The Moving Picture World (April 1907)

Mew PaieEfctii AUGUST A. CAILLE. Picture Exhibitor. This invention relates to improvements in machines for automatically exhibiting a se- ries of pictures, one-after another in rapid succession; and its object is to provide a simple, cheap, and efficient device for the purpose which operates to present the pic- tures in a new and novel manner and is so constructed that the pictures may be quickly and easily removed and others inserted and also so that the pictures are effectually pro- tected from injury or wear. To this end the invention consists in pro- viding a series of pictures with a metal backing to protect and give the same weight and in constructing a supporting-frame with suitable vertically-extending guides to re- ceive the ends of the pictures and within which they are simultaneously lifted by suitable lever mechanism and held by mov- able supports until said^ supports are grad- ually withdrawn, allowing the pictures to drop one at a time by their own gravity. The invention also consists in providing the suitable lever mechanism and the par- ticular construction, arrangement, and com- bination of parts, all as hereinafter more fully described, and shown in the accom- panying drawings, in which— THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD. Fig. I is a perspective view of a device embodying the invention, showing the cas- ing broken away to disclose the mechanism. Fig. 2 is a transverse vertical section of the same; and Fig. 3 is an enlarged perspective view of one of the pictures, showing the same in section. As shown in the drawings, I is a casing, of any desired form or construction, pro- vided with openings in which are secured lenses 2 and surrounded by a shield or flange 3, thus forming a stereoscope through which the operator may view the stereoscopic pictures 4 within. A frame 5, having upwardly-extending inclined end walls 6, is secured within the casing to its bottom, and on the inner face of each wall are parallel guides or ways 7, formed by wires 8, which are bent at right angles at their upper ends and secured in openings in the wall, the walls being just far enough apart to allow the pictures to freely slide between, with their ends be- tween the wires. The base portion of the frame is formed with a transverse shelf 9, extending across the frame at the lower ends of the walls 6. and on this supporting- shelf are secured buffers 10, consisting of strips of rubber or other suitable material secured in grooves in the shelf, upon which buffers the pictures normally rest in the lower ends of their guides 7. The pictures are simultaneously raised to the upper ends of the guides and in the line of vision of the operator looking through the lenses by a yoke consisting of rocking levers XX, pivoted intermediate their ends in bearings on one of the walls 6 and con- nected to each other at one end beneath the pictures by a rod 12 and near their op- posite ends outside the wall by an integral cross-bar 13. A link 14 is pivotally attached at one end to one of the levers 11 and at its opposite end to one end of a bar IS, pivoted intermediate its ends on a stud 16 on the outer side of said wall, said bar being provided with outwardly-extending arms 17 and 18 between its pivot and the point of attachment of the link. An operating-lever 19 is pivoted at one end on a stud 20, ex- tending outward from the wall below the stud 10, and extends out through a slot 21 in the front of the casing, where it may be grasped by the operator and moved to oper- ate the machine, a weighted hook 22 being pivoted to said operating-lever to connect the same with the bar 15, which hook ex- tends upward between the arms 17 and 18 in position to hook onto the arm 17 upon the downward movement of said lever, when the hook is thrown forward by the weight of a coin which is inserted in the coin-chute 23 and which engages the end of a wire 24, extending outward from the hook 22 into a slot in the chute. An arm 25 on the operating-lever^ extends rearwardly beyond the pivot of said lever, and a coiled spring 26, attached at one end to said arm and at its opposite end^ to the frame, normally holds the projecting end or handle of the lever raised and in engagement with a buff- er 27 on a post 28, a similar buffer 29 being provided below the lever on said post to limit the downward movement thereof. On the walls 6, at the rear of the guides or ways 7, are inwardly-projecting ears forming bearings 30, within which the rods 31 are longitudinally movable, said rods ex- tending at right angles,to the said guides and adapted to be projected across the same when the pictures are raised above their inner ends. The rear ends of these rods are secured to a bar 32, and coiled springs 33, attached at one end to said bar and at the opposite end to the frame, exert a force to move the rods longitudinally in- 107 ward, and to move said rods in the opposite direction across the guides from beneath the pictures a rock-shaft 34, mounted in bearings on the upper ends of the walls and at the rear sides thereof, is provided with downwardly-extending arms 35, to the lower ends oi each of which is pivotally attached push-bars 36, adapted to engage the cross-bar 32 at their free ends and to slide upon curved tracks 37, secured to and extending inward from said bar. The rock- shaft is rocked when the operating-lever is depressed by providing said shaft with a short arm 38 and connecting the free end of said arm with the rear end of the bar 15 by a link-bar 39, which is pivotally at- tached at one end to said arm and at its opposite end to the bar 15 by a pin 40 on said bar engaging a slot in the link-bar. When the forward end of bar 15 is rocked downward by the hook, its rear end moves upward, engaging the pin with the upper end of the slot in the link-bar, and this turns the rock-shaft, moving the push-bars out of engagement with cross-bar 34, said cross-bar being held from being moved in- ward by its springs 33 by the engagement of the forward ends of the rods 31 with the back of the rearmost picture. The same movement of the operating-lever which turns the rock-shaft also lifts all of the pic- tures, and therefore when the arms 35 reach the end of their inward movement the pic- tures have been lifted above the said rods 31, which are at once moved longitudinally beneath the pictures by the springs 33 to support the same. Extending outward from the forward side of the forward rocking lever of the lifting-yoke is a lug 41, adapted to be en- gaged when the yoke has fully raised the pictures with a notch in a gravity-latch 42, pivoted to the forward edge of the shaft 9 to hold the yoke in this raised position dur- ing the return or upward movement of the operating-lever, so that the hook 22 will be disengaged from its arm 17 by said movement, and to release the yoke the latch is provided with a long arm 43, ex- tending over the operating-lever in posi- tion to be engaged by an upwardly-pro- jecting lug 53 on said lever just before the same reaches the upper end of its stroke and to be lifted by such engagement, thus turning the latch on its pivot from engage- ment with the lug on the yoke, which be- ing free will at once fall, leaving the pic- tures supported by the rods 31 only. In the position of the parts as shown in Fig. 1 the operating-lever is at the extreme upper end of its stroke, and the arm 43 is shown in engagement with the lug 53 on said lever and supported thereby. To gradually withdraw the rods 31 from beneath the pictures to allow the same to drop one at a time, a long lever 44 is se- cured to the rock-shaft 34, and to its free end is pivotally attached one end of the piston-rod of an ordinary dash-pot 45, the lower end of which dash-pot is pivotally attached to the frame. A spring 46 is at- tached at one end to said lever and at its opposite end to the frame to pull the lever down, said spring being strong enough to overcome the action of the spring 33, but is retarded in its action by the dash-pot, so that the rock-shaft is gradually turned, the push-bars 36 engaging the cross-bar 32 and •gradually forcing the same rearwardly as soon as the yoke is released by the latch 42. The slot in the link-bar 39 permits the lifting-yoke to drop as soon as released by the latch, the pin 40 moving down in the slot, and therefore the yoke does not inter- fere with the free dropping of the pictures. To prevent the pictures from being drivea ■ ■