US170794A - Improvement in photographic eye-rests - Google Patents

Description

S. M. WILLIAMS. PHOTOGRAPHIYC EYE-REST.

Patented Dec. 7,1875.

N. PETERS, PHOTO-LITHQGRAPNER, WASHINGTON: D Cv UNITED STATES PATENT OFFIon SYLVESTER M. WILLIAMS, OF SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA.

IMPROVEMENT IN PHOTOGRAPHIC EYE-RESTS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 170,794, dated December '7, 1875; application filed July 13, 1875.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, SYLVESTER M. WIL- Hints, of San Francisco, San Francisco county, State of California, have invented a Photographic Eye-Rest; and I do hereby declare the following description and accompanying drawings are suflicient to enable any person skilled in the art or science to which it most nearly appertains to make and use my said invention without further invention or experiment.

Myinvention relates to a novel device for fixing the attention of a person who is sitting for a photographic or other picture, where it is necessary to look in one direction for a considerable time; and it consists of a stand or frame which has within it a moving picture or panorama. This panorama is made to pass over a limited opening, so that the sitter will have the eyes rested by a succession of new objects without being obliged to move the eyes from the spot.

Referring to the accompanying drawing for a more complete explanation of myinvention, Figure 1 is a view of my device with a part of the box removed.

In taking photographic and similar pictures one of the most difficult things to be done is to preserve a natural expression to the eyes, and this difficulty arises from'the fixed stare with which the person is obliged to look at some object while the picture is being taken. To obviate this difficulty I have conceived the idea of employing some moving object, which, being made to pass a small opening, will serve to fix the eyes sufficiently without tiring them.

In the present case I have shown a frame or flat case, A, which is mounted upon a verti- -cal staff, B, and held in place by a suitable spring, so as to be adjusted to suit the sitter. Within this case I provide a series of pietures or views, 0, which may be more or less continuous; but care should be. taken to have a good variety, so that they will not be monotonous. These views are mounted upon canvas, or otherwise placed in line, so that the whole can be made to pass around two vertical rollers, D D, as shown, one of these rollers being placed at each side of the case A. The front of the case is made open,

and provided with sliding doorE, so that a suitably-sized space can be opened at any point in front of the pictures. This is for the purpose of exposing the picture close to the camera for front views. In order to move these pictures so as to pass the aperture I have provided the spindle of one of the rollers D with a pinion, F, which is driven bya wheel,

G, ofa train of clock-work, as shown. It is intended to start the mechanism at the instant of commencing the picture, and it will be allowed to run long enough to finish the sitting. To do this I employ a lever, H,- with a pin at one end, and a spring, I, causes this pin to drop into a hole in the Wheel G. The pin is lifted from the hole by pressing a pin, J, just beneath the case, an :l thisforces the opposite end of the lever H up until the pin is released. At the same instant a lever, K, is pressed beneath the lever H, and holds it up until the slow-moving wheel G has started. A pin upon the wheel G then throws this lever K back, so as to free the lever H. The pin on the lever H will now rest against the smooth side of the wheel G, and the whole mechanism will rotate until the hole in the wheel comes around again, when the pin will drop into it and stop the machine. The tension. of the picture-belt is maintained by mounting the journals of one roller upon sliding boxes at n, and a spring, 0, serves to give sutfioient tension to insure the moving of the belt. By this or a similar construction I am enabled to provide a photographic eye-rest, which, by its motion, will relieve the eye and give a better expression to the sitter.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent,

A photographic eye-rest, as described, consisting of the box A, provided with the laterally-adjustable sliding doors, and containing an automatically-moving continuous picture, in combination with the vertically-adjusting support B, all constructed and arranged to operate substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

SYLVESTER M. WILLIAMS. Witnesses:

GEo. H. STRONG, O. M. RICHARDSON.

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