The Nickelodeon (Feb-Sep 1909)

46 THE NICKELODEON. Vol. II, No. 2. and which were not known to the world before he invented them may be distinguished and separated from the accompanying and obscuring verbiage. Original patent No. 589,168 contained the following claims directed toward the mechanism of a camera for making the motion pictures : 1. An apparatus for effecting by photography a representation, suitable for reproduction, of a scene including a moving object or objects, comprising a means for intermittently projecting at such rapid rate as to result in persistence of vision images of successive positions of the object or objects in motion, as observed from a fixed and single point of view, a sensitized tape-like film, and a means for so moving the film as to cause the successive images to be received thereon separately and in a single-line sequence. 2. An apparatus for taking photographs suitable for the exhibition of objects in motion, having in combination a single camera, and means for passing a sensitized tape-film at a high rate of speed across the lens of the camera and for exposing successive portions of the film in rapid succession, substantially as set forth. 3. An apparatus for taking photographs suitable for the exhibition of objects in motion, having in combination a single camera, and means for passing a sensitized tape-film across the lens of the camera at a high rate of speed and with an intermittent motion, and for exposing successive portions of the film durings the periods of rest, substantially as set forth. 4. An apparatus for taking photographs suitable for the exhibition of objects in motion, having in combination a single camera, and means for passing a sensitized tape-film across the lens at a high rate of speed and with an intermittent motion, and for exposing successive portions of the film during the periods of rest, the periods of rest being greater than the periods of motion, substantially as set forth. Reissue Patent No. 12,037 contains the following clause : 1. An apparatus for taking photographs suitable for the exhibition of objects in motion, having in combination a camera having a single stationary lens; a single sensitized tape-film supported on opposite sides of, and longitudinally movable with respect to the lens, and having an intermediate section crossing the lens; feeding devices engaging such intermediate section of the film and moving the same across the lens of the camera at a high rate of speed and with an intermittent motion ; and a shutter exposing successive portions of the film during the periods of rest, substantially as set forth. 2. An apparatus for taking photographs suitable for the exhibition of objects in motion, having in combination a camera having a single stationary lens ; a single sensitized tape-film supported on opposite sides of, and longitudinally movable with respect to, the lens, and having an intermediate section crossing the lens ; a continuously-rotating driving shaft ; feeding devices operated by said shaft engaging such intermediate section of the film and moving the same across the lens of the camera at a high rate of speed and with an intermittent motion ; and a continuously-rotating shutter operated by said shaft for exposing successive portions of the film during the periods of rest, substantially as set forth. 3. An apparatus for taking photographs suitable for the exhibition of objects in motion, having in combination a camera having a single stationary lens; a single sensitized tape-film supported on opposite sides of, and longitudinally movable with respect to, the lens, and having an intermediate section crossing the lens; a continuously-rotating driving-shaft; feeding devices operated by said shaft engaging such intermediate section of the film and moving the same across the lens of the camera at a high rate of speed and with an intermittent motion ; a shutter exposing successive portions of the film during the periods of rest ; and a reel revolved by said shaft with variable speed for winding the film thereon after exposure, substantially as set forth. 4. An apparatus for taking photographs suitable for the exhibition of objects in motion, having in combination a single camera, and means for passing a sensitized tape-film across the lens at a high rate of speed and with an intermittent motion, and for exposing successive portions of the film during the periods of rest, the periods of rest being greater than the periods of motion, substantially as set forth. Claim 4 of the reissued patent is identical with claim 4 of the original patent. It was a good and valid claim, and was retained by Mr. Edison in his revised and reissued patent. Claim 1 of the original patent is directed toward a camera which would have a continuously moving film and which would project images thereupon intermittently. This apparently is not patentable to Mr. Edison, since it does not appear in his revised patent. Claim 2 is the same. These claims do not provide for any period of rest for the moving film, nor for any intermittent motion of the film, nor for exposing it while at rest. These claims have been abandoned by Mr. Edison, either arbitrarily on his part or through compulsion on the part of the patent office by reason of the power of the patent office to withhold such claims as in the opinion of the Commissioner of Patents do not properly belong to the applicant. Yet these abandoned claims are claims for a camera suitable for making the product which is claimed in Reissue Patent No. 12,192 for the film-picture! If Mr. Edison is not entitled to claims for the camera, then he was not the first to make the camera, and not being the first to make the camera, surely he is not the first to make the product of the camera. Not being entitled to claims for the camera, he is not entitled to claims for its product, and since some one manifestly has preceded him in making the camera and since no machine could be proven to exist operatively without proving its product, he was preceded also in the making of the product. The plot thickens, and the patents weaken. What sort of machine or camera, then, does this Reissue Patent No. 12,037 cover? In each of its four claims appear the words, "at a high rate of speed and with an intermittent motion"; these words in each claim refer to the movement of the film by its feeding devices. Also in each claim appear the words, "exposing successive portions of the film during the periods of rest," these words in each claim refer to the function of the shutter of the camera. Also we have in each of claims 1, 2 and 3, the words, "a camera having a single stationary lens," and in claim 4 there is mention of "a single camera" and of "the lens" and of film moving "across the lens," which set of things implies in this claim also the existence of a single stationary lens. The camera covered by the reissued patent therefore is one in which the film must move intermittently and must come positively and absolutely to rest between the intermittent movement, and in which the picture must be made upon the film during that moment of rest. If the film is moving while the exposure is made, the camera does not come within the scope of this patent. Reissue Patent No. 12,192 must, from the nature of things, have the same limit placed upon its claims. The film-picture must be one made by a camera in which the exposure is made during a period of rest of the film and not during a movement of the film ; it must be one which is made by a camera having a single stationary lens. But in a patent, an article cannot be defined by describing the process of making it. There must exist some difference in the article itself, and the patent claim must be written to define the article as an improvement over what had been made before by defining distinctly the feature of improvement which the new article possesses over the sfmilar articles of the prior art. The claims of Reissue Patent No. 12,192 must stand upon their discrimination between the film-picture made by a camera which makes the exposure while the film is at rest and the filmpicture made by a camera which makes the exposure while the film is in motion in the camera, and this dis