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, HERMAN CABLEU, OF CANASTOTA, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO TnE AMERICAN MUTOSCOPE COMPANY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y. KiNETOQRAPHIC CAMERA. SPECIFICATION forming part of Letter* Patent Ho. 089,063, dated July 18, 1899. Application filed Febmirj 26,1896. Serial Be. 580,811. (BamefrU To all wJwrn U rtla-y concern: Be it known that I, Herman Casler, a citizen of the United States, residing at Canastota, in the county of Madison and State of j, New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Consecutive-View Apparatus; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled xo in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same. My Invention relates generally to consecutive-view apparatus and to strip or film feeding mechanism therefor, and particularly to 15 photographic cameras employed for taking a rapid succession of views of objects in motion, from which the movements of said objects may be reproduced to the eye by means of a suitable apparatus, and my invention is 20 Mkrtlcularly intended for the taking of pictares to be used in the instrument for repro: ducing the movements of objects from a succession of views, thereof for which Letters Patent No. 549,309 were issued to me on 25 November 5, 18S5, or to be used in the other instrument for reproducing the movements of objects upon a screen for which I filed an application for Letters Patent of even date herewith, Serial No. 580,810. 50 Cameras heretofore devised for the taking of rapid successions of views of moving objects have been defective in that they have been incapable of taking pictures as large as is desirable or of giving sufficiently long ex i$ posure to each picture to enable photographs to be taken under ordinary conditions of illumination. In these cameras photographs are taken in a long flexible sensitive film, successive portions of which fire moved into the 40 field of a lens and held stationary while a shutter is opened to permit light passing through the lens to act upon the film. In order that the ordinary movements of objects may be satisfactorily repioduced,itisneces 43 sary that the series of views from which these movements are reproduced shall have been taken at about the rate of forty a second. While the shutter is open and the light in actiug upon the film the portion of the film ^0 exposed to the light must be stationary, so thai it is necessary fo feed the film intermit tently. If in order to produce the desired intermittent feeding of the film the movement of the entire film carrying and feeding mechanism be checked for each exposure, the 55 vibration set up in the camera by the sudden stoppage of the rapidly-moving parts of the mechanism prevents a distinct picture from being obtained or makes it necessary that the shutter shall be opened each time for so brief 60 a time that adequate exposure of the film is not obtained. If the spools from which the unexposed film is unwound and upon which the exposed film is wound are permitted to revolve continuously, while other mechan 65 ism, which feeds and guides the film across the field of the lens, is caused to move intermittently, stopping each time before the shutter is opened and commencing to move again after the shutter is closed, although by this 70 means the weight of _the intermittently moving parts is greatly reduced, it is still found that the sudden startiug and stopping of these parts of the mechanism cause troublesome vibrations, which reduce greatly the timedur 75 ing which the shutter may be opened, and also that the intermittentlymoviBg film-feeding mechanism is incapable of moving with sufficient rapidity and of feeding the ftUfi sufficiently rapidly to bring more thaa a very 80 sfrort length of f resh film inio the field of the lens without setting up excessive vibration. These difficulties I have overcome in the camera herein described by causing all of the parts of the film-feeding mechanism to re 85 volve continuously and uniformly, a catch being used to hold the film stationary while the shutter is open and the film -feeding rolls being permitted to slip over the film while the film is held by the catch. This catch is ex 90 tremely light and easily moved, and its operation causes no vibration. All of the parts of the mechanism which carry or feed the film revolve continuously and uniformly, and therefore their operation causes no jar or vibration 95 of the camera. The above constitutes a most important feature and advantage of my camera and is its most characteristic feature. Other advantages I will hereinafter point out. xoo My invention consists in the novel means employed for intermittontly feeding the film