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112 3,571. March 6th, 1890. — “Flash-Lamps.” ROBERT SLIXGsBY, 168, High Street, Lincoln, Photographic Artist. 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 cameras 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 afore said 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 opera tions 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. 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 india-rubber ball, or other suitable device for releasing the shutters, is also connected by a tube or tubes to the shutter releasing apparatus 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 directly or indirectly upon and squeezes the said india-rubber ball. It will now be understood that, on actuat ing the aforesaid lever, or other instrument, the bellows and india-rubber 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 india-rubber 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 dis charge 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 dia meter suitable for the greatest number of lamps the bellows is capable of supplying ; to this nozzle may be applied con necting pieces with apertures proportioned 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, consist ing of a hollow box shaped somewhat like the rose of a garden watering-pot, and having short nozzles fixed in the side there of 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 connected by a suitable pipe to the bellows. Any desired number of these junction pieces or distributors may be con nected 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. 3,730. March Sth, 1890.—“Machine Cameras.” Mortimer Evans, Savile Club, Piccadilly, London, Civil Engineer. This invention relates to certain improvements in or appli cable to photographic cameras of the kind described in the specification accompanying application for Letters Patent No. 10,131, dated the 21st day of June, 1889, made by William Friese Greene and myself, in which cameras the consecutive movements accessary for the obtainment of a lateut photographic repre ¬ sentation, or of a series thereof, are caused to be effected automatically, and, if required, in rapid series, by means dependent for their actuation upon the rotation of a common shaft or its equivalent (hereinafter referred to as the “main shaft ”), to which motion may be imparted by any suitable means. The objects of the present invention are to simplify the means by which the successively adjacent or following portions of a sensitised strip (upon which successive or following repre sentations are taken) are caused to be presented in position for exposure, arrested in position during exposure, and removed from position after exposure, and to lessen the period of each arrestment of the slip, so as to allow of, and cause the strip to be more gradually advanced into and from such position between its successive times of arrestment. To this end, I cause the advance of the strip to be effected directly from the main shaft, or by parts operated thereby, in lieu of causing such advance to be effected by intermittently operating escapement devices independently and momentarily operating when released from the control of such shaft, as described in the aforesaid specification. In such lastly referred to means, the portion of the strip in position for exposure is stationary during the whole, or nearly the whole, of the period between the successive operations of the escapement device, and the strip is momentarily shifted ; but by the present improvements, the portion of the strip in position for exposure is arrested in position only for the period required to effect the exposure, and the whole of the period between such successive times of arrestment is utilised in shift ing the strip so that it is more gradually advanced. I can effect this object by various modifications of suitably arranged devices. According to one modification, I mount a take-up roller and a winding-on roller in opposite side rocking levers on the pivot or connecting spindle, of which I mount a roller guiding the strip from a suitably mounted let-off roller in alignment for exposure to the take-up roller, partly around which the strip passes on to the winding-on roller ; and I drive the latter by a frictional hub, and by connecting gearing from the spindle of the take-up roller at a relatively higher speed, such as may be practically most advantageous, such parts being so arranged as that the motion of the several rollers, and, consequently, the advance of the strip, is dependent upon the motion of the take up roller. I impart the necessary movement to this latter roller from the main shaft (which may be continuously rotated) by driving it by frictional surface contact with a drum on such shaft, and I cause such movement of such roller to be inter mittent by disconnecting such roller and its actuating drum at the time the arrestment of the strip, and the exposure thereof, is required to be effected. I can also effect this object by various arrangements of suitable means, as, for example, by mounting a pin or pins in the ends of the said drum, and by mounting disconnecting spring or gravity levers in arms extending from the said rocking levers, so constructing and arranging such disconnecting levers as that they will be automatically actuated by the said pin or pins at the times required, so to be caused to be effective in rocking the levers into position, and holding the strip in position for and during exposure, and until (immediately after the exposure) the actuating pin passes beyond the range of the disconnecting levers, which thereupon fall, or are caused to fall, into position ready for the next actuation of the pins, the take-up roller and its actuating drum being simultaneously automatically thrown into gear by a suitably disposed spring acting upon the rocking levers. According to another modification, the winding-on roller is applied directly to the main shaft, being driven frictionally from the hub. Its winding-on and advancing action on the strip is caused to be arrested when required, as aforesaid, by pins or discs connected to the shaft, which intermittently engage with a conveniently mounted brake-lever, and cause the same to arrest the strip by nipping it against an opposite fixed part until the pins have passed beyond the range of the brake-lever, when the latter is automatically released by a spring, and the rotation of the roller and advance of the strip proceeds.