutter such as described, which moves with its slitted part close to
the sensitive surface, the said surface is exposed in successive strips to the full
action of the rays of light forming the picture, while dispersed rays are excluded
therefrom.
For altering the time of exposure, the shutter is provided with an adjusting-device
whereby the width of the slit I can be varied. The edges of the pieces of cloth d and d
forming the slit, are fitted with the respective narrow metal mountings c, c¹, whereof
the latter constitutes a guide for a resilient sliding pall f³ (see also Figs. 5 and 6)
arranged to engage with ratchet-teeth formed on the said guide. From the top f
of this mounting a cord is passed through eyes f² at the ends of the other
mounting, c, thence through an eye at the bottom of the mounting c¹, and finally
to the pall, to which it is fastened. The cord thus forms, together with the pall,
an adjustable connection between the shutter-parts d d', whereby the distance between
the said parts is reduced when the cord is drawn upon by means of the pall (which is
for this purpose provided with the projecting parts f).; whereas when the cord is
slackenened by disengaging the pall from the ratchet-teeth and shifting it backward,
the india-rubber cords a cause the said distance to be increased.
For the purpose of facilitating the adjustment of the lens, the casing thereof is
provided at one end with a screw-thread with which it is screwed into a ring m³, Figs. 1

page_text: and 3, fixed to the camera, so that the lens may be focussed by screwing the casing
more or less in or out. Besides this, the casing is fitted with a pointer, m, and on the
ring m marks are made, which show the position the pointer m must have when
the picture-surface is in the focus corresponding to the distance indicated by the
marks.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this inven
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is:
1. The combination, with a photographic camera, of a movable shutter having a slit
and so located in the camera as to move with its said slit along the wall of the camera
containing the exposure opening, substantially as described.
2. In a photographic camera the combination, with a shutter composed of two parts
forming between them a slit and movable in respect to each other, of a contrivance
for regulating the width of the said slit, consisting in the cord f, eyes ƒ ƒ³, rack fand
pall, substantially as described.
3. The combination, with a photographic camera, of a ring m² having screw-threads
and provided with division-marks, and a lens-casing having a screw-threaded portion
that works in the said ring, and a pointer m, substantially as specified.
Dated the Twenty-fourth day of An 1889
J. H. JOHNSON & Co.,
47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, W.C., Agents.