US1021060A - Animated-picture apparatus. - Google Patents

Description

H. N. MARVIN.

ANIMATED PIGTURE APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED MAB.7,1904.

1,021,060. Patented Mar. 26, 1912.

Fig.1

Wifnesses: 4%,, 71M lnv'en iom To all whom it may concern to the adjacent apparatus.

V UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE. RAB-RY N. MARVIN, 0F CANASTOTA, NEW Y OBK, ASSIGNOR, BY- MIBNE ASSIGNMENTS, TO BIOGRAIH COMPANY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION J'EfBgSEY.

ANIMATED-PICTURE APP ABLLTUS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

, A Application med March 7,1904. Serial No. 196,820;

Be .it known that I, HARRY N. MARVIN, a citizen of the United States, residing at .Canastota, in the county of Madison and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Animated- Picture Apparatus, of which the following "is a specification, reference being had to the drawing accompanying and forming part of the same.

My invention relates to consecutive view apparatus of the kind in which a strip or band, bearing pictures of successive phases of an object in motion, is made to pass through the field of a projecting system, whereby the pictures, following each other in sufliciently rapid succession, produce the illusion or appearance of an ob ect 1n motion.

The picture-bearing band or strip is usually made of celluloid or similar inaterial, so as to be both transparent and flexible. Such materials, however, are highly inflammable, and it is difficult to arrest combustion once started therein. The source of light commonly used in the projectingapparatus is the electric are or a refractory happens that the picture-bearing band is 'ignited. Considerable damage to the band may result, accompanied by serious injury It is also a "source of danger when the apparatus is :used in crowded theaters or auditoriums not only from the liability of igniting nearby "objects or accessories, but also on account of the alarm. or panic which might be occasioned among the spectators by even a harmless blaze.

I have therefore been led to devise the present invention which has for its object to provide means for confining the burning of the band to a com aratively small section thereof, and to extinguish the fire when it would spread to other parts thereof. The

flectors of the optical system, is most intense at that point, and-forv the reason that the carrying and feeding dev ces are usually light so as to keep the greater part of the Patented Mar. 26,1912.

located some distance from the source of V band as far from the source of heat as possible. I posite sides of the optical 'axis for prevent ing the fire from spreading, and I illustrate herein several embodiments ,of this broad therefore provide devices on op-' idea. 'For example, I have found that by causing the band to pass through a rather closely fitting chute or guide on each side i to be carried into one of the chutes and there extinguished before the fire has had time to spread or do more than slight damage.

7 Of the invention itself, which consists of the novel features and combinations hereinafter described and more particularly pointed out in the claims, the convenient embodiment mentioned is shown in the accompanying drawing, in which Figure 1 is'a diagrammatic side view of the preferred form, and Fig. 2 a section on line 'IIII, Fig. 1.

In the apparatus shown in the drawing, 1 represents a roll of the picture-bearing band or film, 2. I

3 is a take-up roll, and 4c, 5, sprocket over which the film passes.

6 represents a rotating device for feed- 'ing the film intermittently, and 7, 8, 9, represent lenses constituting the optical projecting system of the apparatus, projecting a beam of light from a source not shown.

The nature of the feeding devices, the projecting system, and other mechanical features of the apparatus are of course immaterial to the present invention, and may be of any convenient or suitable character.

The devices for extinguishing fire in the film are shown in Fig. 1, at 10, 11. In the embjodimenthere illustrated they consist of flatfopen ended chutes or guides, preferably of-metal, through which the film or band passes. They are preferably two in num ber, arranged one on each side of the path of the projecting rays, as shown in Fig. 1. In order to provide for ready insertion of when the band is in use the rapid motion ofthe same will usually cause the ignited part I the film therein, one side, as 12, of each chute may be hinged, as'shown in the detall sectional view, Fig. 2, with any guitable device to positively hold the same in closed position, as for example, a sprin clasp 13. As before stated, the function 0 'thechute or chutes is to arrest combustion in the film. If from any cause the band should take fire, as for example, between the chutes, 10, 11, the fire will be extinguished when the same reaches, or passes into, a chute. When the band is in rapid motion the burning part would probably be drawn lnto the chute and the fire extinguished before the band is seriouslyv damaged, and in any case, as when the band is stationary, the fire will be extinguished by the chute or chutes when the same are reached, and therefore will not spread beyond the chute or chutes to other parts of the film.

The precise way in which the combustion is arrested by the tubes or chutes does not appear to be always the same. Sometimes the extinguishing appears to be caused by an action analogous to a mechanical blowing-out of the fire, as if due to a slight ex-. plosion in or at the mouth of the tube. At other times the fire appears to smolder a short distance within the tube, and then to be smothered, as if by ashes, or gaseous products of combustion. These differences may be due to difi'erences in various specimens of film used, but I have not found a film in which the combustion will not bev arrested. This result is quite unexpected, as it isunderstood that celluloid, of which the films are usually made, will, from the nature of its chemical composition, burn in a confined space, even without access of oxygen; and it is therefore probable that the action here, in extinguishing the fire, is largely mechanical. The best results have been secured with chutes or tubes about three inches long and three-sixteenths of an inch thick, arranged substantially horizontal, or parallel with the path of the projecting rays, but the size may of course be varied, as well as the precise location of the parts.

What I claim is:

ting means and illuminating means for the film, of fire extinguishing means for said film, comprising solely a casing having an open ended passageway of suificient size to same.

3. As an article of manufacture, a flame extinguisher for picture-producing films,

surrounding casing having an open-ended passageway of sufiicient size to permit the free movement of the film therethrough, but sufficiently constricted to automatically extinguish the flames of a burning film that extends into said passageway.

4. As an article of manufacture, a flameextinguisher for picture-producing films, comprising solely a fireproof film-surrounding casing having an open-ended passage way of suflicient size to permit the free movement of the film therethrough, but sufficientlyconstricted to automatically extinguish the flames of a burning film that extends into the passage way, said casing having one of its sides hinged to permit ready insertion of the film.

. HARRY N. MARVIN.

Witnesses:

H. J. COLLINS,

HOWARD F. KEELER.

permit the free passage of the film but suifi-' flames of a burning film that enters the comprising exclusively, a fire-proof film 1. The combination with film-transmit-

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