US1216440A - Photographic developing apparatus. - Google Patents

Description

J. S. GREENE.

PHOTOGRAPH-l6 DEVELOPING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT-3,1915.

1 ,21 6,440. Patented Feb. 20, 1917.

3 SHEETS-SHEET I.

WITNESSES: IN l/E/VTOR his ATTORNEYS Jizzz frame/w: R W W J. S. GREENE.

PHOTOGRAPHIC DEVELOPING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION man SEPT-3.19m.

1,216,440. Patented Feb.20,1917.

3 SHEETS- SHEET 2.

WITNESSES: MI VE N TOR W a (757/212 5. area/2e 70119 ATTORNEYS J. S. GREENE.

PHOTOGRAPHIC DEVELOPING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT-3,19%.

1,216,440. Patented Feb.20,1917.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

INI/ENTOR Ta7m/ S. area/26 WWW m y 7221's A TTOR/VE rs UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN S. GREENE, OF ROCHESTER, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR T0 COMMERCIAL CAMERA COMPANY, OF ROCHESTER, NEW YORK, A CORPORATION OF RHODE ISLAND.

PHOTOGRAPI-IIC DEVELOPING APPARATUS.

Application filed September 3, 1915.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN S. GREENE, of Rochester, in the county of Monroe and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Photographic Developing Apparatus; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this application, and to the reference-numerals marked thereon.

My present invention relates to photography and more particularly to developing apparatus such as is used in combined photographic and developing machines where a continuous web of paper or other sensitized material is exposed, severed into separate sheets and developed before being withdrawn from the machine as a practically continuous operation. The sheet or web is fed from the exposing chamber into the developing liquid and an object of the present invention is to facilitate the manipulation of the sheet and insure proper positioning thereof in the developing liquid. The invention contemplates the provision of a simple and accessible mechanism that will both properly submerge the sheet and agitate the liquid during development and will further provide for rendering the sheet accessible to the hands of the operator when it is chamber;

time to withdraw it. To these and other ends the invention resides in certain improvements and combinations of parts all as will be hereinafter more fully described, the novel features being pointed out in the claims at the end of the specification.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a side elevation of a photographic exposing and developing machine constructed in accordance with and illustrating one embodiment of my invention;

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the developing container and its fittings;

Fig. 3 is a longitudinal, central vertical section of a portion of the machine, enlarged, showing the roll holding chamber, the exposing chamber and the developing Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 20, 1917.

Serial No. 48,763.

Fig. 4 is a transverse section through the developing chamber taken substantially on the line 4-1 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 5 is a longitudinal section through the developing container showing the tray in normal position;

Fig. 6 is a similar view with the tray in position to discharge the sheet, and

Fig. 7 is a transverse section through the container taken substantially on the line 7 -7 of Fig. 5. 7

Similar reference numerals throughout the several figures indicate the same parts.

I have illustrated my invention in connec tion with a commercial camera adapted to take successive pictures on a continuous sensitized web of paper. Referring more particularly to Figs. 1 and 3, 1 indicates the camera body; 2 the bellows and 3 the front, the latter carrying a lens tube 4. Within the body 1 at the rear of the bellows is an exposure chamber 5. Partitions 6 and 7 forming the rear wall of the exposure chamber define the focal plane of the camera and held against this wall to be fed downwardly across the same is the continuous web of sensitized paper 8 which is drawn from a roll 9 in a storage chamber 10 by feed rollers 11 between which it passes to issue at 12 into the developing chamber 13. A knife 14 operated by a gear 15 on a shaft 16 fitted with a handle 17 on the exterior of the machine intersects the passage 12 below the rollers 11 and severs the exposed portion of the strip 8 into sheets of suitable sizes. The present machine is equipped to expose either a long area of the strip or web 8 down the entire extent of the walls 6-7 or a short area corresponding to the extent of the partition member 7 and about half as long as the first mentioned exposure. For the smaller pic ture, the upper portion of that part of the strip which is in the focal plane is masked by a suitable shutter 18 and accordingly as half or the entire field is exposed, the web is fed into the developing chamber 13 a short or a long distance and is cut into correspondingly short or long sheets. a

In the practice of the present invention, I

provide the developing chamber 13 with a preferably removable tank or container 19 one end of which is arranged below the passage 12 to receive the exposed end of the web 8 and in order to direct the advancing edge of the sheet toward the center of the container, the said end is preferably provided with suitable inclined guides 20 spaced from each other across the width of the tank. Alternating with these guides are a. plurality of preferably flexible fingers 21 mounted upon a. bridge piece 22 having a trend in the same direction as the guide and spaced therefrom and from the bottom of the container. Because of the manner in which the web leaves the roll 9, the tendency of its free end to curl is in an upward direction and the function of the fingers 21 is to overcome this curling action and to submerge the sheet as it proceeds into the tank. As soon as it becomes saturated with the developing solution that the tank is designed to hold, this curling action on the part of the .web is overcome so that the fingers 21 need not extend for any great distance.

The ability on the part of the feed rollers 11 to thrust the exposed sheet any considerable distance into the container is not constant and as soon as the exposed portion is severed from the web, the rollers no longer exercise any control over it. The result is that the rear end of the sheet protrud s and means must be provided to draw it down to a flat position in the container. To these ends, I provide in the present instance two transverse shafts 23 and 24 that span the container. Both are carried by a displaceable cover portion 24 that lies over the rear end of the container 19 and is hinged at 25 to the camera casing 1 so that access may be had to the container by lifting the cover. The shaft 23 is journaled in brackets 31 on the sides of the latter over the rear of the container while the shaft 24 is carried on extension arms 26 which position it at the forward end of the pan beneath the cutting mechanism and above the fingers 21. Both shafts are provided with hubs 27 and 28 carrying flexible paddle blades or arms 29 and 30 that are adapted to brush the bottom of the container when the shafts are rotated. I prefer at present to make these arms of thick sheet rubber and the arms 30 on the forward shaft are arranged to alternate with the fingers 21.

The two shafts are synchronously driven by asprocket chain 32 running over sprockets 33 and 34 fixed to the shafts and also over a sprocket 35 on a drive shaft 36 journaled in the sides of the cover 24 and terminating in a crank handle 37 on the exterior of the latter. As they rotate, the blades 29 and 30 revolve and intermittently engage the surface of the sheet that has been partially introduced into the container and by such frictional surface contact, impel it rearwardly until it occupies a central position in the container. The blades also insure the submergence of the sheet and have the further function of stirring up the developing'solution so that it is kept in. circulation and acts evenly on the sensitive medium. The extreme forward position of the shaft 24 and its blades is calculated to insure enga gement with the shorter sheets previously described which are passed on to the blades 29 that finally deliver them at the rear.

It will be observed that the web is turned over or faced downward as it enters the developing chamber 13 so that the rear face of the paper or other sensitized support is presented to the blades and not the coated side.

In order to prevent the blades from splashing the developing agent over the rear of the container, I provide a curved shield 38 similar to a paddle box to inclose the blades 29 which shield is pivoted to the shaft 23 by arms 39 and has yoke links 40 straddling the drive shaft 36 to limit and define the lowered position of the shield. The shield may be raised to the position shown in dotted lines in Fig. 3 to gain access to the container.

After development, which takes place in the dark chamber 13, the sheets are trans ferred by hand for further treatment into another rearwardly arranged container 41 over an apron 42 projecting from the rear of container 19 by raising a door 43 in, the cover 24 hinged at 44. In order to facilitate this operation. I provide a tray 46 that normally lies within the container 19 close against the bottom thereof as best shown in Figs. 5, 6 and 7 and also in Fig. 2. At its forward end the tray is hung from the walls of the container by a pivoted link connection 47 operating between stops 48 and 49, while the horizontal handle portion 50 projeets rearwardly from the opposite end to the exterior of the apparatus as shown in Fig. 3. The front edge of the tray underlies the guides 20 so that the severed sheet indicated at 8 in Figs. 5, 6 and 7 is delivered onto it instead of lying against the bottom of the container itself. When it is desired to remove the sheet, the tray is swung on the link 47 to the position shown in Fig. 6 with its rear end raised and resting on the corresponding edge of the container. This movement also raises the door 43 a. short distance and the advanced edge of the sheet 8 becomes accessible to the operators fingers for withdrawing it into container 41 with a rapid movement that allows very little light to enter the developing chamber 13. The bottom of the tray is preferably provided with ribs 51 at points where they will op pose the contact of the blades 29-30 and prevent the sheet from sticking to the bottom of the tray.

It will be observed that all of the feeding mechanism including the blades is carried by the cover 24: and is swung completely out of the way wnen the cover is raised making the whole developing chamber 13 and the container 19 readily accessible.

I claim as my invention:

1. In a photographic developing machine, the combination with a liquid container adapted to receive the exposed sheets, of a rotary device adapted to intermittently engage the sheets in the container and advance them through the container and to also act as an agitator for the liquid.

2. In a photographic developing machine, the combination with a liquid container adapted to receive the exposed sheets, of a rotary device having flexible arms adapted to intermittently engage the sheets in the container and advance them through the container and to project below the level of the liquid in the container.

3. In a photographic developing machine, the combination with a container adapted to receive the exposed sheets, of a flexible arm arranged to engage the sheets below the level of liquid in the container and advance them through the container by surface contact and means for operating the arm.

4. In a photographic developing machine, the combination with a container adapted to receive the exposed sheets, of a flexible, movable arm traveling in a path enabling it to brush the bottom of the container and adapted to advance the sheets through the latter by surface contact.

5. In a photographic developing machine, the combination with a container adapted to receive the exposed sheets and means for introducing the latter edgewise therein at one end, of a flexible arm arranged to engage the sheets and advance them through the container toward the other end by surface contact and means for operating the arm. a.

6. In a photographic developing machine, the combination with a covered container adapted to receive the exposed sheets and means for introducing the latter edgewise therein at one end, the container being accessible to the operator at the other end, of a flexible arm arranged to engage the sheets and advance them through the container from one end to the other by surface contact, and means for operating the arm.

7. In a photographic developing machine, the combination with a container adapted to receive the exposed sheets, acasing covering the same and means for introducing the sheets edgewise into the container at one end, the latter being accessible through the casing at the other end, of a shaft spanning the container, a hub thereon, rubber blades secured to the hub adapted to engage the a sheets and advance them through the container from one end to the other by surface contact and means on the exterior of the casing for turning the shaft to operate the blades.

8. In a photographic developing machine, the combination witha container adapted to receive the exposed sheets, a casing covering the same and having a displaceable portion and means for introducing the sheets into the container at one end, the latter being accessible through the'casing at the other end, of a revolving flexible arm mounted upon the displaceable portion of the casing to engage the sheets and advance them through the container from one end toward the other by surface contact and means on the exterior of the said portion for revolving the arm.

9. In a photographic developing machine, the combination with a container adapted to receive the exposed sheets, a casing covering the same and having a displaceable portion at one end of the container, and means for introducing the sheets into the container at the other end, the container being accessible through the displaceable portion of the casing, of a revolving flexible arm mounted upon the displaceable portion of the casing to engage the sheets at one end of the container and advance them toward the other by surface contact, an extension on Said portion, another similar flexible member revolubly carried by the extension to engage the sheets at the other end of the container, driving connections between the two arms and means on the exterior of the said por tion of the casing for revolving one of the arms and, through it, the other.

10. In a photographic developing machine, the combination with a container adapted to receive the exposed sheets, and provided with fingers forming submerging guides at one end and means for introducing the sheets at said end of the container beneath the guides, of a rotary element spanning the container and a plurality of flexible arms carried thereby to alternate with and pass between the guide fingers and adapted to engage the sheets and advance them toward the other end of the container.

11. In a photographic developing machine, the combination with a covered container adapted to receive the exposed sheets,

of a tray within the container and means for conducting the sheets into the tray from one end of the container, said container be ing accessible through the cover at the other end, the tray being pivotally connected to the container at the first mentioned end to permit it to be raised at the other end to bring the sheets over the edge of the container.

12. In a photographic developing machine, the combination with a covered container adapted to receive the exposed sheets, of the latter to permit it to be raised at the of a tray within the container, means for other end and brought over the edge of the conducting the sheets into the tray from one contzuner.

end of the container, the latter being ac- JOHN S. GREENE. cessible through its cover at the other end Witnesses:

and a pivoted link connection between the RUSSELL B. GRIFFITH,

tray and container at the first mentioned end AGNES NESBITT BIssELL.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patent Washington, D. G.

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