Improvements in Portable Photographic Cameras.
Year: 1891

page_text: Date of Application, 20th Nov., 1891
Complete Specification Left, 22nd Aug., 1892-Accepted, 24th Sept., 1892
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Portable Photographic Cameras.
I, JOHN HENRY SKINNER, trading as J. H. Skinner & Co. of East Dereham,
in the County of Norfolk, Photographic Material Manufacturer, do hereby declare
the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
This invention has for its object to produce a photographic camera wherein space
is economised and which is more easily and quickly manipulated than those hitherto
in use.
According to this invention I make the camera with a fixed box front having two
wings hinged to the sides of the front which fold down over the back when the
camera is closed. These wings are provided with grooves or channels which serve
as guides in which work pins or pegs secured to or carried by the camera end. The
extremities of the said grooves or channels are recessed and when the inner or
bellows body is drawn out the pins or pegs are caused to enter these recesses. This
may be effected by making the pegs or pins spring actuated, or the wings may be
hinge-bound to the sides of the camera front, that is to say, set on their hinges in
such a manner as to open rather less than 90 degrees, so that when fully opened
the wings are not quite parallel but are slightly inclined towards each other.
this construction when the inner or bellows body is drawn out, the pins or pegs on
the end of the camera ride up the grooves and entering the terminal recesses auto-
matically secure the camera in its "opened out" position. The same result may
be effected by the use of springs, catches or their equivalents, in substitution for
the pins or pegs hereinbefore referred to.
By
Another feature of my invention is to provide the camera with a double swing
back. This is effected by providing the camera end with one central pin or peg at
each side, riding in a corresponding slot in each wing, so that when the camera is
opened out the end thereof turns on these pins or pegs as an axis, the axial line
being always in focus no matter in what position the camera back may be placed.
When the desired position is obtained, the end of the camera can be fixed in this
position by a set screw passing through one of the wings or by equivalent means.
1 economize space in the construction of my cameras by making the camera
back, or double dark slide, to slide over the end of the camera instead of sliding it
into the end as at present made. I am thus enabled to produce a camera of small
size which will give as good pratical results as one considerably larger when made
by the ordinary method of construction. In cameras of the kind known as portable
photographic cameras economy of space is of great importance. In carrying out
this part of my invention I secure a metal plate on the edge of each side of the
double dark slide and turned inwards towards the centre to form grooves. On the
edges of the camera end I cut away the wood and secure a metal plate on each
edge so as to form a rabbet which enters the corresponding groove in the camera
back or double dark slide when the same is passed endways over the camera end.
The glass frame is of course made in the same manner as the double dark slide
so as to fit on to the camera end.
Dated this 20th day of November 1891.
F. W. GOLBY,
36, Chancery Lane, London, W.C., Patent Agent for Applicant.

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Portable Photographic Cameras.
I JOHN HENRY SKINNER, trading as J. H. Skinner, & Co. of East Dereham,
in the County of Norfolk, Manufacturers of Photographic Materials, 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 which relates to portable photographic cameras has for its object
to produce a camera of this description which can be more casily and quickly
manipulated than those at present in use. Another object of my invention is to
provide means for securing the double dark slide to the camera in such a manner
that both the dark slide and the camera cnd may be inade smaller than is usual and
space thereby economized.
In the accompanying drawings Figure 1 is an elevation, and Figure 2 is a plan
of a camera made in accordance with this invention; Figure 3 is a sectional plan
taken on the line X Y of Figure I, and with the double dark slide in position;
Figure 4 is a view similar to Figure 3 shewing the camera without the dark slide
and with the bellows closed. The same letters of reference are used to indicate the
same or corresponding parts in all the figures.
In carrying my invention into practical effect, I secure the front of the bellows C
to the interior of a box A which is sufficiently large to contain the bellows and
camera end D when the camera is closed. The front of the box A is provided
with a suitable aperture to accommodate the lens and the back of the box is formed
of two flaps or wings E which are hinged to the sides of the box A and which may
be folded down, over the back when the camera is closed. On the inside of each
of these flaps or wings E is a central groove or channel F which corresponds in
position with a similar groove or channel G in the inside of each of the sides A2 of
the box A to which the flaps or wings are hinged (see Figures 3 & 4). On each of
the two sides of the camera end D which are contiguous to the flaps or wings E, and
in the centre thereof, is secured a pin or peg P. These pins or pegs P' which are
shewn in Figure 1 engage in the grooves or channels F and G which act as guides
for them when the camera end is opened out from the position shewn in Figure 4 to
the position shewn in Figure 1, so that as the camera is opened out the end D
thereof moves outwards in a plané parallel to itself. Each groove or channel F is
made less deep towards the outer end, and the extreme end is again made deeper so
as to form a terminal recess F. When the bellows is opened out to its proper
extent, the pins or pegs P enter the terminal recesses F2 and the camera is thereby
prevented from being further drawn out or from closing up again when the camera
end is released. To cause the pins or pegs to enter the terminal recesses F2, they
may be spring actuated, but preferably the flaps or wings E are hinge bound, that
is to say, are set on their hinges in such a manner as to open rather less than
90 degrees so that when fully opened the said flaps or wings E are not quite
parallel but are slightly inclined towards each other. Hinge binding is well
known and commonly practised in the trade. As the pins or pegs P are in alignment
and are centrally placed with reference to the camera end D, and fit loosely in the
terminal recesses 2, it is obvious that the camera end may be turned on these pins
or pegs Pas au axis, of which the recesses F2 form the bushes or bearings, and
that the axial line will always be in focus irrespective of the position in which the
camera end may be placed. When the desired position has been obtained the
camera end D may be fixed in this position by the set screw J which passes through
a slot K in one of the flaps or wings E and engages with a nut fixed in the
contiguous side of the camera end, or by other equivalent means.
method of construction, it will be seen that the camera end D secures itself in its
opened out position when the bellows C is drawn out to its proper extent, and that
the camca end is a swing back.
By this

page_text: To economise space in the construction of my camera ends and double dark
slides, I make the latter to slide over the camera end instead of making it to slide
into the camera end as they are at present made. I am thus able to produce a
camera of small size which will give as good practical results as the ordinary and
considerably larger cameras heretofore in use. In cameras of the kind known as
portable photographic cameras smallness of size is of great importance.
In carrying out this part of my invention, 1 secure a narrow metal plate or strip L
along the edge of each side and on front and rear of the double dark slide M.
These metal plates or strips L are turned inwards towards the centre of the double
dark slide so as to form the grooves or recesses N (see Figure 3). Along the two
free edges of the camera end D, that is to say, the edges which are not contiguous
to the flaps or wings E, I cut away the wood from end to end about half its
thickness, as shewn at O, in Figures 1 and 2, and secure a metal strip B on each
edge so as to form a rabbet which enters the corresponding groove N in the double
dark slide as and when the latter is slipped endways over the camera end D. The
glass frame is of course made in the same manner as the double dark slide so as to
fit over the camera end.
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
claim is :-
1. In a portable photographic camera, in which the bellows is secured at its
front end to the interior of a box, and is opened out away from the lens, providing
said box with two rearwardly opening hinged flaps or wings E with grooves or
channels F terminating in slightly deeper recesses F2 and communicating with
similar grooves or channels G in the sides of the box to which the flaps or wings
are hinged, and providing the camera end D with pins or pegs P which engage in
the grooves F and G and are caused to enter the terminal recesses F by hinge-
binding the flaps or wings E to the box A. or by equivalent means whereby the
camera in its opened out position is secured on an axis so as to form a swing back,
with means for securing the swing back in the desired position, substantially as and
for the purpose hereinbefore set forth and illustrated in the accompanying
drawings.
2. In a portable photographic camera the method of construction herein described
whereby the double dark slide can be slid over the camera end, consisting of the
formation of a rabbet in the camera end by cutting away part of the wood and
securing a metal strip B along each edge, and the attachment of metal plates, or
strips to the edges of the double dark slide so as to form recesses or grooves N
into which the metal strips B on the camera end can be placed and the double dark
slide slid over the camera end substantially in the manner hereinbefore set forth
and illustrated in the accompanying drawings.
Dated this 22nd day of August 1892.
F. W. GOLBY,
36, Chancery Lane, London, W.C., Patent Agent for the Applicant.