IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR EXHIBITING MINUTE PHOTOGRAPHIC PICTURES, AND IN PICTURES OR SLIDES TO BE USED THEREWITH
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS FATENT to John Henry Johnson, of 47, Lincoln's Inn,
Fields, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR EXHIBITING MINUTE PHOTOGRAPHIC
PICTURES, AND IN PICTURES OR SLIDES TO BE USED THEREWITH."-A coin-
munication from abroad by the Incorporated Company "Langlois
and Company," of Paris, in the Empire of France.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Henry Johnson
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 2nd May 1868.
I, JOHN HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County
of Middlesex, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR EXHIBITING MINUTE PHOTO-
GRAPHIC PICTURES, AND IN PICTURES OR SLIDES TO BE USED THEREWITH," a
communication to me from abroad by the Incorporated Company
[Price 8d.]

page_text: Langlois and Company," of Paris, in the Empire of France, to be as
follows:-
This Invention relates to an optical apparatus or toy which the
Inventor calls a "photoscope" for showing or exhibiting minute or
microscopic photographic images or pictures, and consists according to
one arrangement in combining together side by side two or more
Stanhope lenses, on the surface of each of which there is placed a
microscopic photograph of the same subject or figure, but in different
positions or attitudes. These Stanhopes are fitted in a guide contained
inside a portable case or holder, which is provided with an aperture
or spy hole on each side of the case, and in the line of which holes
the one or other of the Stanhope lenses is situate. A stud or button in
connection with the lenses and in combination with an india-rubber or
other spring passes through the side of the case. When this button is
rapidly depressed and released by the finger the two lenses with their
respective images are alternately and at minute intervals of time brought
in the line of vision of the observer, and as the impression of one image
is retained on the retina of the eye until the next image is presented
to it the effect of animation or movement in the microscopic image or
picture is obtained.
According to another arrangement, in lieu of using two or more
moveable Stanhope lenses, one lens is employed fitted into a suitable
holder in the top of a small case or box provided with a ground glass
bottom or back. The microscopic photographic images or pictures are
in this arrangement disposed in line upon a strip or strips of glass
forming slides which are moved in proper guides by a rack and pinion
motion, or otherwise, underneath or behind the lens. The different
pictures may either be arranged so as to give the effect of life or
animation, or they may be merely a collection on one slide of a number
of distinct subjects, each to be viewed separately in a state of rest. In
the first-mentioned case the microscopic photographs will be taken from
one subject in different positions or attitudes, and the slide when being
exhibited should be moved so as to bring the different pictures in rapid
succession behind the lens.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Henry Johnson in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 31st October 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of
Middlesex, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Second day of May, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the thirty-
first year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said John Henry Johnson, Her special
license that I, the said John Henry Johnson, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John Henry Johnson,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter
during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for
IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR EXHIBITING MINUTE PHOTOGRAPHIC PICTURES,
AND IN THE PICTURES OR SLIDES TO BE USED THEREWITH," a communication
from abroad by the Incorporated Company Langlois and Company, of
Paris, in the Empire of France, upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said John Henry Johnson, my executors or administrators, by
an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, should particularly
describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed
in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Henry Johnson, 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 accom-
panying Drawings, and to the letters and figures marked thereon, that is
to say-
The said Invention relates to improvements in optical apparatus for
the exhibition of microscopic views, whether such views form part of
the apparatus or are independent thereof.

page_text: Ine nrst improvement has for its object the obtaining the effect of
animation in the image by means of an arrangement which almits of
showing or exhibiting in a very short space of time two or more suc-
cessive images of the same object in different positions. In this case
the image is disposed on the Stanhope lens itself.
The second improvement has the same object as the first, but the
result is obtained by the aid of images independent of the apparatus,
and placed in a line ou a movable glass plate or slide. This arrange.
ment possesses an entirely novel character, as it admits of the exhibition
with a single Stanhope any desired number of different views arranged
on a very small surface. In the former case the animation of a subject
is effected by means of two or more photographic images of the same
subject taken in different positions and each fixed on a Stanhope. In
the latter case the saine effect may be obtained by the aid of images
independent of the Stanhope, and in addition there can also be obtained
with the Stanhope what has never been hitherto accomplished, that
is to say, the movement of any number of photographic images disposed
on a glass plate, whether those images represent different positions of
the same subject or entirely different views. The apparatus is designated
by the Inventor a "photoscope" or "kinescope."
And in order that the said Invention may be fully understood I shall
now proceed more particularly to describe the same, and for that purpose
shall refer to the several Figures on the annexed Sheet of Drawings,
the same letters of reference indicating corresponding parts in all the
corresponding Figures.
Figures 1, 2, 3, and 4 of the Drawings annexed shew the arrangement
which it is preferred to employ in order to obtain the animation of
microscopic views.
Two Stanhope lenses are disposed one above the other, as shown in
Figure 1, one of which carries a subject in one position and the other
the same subject in a different position, the two being mounted in a
guide provided with a button a, and surrounded by an india-rubber
band fixed to the top part of the holder containing the views. It will
be understood that by depressing the button the india-rubber is
stretched, but so soon as the pressure is removed the elasticity of the
india-rubber draws the guide and the Stanhopes back to their normal
position. The two images are thus presented successively and rapidly to
view and produce the most perfect illusion. It should be understood

page_text: that this mechanism is described only by way of example, as other
arrangements may be employed to produce the vertical or horizontal
to-and-fro motion of the Stanhopes. Two or three microscopic views
may also be employed, each disposed on a separate Stanhope. Spiral
or other springs having the same effect may also be substituted for the
india-rubber band,
When the image is independent of the apparatus the arrangement
shown in Figures 5 and 6 is employed. In this case the Stanhope is
rendered moveable in order to facilitate the image being brought into
position for viewing, and is mounted on a small box composed of metal
or other suitable material closed at the opposite side by ground glass
after the manuer of stereoscopes. The images of the same subject in
different positions are placed side by side on a strip of glass, to which
a lateral to-and-fro motion is imparted in order to create the illusion
of animated images as in the preceding example.
If each image represents a different subject an apparatus is formed
which admits of exhibiting with a single object glass enlarged repre-
sentations of an indefinite series of views of every description, including
portraits, landscapes, inanimate nature, and animals, a result which
has not hitherto been obtained by the use of Stanhopes.
Figure 5 is a section of an example of a photoscopic apparatus
illustrating the second part of this Invention. The Stanhope a is
mounted in the screwed button b so as to be capable of motion. The
bottom c of the apparatus is formed of ground glass, and a strip of
glass carrying the microscopic subjects (and shewn in plan in
Figure passes in
front of the Stanhope in order to admit of
examining at leisure each magnified image of the series.
The glass
strips may be bevilled in order to facilitate their passage in the grooves
of the plate f, which is disposed beneath the inicroscopic lens.
apparatus microscopic views or images are placed on movable strips of
glass, thereby admitting of the disposal of a considerable number of
different subjects on the same strip. The progressive motion of the
strip is effected by means of a
the frame which carries the glass
by the aid of a button a given
between the images.
In this
toothed rack made in one piece with
strip, such rack being moved forward
distance in proportion to the interval
Figure 7 is a section of another modification. In this the Stanhopes
slide on a guide i soldered into the medallion k.
The india-rubber is

page_text: secured in this guide, and tends when it has been stretched by
depressing the button a to withdraw the images or pictures or the
Stanhopes from view.
Figure 8 represents an arrangement which admits of the enclosing
of a number of views in the same apparatus in which each Stanhope is
mounted in a similar manner to that indicated in Figure 7.
If desired the face of the Stanhope on which the photograph is applied
may be roughened or ground, or a ground glass may be interposed
between the eye and the focus so as to form what the Inventor terms
au "obscurator," in order to admit of the use of the apparatus with
high luminous focus, and to obviate by the diffusion of the light the
magnifying of the grains of powder which adhere to this face. This
roughening of the glasses is effected by means of emery of graduated
fineness until the requisite fineness of surface is obtained. If by reason
of the form of the "kinescope" it is requisite that the "obscurator"
should be round, pieces of glass may be first cut to a square form and
roughly rounded with pincers or otherwise; a number of these glasses
are then superposed and attached to a rod which is fitted into a lathe,
and the irregularities are removed with emery by means of a glass
cylinder in order to impart to the several glasses a perfectly circular
form.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of the
said Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used
or carried into effect, 1 would observe in conclusion that what I consider
to be novel and original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured
to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is,-
First. The general construction of apparatus for exhibiting microscopic
pictures, as herein before described.
Second. The production of apparently animated microscopic photo-
graphic pictures.
Third. The producing of apparently animated microscopic pictures by
the ai of two or more superp sed Stanhopes, to which are imparted
a vertical or horizontal to-and-fro motion, so that the views placed on
each Stanhope may be successively presented to the eye in a minute
interval of time.
Fourth. The peculiar construction and arrangement of apparatus as

page_text: and for the purpose herein-before described and illustrated in Figures 1,
2, 3, and 4 of the Drawings annexed.
Fifth. The peculiar arrangement of apparatus shewn in Figure 5,
consisting essentially of a moveable Stanhope, a ground glass, and a
groove for the passage of strips of glass carrying the photographic
images.
Sixth. The use ct photoscopic strips or slides carrying a number of
different microscopic images or pictures placed in a line thereon for the
purpose herein-before described.
Seventh. The peculiar arrangements of apparatus shewn in Figures 7
and 8 of the Drawings annexed for the purpose herein-before described.
Jn witness whereof, I, the said John Henry Johnson, have to
this my Specification set my band and seal, the Thirtieth day
of October One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight.
J. HENRY JOHNSON. (L.S.)