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)

683,953 This tension device may consist of n fixed member or plate k, Fig. o, placet! in front of the film, and a forked member A;', Figs.'. 5 and 0, of spring metal bearing on the Opposite 5 side of the film, so as to hold it with a yielding pressure against the plate, the latter having an opening therethrough arranged opposite the fork of the spring fc', which straddles the picture-surface, so that the view of the pic io tare may.be unobstructed* By means of a setscrew it3, bearing upon the shank of the spring k\ the pressure of the latter upon the film may be varied at wtyl. This tension device may be used either with or without a film-tightener 15 L, Fig. 1, located nearer the reel D, though either or both of these devices may be dispensed with in some cases. The tightener L consists simplyof a spring fixed at one end and having its free end padded and arranged 2© to press the film yieldingly against a roller I, journaled below the spool D. In the modification shown in Fig.' 4 a series of similar pictures are arranged in a circle upon, the upper surface of a circular plate or 15 disk M, the periphery of which is formed with alternate notches and semicircular depressions the same as the gear-wheel F in the other figures, and adapted to be driven in the same minner by a smaller gear N, the pic 30 tu res thereon being viewed through a magnifying-glass, which may be held in the hand. This picture-carrying surface or disk may be arranged to rotate in a horizontal plane or otherwise. In the horizontal posit ion the pic 35 tares upon the plate are illuminated by light from above in case the p'ate is opaque, or from beneath if it be transparent. In the latter case the plate A may be made to revolve with its axis parallel with the axis of 40 the objectlens of a microscopic or an ordinary projecting lantern with the pictures in the focus of the objective, so that the pictures may be projected upon a screen the same as ordinary transparencies are, except that the 45 picture upon the screen will possess the same life-like effect which is observed through the magnifying -glass when the latter is used. This plate may take the place of an ordinary lantern-slide of a magic lantern, the lantern 50 being otherwise the same as ordinarily used. The series of pictures in the form shown in Fig. 4 are arranged in a circle, as at 00, near the periphery of the disk, but various modifications of this arrangement will readily sug 35 gest themselves to those skilled in the art, such as a spiral or serpentine arrangement, which will permit a larger number of pictures to be arranged spirally on the surface of the revolving disk. 60 It will be understood, of course, that the rcsnlts hereinbefore described may be produced by other means than intermittent gearing, and we do not desire to be limited to the use of intermittent gearing, as other means ^5 may be employed for causing the light on the •aerben to exceed in duration the interval of change— that i«, the time required to effect the removal of one picture and the substitution of another in its stead, which is essential to success. We do not claim novelty in the pictures, but we ai-e not aware that prior to our invention auy instrument or. apparatus has been devised by which life-like pictures may be given a very long illumination compared with 75 the time necessary for effecting a change, and the fact that no feasible method has heretofore been devised to accomplish this result accounts for the very poor results so far attained in lanterri-wbrk. 80 From the foregoing description it will be ry seen that the pictures are brought successively into an illuminated field and that each picture is illuminated without interruption from the instant it enters such field until dis 85 placed by the next picture in the series, and that the several pictures in the series are successively substituted one for another with such rapidity that, although the exposed portion" of the film or picture-carrying surface is 90 continuously illuminated, the eye receives an impression of the picture which so greatly predominates any possible impression that might be made by the practically instantaneous motion of said film or surface, in s*ib 95 stit.uting picture for picture, that the predominating impression which the eye receives, owing to its inability to receive two impressions at one and the same time, and to the persistence of vision, has the effect of ice rendering the movement of the film utterly imperceptible, while the successive impressions of different pictures are each retained until another picture in the series is superimposed, as it were, upon the previous im 105 pressionorpicture, thus rendering it possible to produce most vivid and life-like effects without any interruption whatever in the illumination, whether the film is moving or stationary, and without interposinga shutter 1 10 and thereby causing a shadow or shade effect which reduces the vividness of the impression; but we do not desire to be confined to the nse of the invention without a shutter,, inasmuch as such a device might be used 115 under some circumstances — as, for instance, when constructed so as to interrupt the illumination only at that instant of time when the film is moving and without renderi^gthe interruption perceptible to the eye — but for no all practical purposes a shutter of any Jrind is useless and objectionable and is preferably dispensed with. Having thus fully described our invention, what we claim as new, and desire to secure by 1 25 Letters Patent of the United States, is— 1. An apparatus for exhibiting picturesso as to give the impression to the eye of ob jects in motion, comprising a picture-carrying surface, means for supporting said sur rjo face and permitting it to be moved so as to cause the pictures or objects thereon to be successively exposed for the required interval of time in an illuminated field, and median