In the District Court of the United States, for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the United States of America, petitioner, vs. Motion Picture Patents Company, et al., defendants (1914)

United States Patent Office. ALBERT E. SMITH, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO THE AMERICAN VITAGRAPH COMPANY, OF NEW JERSEY. KINETOSCQPE. SPECIFICAT ON forming part of Letters Patent No. 673,329, dated April 30, 1901. Application filed March 15, 1900. Serial No. 8,732. (No model.) Xo all whom it nt<afy concern: Be it known that I, Albert E. Smith, a citizen of the United States, residing in the borough of Brooklyn, in the city of New York, 5 in the county of Kiugs and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Kinetoseopes, of which the following is a specification. My invention relates tokinetostopicappa io ratus, and especially to the type of apparatus designed for exhibiting in rapid succession a series of photographs of moving objects whereby the motion of the objects is apparently represented on a screen1, *and more par 15 ticularly to the means employed for adjusting the film whereby it -may" be kept in proper position with reference to the aperture in the diaphragm opposite the source of light and for protecting the film from injury in itspas 20 sage from the feedroll to the carrier. The main part of the apparatus, consisting of the feed-roll, the light and lenses, the guiding and propelling apparatus, the shutterclosing apparatus, and the means for prod 11 c 25 ing the necessary intermittent motion of the film, are well known in the art and form no part of my present invention. In the usual form of kiuetoscopes known to me the film-carrier and the light-aperture are 30. fixed with respect to each other, except in cases where the intermittent illumination of the film is produced by the reciprocation of one or the other. The film-strip is usually provided with small holes at its edges and is 35 drawn forward by the engagement of such holes with sprockets or spurs on drums suitably placed for such purpose aud intermittently rotated. When it is desired to use such an apparatus, the film is adjusted from 40 the feed-roll so that one of its sections, containing a single view, is directly opposite the light-aperture in the diaphragm. It not infrequently happens in use, however, that the rapid motion of the film as it is propelled past 45 the apenure causes the holes on its edges to spring out of engagement with the. sprocket on the propelling-drum. Thi* immediately causes the picture projected on the screen to bo out of register with the field of light or 50 mat projected on the screen bv the passage of the light through the aperture in the dia phragm aud produces the effect exhibited in Figure G of the drawings, where parts of two sections of the film are thrown upon the screen instead of the whole of one section. 55 Endeavors have been made to obviate this difficulty by adjusting the diaphragm (and the aperture) with respect to tjie base of the apparatus; but this tended to throw the mat up or down on the screen, and possibly out 60 side of the field of vision altogether, because a slight displacement of the aperture means a great displacement of the projected mat because of the refract ion of the light t h rough the lens. Moreover, such methods are impractica 65 ble by reason of the fact that an accidental displacement of the film usually takes place when it is being rapidly moved, and the exhibition is spoiled if the performance has to be stopped to make such a nice adjustment. 70 There is also a form of apparatus in which the film is not provided with holes on its edges, but its propulsion is secured by means of its passage between pairs of rollers. In such construction an adjustment of the film with 75 respect to the light aperture is secured by varying the distance between the rollers of one pair, and thus permitting the film to slip into the desired position; but such means of adjustment are not applicable to the usual 80 form of film. It was desirable, therefore, to secure the relative adjustment of the sections of the perforated film and the light-aperture in the diaphragm by some means which could be employed without disturbing the action of 85 the apparatus or stopping 'the exhibition. It is the purpose of my invention to supply such means, and this I do by separating the frame supporting the film-carrier and its connected mechanism from the support for the dia 90 phragm and its aperture and source of lightsupply and providing a simple means of moving the first-mentioned frame with relation to such aperture, even while the motion of the film is continued, the film and the act u at 95 ing mechanism therefor being mounted upon the ad justingframe. In the drawings, Fig. 1 is a front elevatiou of my improved kiuetoscope without a film, but showing the means for carrying the film 00 and propelling the same. Fig. 2 is a front elevation of the same, showing the film, but