Scientific American Supplement, No. 561, October 2, 1886Various
Science
Scientific American Supplement, No. 561, October 2, 1886
Various
Science -- Periodicals
The camera consists of a circular brass box, 51/2 inches in diameter and
11/4 inches deep, containing a circular vulcanite shutter with two
apertures, behind which is placed a circular dry plate. Both plate and
shutter are revolved in opposite directions to each other by a simple
arrangement of four cogged wheels moved by a single crank. The box is
perforated at one side by a circular opening, 13/4 inches in diameter,
from the margin of which projects at a right angle a long brass tube
(Fig. 1), which carries the lens. In Fig. 2 the lid of the box has
been removed, and the bottom of the box, with the wheels, springs, and
partially closed shutter, is presented. The lid is double--that is, it
is a flat box in itself. It contains nothing but the dry plate,
supported at its center upon a small brass disk, against which disk it
is firmly pressed by a pivot attached to a spring fastened in the lid.
The aperture in one side of this double lid, which corresponds with
that seen in the floor of the box, may be closed by a slide, so that
the lid containing the plate can be removed like an ordinary plate
holder and carried to a dark room, where it is opened and the plate is
changed. When the lid is replaced this slide is removed, and as the
shutter is made to revolve, the light falls upon whatever portion of
the dry plate happens to be opposite the opening.
By reference to Fig. 2, it will be seen that when the large wheel
which projects outside of the box is revolved by a crank, it turns the
small ratchet wheel, which bears an eccentric pawl. (The crank has
been removed in Fig. 2; it is seen in Fig. 1.) The central wheel has
only six cogs. The pawl is pressed into one of these cogs by a spring.
It pushes the central wheel around one-sixth of its circumference,
when it returns to be pressed into the next cog. While the pawl
returns, it necessarily leaves the central wheel at rest, and whatever
momentum this wheel carries is checked by a simple stop pressed by a
spring upon the opposite side. The central wheel carries a square
axle, which projects through a small hole in the center of the double
lid and fits into the brass disk before alluded to, causing the disk
to revolve with the axle. The disk is covered by rubber cloth; and as
the dry plate is pressed firmly against the rubber surface by the
spring in the lid, the plate adheres to the rubber and revolves with
the disk. Thus every complete revolution of the central wheel in the
floor of the box carries with it the dry plate, stops it, and moves it
on again six times. The velocity of revolution of the plate is only
limited by the rapidity with which one can turn the crank.
The shutter is revolved in the opposite direction by a wheel whose
cogs are seen fitting into those of the little wheel carrying the
eccentric pawl.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--THE CAMERA MOUNTED.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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