US61469A - mills - Google Patents

Description

No. 61,469. Patented Jan. 22, 1867.

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guitar! gtstzs gum @ffi ISAAC ROWELL AND FRANCIS E. M1LLs,-oF SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA. Letters PM no. 61,469, dated January 22, 1867.

Mons or Home PHOTOGRAPHS ron amnion;

To ALL WHOM IT' MAY corronnu Be it known that we, ISAAC Rowan. and Fnancrs E. MILLs, of the city and county of San Francisco, and State of California, have invented a new and improved Anthrophotoscope; and we do hereby declare thatth'e following is a full, clear. and exact descriptionthereof, which will-enable others skilled in the art'to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which Figure 1 is a longitudinal vertical section.

Figure 2, a transverse vertical section, taken inthe plane of the line a: :b, fig, 1; and

Figure 3, a detail view, to be hereinafter referred to.

Similar letters of reference indicate like parts.

The nature of our invention consists in carefully divesting the likeness of all those portions of the card, paper, or other opaque substance representing background and not essential to the image which it is desired to preserve, and substituting therefor a background placed on another plane, diverging upward from the plane of the likeness, and intersecting the latter at the feet. Should the likeness be a full-length figure, and it be desired to show a floor or other foreground forward of the feet, this foreground is placed on the same angle of inclination as the background. The effect of this arrangement is that when viewed with both eyes, particularly through a magnifying lens, the receding landscape, the approaching foreground, and the double image, corresponding to the view of the natural objects, are obtained, consequently conveyinga most vividjmpressiqn f lif To enable others skilled in the art to constructand use our invention, we will-nowfirst-describe'more-particularly our mode of preparing and arranging the pictures.

By the aid of a inicroscope,and using a. knife of a very fine, thin point, every portion of the cardfpaper, or other opaque substance, not pertaining strictly to the image to be exhibited, is carefully removed; and by inclining the point of the knife a little un'derthe picture, the edge of the card or substance will be thus slightly bevelled, and P11150111; of view from the front. If the card includes a representation of the floor of a room, that can be retained, if desired, by cutting to a line drawn transversely through the centre of the feet and bending the card at that line so as to conform to the angle-of the background, as hereinafter described. If the picture he on paper or leather, the edges should then be carefully touched with white varnish, to prevent abrasion in handling. For a single likeness, or a single stationary group, we construct a case or frame, A, (see fig. 3 of the drawings,) adapted to the size of the picture, of any of the usual forms, except, that instead of having the back B of the frame or case stand parallel to the glass face in front, 0, we slope the back outward from the bottom u so that it makes an angle of ten or twelve degrees, (more or less,) with the front 0. On this inclined back, and conforming to it, we place a background representing landscape, or any other scenery desired; and if the likeness to be mounted be full length and designed to exhibit anything forward of the'fect, the foreground is continued on the same angle of inclination as the background. The figure of the. person (prepared as before described} is then set in front of this background, the plane of the figure standing parallel with the front face of the frame or case, and diverging upward from the plane of the background. If it be a full length figure showing the feet, it is attached immediately to the background, the feet just touching the inclined plane, by inserting a wedge, cut at the proper angle, between the background and the likeness. This wedgeshould be made of cork or other light material, but may be a strip of thin metal bentinto the form of a V, so that the two sides conform to the angle of the two planes mentioned. One side of this wedge is fastened to the background, and the opposite side to the back of the likeness, with mucilage, glue, or in any other manner convenient- If the likeness to be mountedbe-a vignette, or anything short'of a full length,-no part is placed in contact with the background; but it is held in its position in front of the background by slipping the lower edge into a narrow ground or slit out in the bottom of the frame or case forward of the inclined back, and parallel with the glass front. To obtain the properefi'ect of this arrangement, the picture should be viewed through a large magnifying glass of long focus, (minute fractions of an inch being converted into apparent distances.) But the greatest value and beauty of the principle consists in the ability to vary the grouping of the figures, and change the scenery'und surroundings of the picture with lifelike eflect. There being no surplus paper of the card or other substance intervening to obstruct the view, we are able to efi'ect this result at will, in the following manner: A variety of landscape views, or other scenery, is arranged around the marginal portion of a large, flat wheel, 0', of,'say t fe t in di eter, that part of the wheel being bevelled or sloped back, so as to form an angleof ten or twelve degrees with the general face of the wheel, this bevelled space being, say, four inches wide from the periphery toward the centre; This wheel 0 is placed on a horizontal axle. Close in front of this bevelled wheel another thin wheel,

' say, eight inches less diameter than the first, it placed, but revolving independently around the same axis, the

periphery of the smaller wheel just reaching the bevelled portion of the larger; In front of this, again, other 11in wheels, all parallel to the first, are placed, revolving independently of each other, but around the sameeommon axis each wheel in succession being so much smaller than the one behind it, that a line touching their peripheries would make nearly the same angle with the vertical face of the wheel as the plane of the background on the larger wheel. In the edges or peripheries of these small thin wheels narrow grooves or slits are cut, vertical and parallel to the sides of the wheel, for slipping in and holding the vignette likeness. This being the mechanical arrangement, the full-length pictures are attached immediately to the inclined background on the large wheel, (being held divergent to its plane by means of the wedge-shaped device before described,) and the vignettes are held in their positions diverging from the background by slipping the lower edge into the vertical grooves formed in the edges of the smaller wheels, the relative position and angles of background and likeness being the same as that described for the stationary pictures. These wheels being suspended inside a box, we place a large magnifying lens, F, of, say, four inches diameter and twelve or fourteen inch focal distance, or thereabouts,.in the front side of the box, opposite that point where thefigurcs become upright in revolving. The light may be admitted through an opening in the top or sides of the box, and should be subdued'by passing through a tinted glass. A movement of either wheel brings difi'erent figures in juxtaposition, and amoveineut of the large wheel backs the picture with a diiierent landscape. To exhibit the most beautiful efi'ects from this mode of arrangev ment, there should be several of the smaller wheels, graduated down as we approach the front in the proportion before indicated.

What we claim as our invention, and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is-- 1. Arranging or mounting photographic likenesses on a plane divergent from the plane of the background and foreground, substantially as and for the purposes herein set forth.

2. The picture frame or case A, with the sloping back forholding the background and likeness on separate and divergent planes, substantially as and for the purpose described.

8.. The combination of parallel wheels, revolving independently around the same axis, for the purpose of changing the grouping and scenery of the picture and bringing difi'erent figures in juxtaposition successively,

substantially as set forth.

I. HOWELL,

FRANCIS E. MILLS.

Witnesses:

Wu. .Hnsnssn, F. N. Baovm.

Images