US899543A

US899543A - Kinetoscope.

Info

Publication number: US899543A
Application number: US40628207A
Authority: US
Inventors: George A Knaak
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1907-12-13
Filing date: 1907-12-13
Publication date: 1908-09-29
Anticipated expiration: 1925-09-29

Description

G. A. KNAAK.

KINETOSGOPE.

APPLIUATION FILED DE0.13,1907.

899,543, Patenten` Sept. 29, 1908.

3 SHEETS-SHEET l.

G. A. KNAAK.

KINETOSOOPB.

I APPLICATION FILED [)}C.13,1907. 899,543, Patented Sept. 29, 1908.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

G. A. KNAAK.

KINETOSGOPE.

APPLICATION FILED DEG.13,1907.

899,514.3. Patented Sept. 29, 1908,

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3` ,.U... nac.

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GEORGE A. KNAAK, OF OSHKOSI-I, WISCONSIN.

KINETOSCOPE.

Specification oi Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 29, 1908.

Application filed December 13, 1907. Serial No. 406,282.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE A. KNAAK, a citizen of the United States, and resident of Oshkosh, in the county of Winnebago and State of Wisconsin, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Kinetoscopes 3 and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof.

The object of my invention is to provide simple and effective film-feeding mechanism for kinetoscopes, the construction and arrangement being such that the film is intermittently fed past the light-apertures of a machine at accurate intervals of time, and without overthrow or vibration commonly resulting from the mechanisms now eniployed for feeding purposes.

The peculiar construction of the feedmechanism renders the employment of a large diameter master sprocket-drum possible and the apertured film, which partially encircles the same, is thereby engaged by a greater number of teeth than would otherwise occur on a smaller drum, thus more firmly and accurately holding the film against lateral play or overthrow incidental to the film being loosely fed from a loop. The said construction also materially reduces the wear of the mechanism and Jdlm to a minimum.

The invention therefore consists in various structural features and combinations of parts as hereinafter described with reference to the accompanying drawings and subsequently claimed.

In the drawings: Figure 1 represents a sectional elevation of a portion of a kinetoscope embodying the features of my invention, the section being indicated by line 1&1 of Fig. 2 Fig. 2, a cross-section of the same as indicated by line 2-2 of Fig. 1; Fig. 3, a detail section on line 3 3 of Fig. 2, illustrating the intermittent driving-gear; Fig. 4, a 'fragmentary view of the frame showing a wear adjusting mechanism for the intermittent driving-gear Fig. 5, a sectional view of same, as indicated by line 55 of Fig. 4 Fig. 6, an elevation of the frame looking towards the drive-side, showing the gear-train for transmitting the feed from the main drive-wheel, said gear-train being indicated by dotted lines, the shaft being in section; Fig. 7, a detail sectional view of the upper sprocket-drum and guide-roller which draws the film directly from the reel, the section being indicated by line 7 7 of Fig. 1 Fig.

8, a face view of an apertured plate, behind which the film passes, the plate being illustrated in connection with a portion of the frame to which it is hinged, with a fragment of said film in position thereunder, and Fig. 9, a face view of an apertured backing-plate, between which and the first named plate the film passes.

Referring by letter to the drawings, A indicates a feed-mechanism supporting-frame of a kinetoscope provided with the usual apertured backing-plate B and a hinged clamping-plate O, which plate is coincidently apertured with the first named plate and is secured at its free side to the frame by a clamping-screw c, as shown in Fig. S of the drawings. 'lhe backing-plate B is provided with a pair of longitudinal guide-rails b, which eX- tend slightly above its upper edge and are disposed at either side of the aperture in said plate. The picture-film D passes over these rails and is held in friction-contact therewith by a pair of clamping-strips c which are connected to the clamping plate C and each other, by means of cross-braces d, the shanks of the braces being bent at right-angles thereto and are passed through openings in the plate above and below` its aperture. A pair of leaf-springs are centrally secured to the inner face of the clamping-plates and are alined with the clamping-strips, their free ends being arranged to eXert pressure upon said clamping-strips, by means of which pressure sufficient drag or tension is placed upon the film to prevent buckling or slack as the same is fed between the plates. The upper ends of the strips and rails terminate in oppositely disposed fiares to provide an unobstructed smooth throat for the entrance of the film, which film is also guided at its edges b i disks d that are revolubly mounted upon a rod secured in ears of the clamping-plate.

The picture-film D passes from a reel (not shown) under a small sprocketdrum F, which drum serves as a feeder from thercel, the hlm being held thereto by a spring-controlled roller G. Said film is then forwardly looped upon itself and thereafter passes downward between the rails and clampingstrips of the plates, from which point it passes to a master sprocket-drum H. The film is held in contact with the driving faces of the sprocket-drum for approximately a quarter of its circumference or more, by means of the clamping-strips, which strips extend downward for this purpose and are provided with slots e to permit passage of the drum-teeth. The hlm upon leaving the master drum H is bent into a rearward loop which loop tends to press the film about said drum. The film then passes over a lower sprocket-drum l similar in size to the sprocket-drum F, said film being also held tothe lower drum by a spring-controlled roller J, from which roller it is free to fall orbe taken care of as desired. The master sprocket-drum H, which is approximately twice the diameter of the upper and lower drums F, I, consists of a pair of sprocket-wheels spaced apart and connected by a hub f in such manner that the teeth thereon will mesh with apertures g in the edges of the film as is usual in machines of this class. Both of the smaller sprocketdrums are similar in construction to the master drum, being provided with teeth which engage the apertured edges of the film. The upper sprocket-drum F is fast on a driven stud K that is mounted in a bearing h of the frame at the drive-side thereof, while the lower drum l is secured to the main driveshaft L, which shaft is revoluble in bearings of said frame at either side, both of said sprocket-drums being positively driven at the same speed through gear-trains to be described hereinafter. The hub f of the master sprocket-drum H is loosely mounted upon an arbor M, which arbor is h Xed in bosses i, t" of the frame, said hub being extended to one side of the drum and provided with a pair of.

three-toothed tappet-wheels N, N, upon different vertical planes and having their prongs staggered with relation to each other. The tappet-wheels are arranged to-be actuated by semi-circular shoes O, O', fast on a constantly driven counter-shaft l), the faces of the tappet-wheel teeth being struck upon the same radii as the shoes, in such manner, that while one of said shoes is describing approximately a half revolution and disengaged from its corresponding tappet the other shoe is nested upon the face of the tappet-wheel teeth upon which it operates and thereby holds the sprocket-drum against rotation until such time as the opposite shoe engages a tooth of.

its tappet-wheel, which tooth is held in the path of said shoe up to this time.

By the above described drive-mechanisms, it will be seen that with each half revolution of the counter-shaft the master sprocketdrum is rotated one-sixth of a revolution, thus producing a positively locked delaymovement of said drum sufficient to expose a picture at the proper interval of time over the light-aperture of the machine, overthrow being impossible provided a perfect fit between the shoes and the faces of the tappet-wheel teeth is attained. In order to accomplish this fit one end of the counter-shaft Pis mounted in the frame by means of an eccentric sleeve Q having a hand-lever R projecting therefrom whereby the sleeve may be partly rotated so as to draw the shoes in perfectly Jiitting position relative to the curved faces of the tappet-wheel teeth, the lever being thereafter locked by means of a thumb-nut j which is in threaded-connection with any one of a series of perforations k provided for this purpose in a radial arm of the frame. The thumb-nut passes through a slotted wing m of the hand-lever, which wing constitutes a supplementary adjusting means in connection with the fixed adjustment of said thumb-nut in any one of the perforations. The bearing in the frame for the countershaft, opposite the eccentric is flared slightly so that said shaft will not bind therein when rocked slightly by the eccentric at its opposite end.

Lateral vibration or play of the master sprocket-drum is taken up by a coil-spring n which encircles a thimble 0 loosely mounted upon the arbor M, the spring being interposed between the base fi and a collar of the thimble, which collar is thereby forced against the adjacent end of the sprocket-drum hub f, the spring-tension exerting pressure to hold the opposite end of said drum-hub against the face of the boss i of the frame.

Motion is imparted to the machine by a main driving gear-wheel 1, that is loosely mounted upon the end of the fixed arbor lll, and has projecting from its hub a handcrank S, as shown in Fig. 2. This gearwheel meshes with an idle gear-wheel 2, that in turn drives a gear-wheel 3 fast on the driving-stud K of the upper sprocket-drum F, by means of which said drum is rotated. The main driving gear-wheel l also meshes with a small gear-wheel 4 fast on the main drive-shaft L, there being a similar gearwheel 5 secured to the opposite end of said main drive-shaft which meshes with a gearwheel 7 loosely mounted upon an adjacent end of the fixed arbor M, and is provided for transmitting motion to the counter-shaft P through a gear-wheel 8 secured thereto, the said counter-shaft being also provided with a fly-wheel 9, as shown.

From the foregoing described combination of gearing properly proportioned with relation to each other, it will be seen that the upper and lower slack loops of the film will remain constant and be taken care of by the respective sprocket drums. The master sprocket-drum in consequence has only to exert sufficient strain on the film to feed the same downward between the plates from one loop to the other at properly timed intervals, the said master-drum being of such large proportion that a sufHcient number of its teeth engage the apertures in the lm so as to distribute the pulling strain thereon over a larger area in such a manner that the film is not liable to be damaged, which would be the case if the feeding was dependent on a few teeth, the intermittent driving-gear at the same time insuring perfectly timed 1novements of said ilm without vibration or overthrow.

I claim:

l. In a kinetoscope, a film-feed mechanism comprising a sprocket-drum, a drivenshaft parallel to the drum, a pair of oppositely disposed semi-circular shoes secured to the shaft and oiset with relation to each other, and a tappet-wheel for each shoe carried by the sprocket-drum, the teeth of one tappet-wheel being staggered with relation to the teeth of the other tappet-wheel and the working-faces of the teeth of both wheels shaped to conform to and engage with the semi-circular portions of the shoes.

2. In a kinetoscope, a film-feed mechanism comprising a sprocket-drum, a driven: shaft parallel to the drum, a pair of oppositely disposed semi-circular shoes secured to the driven shaft and offset with relation to each other, a tappet-wheel for each shoe carried by the sprocket-drum, the teeth of one tappetwheel being staggered with relation to the teeth of the other tappet-wheel and the working-faces of the teeth of both wheels shaped to conform to and engage with the semicircular portions of the shoes, and means in connection with the driven-shaft for adjusting said shoes with relation. to said tappetavheels.

3. ln a kinetoscope film-feed, a film-tension mechanism, constantly driven film-feed sprockets above and below the tension mechanism, and a fixed arbor intermediate of the lower film-feed sprocket and said tension device, a sprocket-drum loosely mounted upon the arbor tappet-wheels carried by the drum, a drive-shaft disposed parallel to the fixed arbor, and actuating-shoes for the tappetwheels carried by the drive-shaft.

4. ln a kinetoscope film-feed, a iilm-tension mechanism, film-driving sprockets above and below the tension-mechanism, and a film-feed sprocket-drum located intermediate of said tension-mechanism and lower film-driving sprocket, tappet-wheels carried by the 'film-feed sprocket-drum, a driveshaft disposed parallel to the sprocket-drum aXis, actuating shoes for the tappet-wheels carried by the drive-shaft, and a crank in gear-train connection with the drive-shaft and sprockets above and below the aforesaid tension-mechanism.

ln testimony that l claim the Jforegoing l have hereunto set my hand at Oshkosh in the county of Vinnebago and State of illisconsin in the presence of two witnesses.

GEORGE A. KNAAK.

Witnesses GEORGIA C. FREEBORN, CLAUDE A. FLEMING.