US2478980A - Photographic projecting, enlarging, copying, and contact printing device - Google Patents

Description

v. E. PRATT ET AL 2,473,980

PHOTOGRAPHIC PROJECTING, ENLARGING, COPYING,

AND CONTACT PRINTING DEVICE Flled July 29, 1944 3 Sheets-Sheet l W 37 [:i a 1 y z II 93 65. 75 205 l l 202 ll E i; l 1'l ill Hi! l; [IL/ l I 11 I" I all 1 I 1/ ii IN V EN TOR.

E. PRATT BY GEORGE F. GRAY 207 WM' M A 7'TOR/VEYS.

Aug. 16, 1949. v. E. PRATT ETAL PHOTOGRAPHIC PROJECTING, ENLARGING, COPYING,

AND CONTACT PRINTING DEVICE 3 Sheets-Sneet 2 Filed July 29. 1944 IN V EN TOR. VERA/E UR E. PRA T 7' .lwifi 3 W 1 v y I 4 w MM| m nhlllfl llll W 7 -w w w /W m 7 M -l u M Q H #1 a. 1/ a y A 2 4 a w By GEORGE E GRAY ATTORNEYS Aug. 16, 1949. v. E. PRATT ETAL PHOTOGRAPHIC PROJECTlNtL ENLARGENd, COPYING. AND CONTACT PRINTINu DEVICE 3 Sheets--Snevt 3 Filed July 29, 1944 v INVENTOR. VERA/EUR E. PRATT Y GEORGEF GRAY Patented Aug. 16, 1949 PHOTOGRAPHIC PROJECTING, ENLABGING,

COPYING, AND CONTACT PRINTING na- VICE Verneur E. Pratt and George F. Gray, Norwalk, Conn.

Application July 29, 1944, Serial N0. 547,131

7 Claims. 1

This invention relates to combination photographic projector, enlarger, flow camera and contact printer and more particularly to modifications in the combined camera and printer described in the co-pending application for U. S. Letters Patent Serial Number 507,939, filed October 28, 1943, now U. S. Patent No. 2,435,099, dated January 27, 1948, of which the instant application is a continuation in part.

The objects of the invention are:

To provide means where the aforesaid cameraprinter can be used as a flow enlarger;

To provide means where the aforesaid cameraprinter can be used as a projector or flow printer;

To provide an improved device of the character described in which a transparent drum supports a film as it passes across the field of view of a lens;

Other objects and advantages will be more fully apparent from the following specification, wherein is described a device of the type described in the aforesaid co-pending application to which has been added the necessary parts to enable enlarging and projecting to be accomplished.

In the accompanying drawings:

Figure 1 is a vertical longitudinal view on the line i--l of Figure 3 and partly in section of a device of the character described embodying the invention;

Figure 2 is a top view partly in section of the device shown in Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a transverse sectional view on the line 3-3 of Figure 1 and partly in section of the device shown in Figure 1; and

Figure 4 is a vertical longitudinal view of a feeding mechanism that may be used with the apparatus shown in Figures 1 to 3 inclusive.

Referring to Figure 1, the enlarger or projector unit has a suitable framework including the front 3|, the base 32, a rear plate 36, and suitable connecting members forming a frame. The front, base, and their connecting members (not shown) are secured together in any suitable manner to form a unit structure.

Referring to Figure 3, a longitudinal vertical mounting plate 31 extends from the front 3| to the rear plate 36 and may be secured to these plates and to the base 32. This plate divides the unit into two compartments indicated at 38, 39 in Figure 3. The compartment 38 contains the driving and clutch control mechanism for operating the camera, and compartment 39 contains the film reels, drive and guide rollers, film drums and lens mounting. Covers 40, 4! are hinged at 42 to the mounting plate 31 (or attached to the unit in any suitable manner) and extend over and close the compartments 38, 33 as shown in Figure 3, and these covers can be made sufllciently close fitting to prevent the entrance of light to either or both the compartments 3!, 39.

The driving mechanism for the projector comprises a suitable motor 43 mounted on bracket 44, secured to plate 31 or base 32. This motor may have a built-in gear reducer if desired. Such a gear reducer usually employs worms and can be made free from back lash. The motor is preferably a synchronous motor.

The motor is provided with a driving pulley 48 over which the belt 46 passes to the driven pulley 41 on shaft 5| supported in bearing 49 in the bracket 50 secured to the base 32 and plate 31 as shown in Figure 3.

Shaft 51 has secured to its inner end, the driving member 52 of a. clutch having a plurality of teeth 53 on its engaging face. The laterally movable driven member 54 of the clutch also has teeth 55 on its engaging face and is urged to the left, Figure 3, by a compressed spring 56 carried on a shaft 51, the clutch end of which is splined to slidably support the member 54 to be rotatably driven thereby.

The clutch construction here shown is merely by way of illustration, and any suitable clutching mechanism may be employed.

The shaft 51 extends through the plate 31 and is supported in a suitable bearing 58 therein and carries on its outer end in the compartment 39,

I the film drive roller 59.

A suitable electrically operated clutch operating device such as the solenoid 60 has a plunger core 6| having a pin 82 engaging the arm 62 supported on the bracket 63 mounted on plate 31. This arm has a forked end 62 which rests on the outer flange of the driven member 54 of the clutch which is thereby held out of engagement (against the urge of spring 56) with the driven member 52 when the core 6| of the solenoid is in the position shown in Figure 3, the solenoid being energized. The arm 62 is connected at its lower end to the tension spring 64 so that when the clutch members 52, 54 are brought into engagement by spring 53, which occurs when the solenoid is deenergized, the core 6| via pin 62 is pulled outwardly by arm 52 and spring 64 so as to be in position for re-operation. The belts 54 54 drive the usual take-up pulleys on the film take-up reels (not shown).

The mechanism in compartment 39 as shown in Figure 1 comprises the film drive roller 59 and a plurality of film guide rollers 65, 6B, 61, and the aa'zaeeo I tained unit or sub-assembly which may be in the film engaging the circumferential rim thereof.

These guide rollers and the drum-are mounted on stub shafts extending from the plate 31, the rollers 65, 66, 61 and drum 200 being freely rotatable.

Film reel supports 00, I0, II, 12 are provided for the reception of the usual film reels 14, I5, and the film 13 to be projected may be taken from reel 14, passed over the guide roller 61, which has a spring (not shown) urging it in the direction of the arrow 01 around drive roller 59, drum 200, roller 65, roller 66 (which is spring-pressed like 61) and finally wound up on reel I5. The latter reel may, by its supporting shaft I or in any other suitable manner, be driven in the usual manner to take up film as it is unwound from reel 14.

The mechanism just described is merely illustrative; any suitable mechanism may be employed to unwind the film continuously past the lens.

The lens tube I0 is slidably mounted on the base 32 so as to be easily removable from the compartment 39 and contains a suitable lens adapted to project an image on the film 13 where same passes a slot I'I in the upper end of the lens tube downwardly through the opening I00 and tunnel 98.

The light tunnel, as shown, is positioned above the sheet 20! of sensitized paper, or forming a screen, and the rectangular tunnel extends across said sheet the full width of the platen. For example, if the machine is designed to handle paper 8 inches wide, the tunnel will extend across the 8 inch dimension. l The upper end of the tunnel 988 terminates directly below the lens tube I6 as shown in Figure 1 so that the image produced by this will cover the surface I I6 of the sheet 20I. An aperture I00 is provided in the base 32 of the unit to permit light to pass therethrough.

To provide illumination for the film, a suitable lamp house 202 may be mounted on the base 32 in any suitable manner as shown in Figure 3 and contains the lamp 203. The lamp house has a tubular lens mounting 204 in which is mounted the usual condensing lens system 205. Secured to and supported by the'lens mounting 204 is a prism, or other suitable device, 206, located within the drum 200 at least the rim of which is transparent. This drum is of accurate diameter to 1 the lens in tube and continues downward in the direction of the arrow 201, Figure 1.

The platen unit shown in Figure 4 is mounted immediately under the projector unit previously described. This unit has a framework similar to the camera unit. Side plates of the platen unit are shown at I04. These side plates are suitably spaced apart by tie rods I05, and between these side plates the platen mechanism is mounted.

The mechanism shown in Figure 3 forms a complete self-contained unit or sub-assembly which may be in the form of a drawer as more fully described in the aforesaid copending application and is, therefore, removable from its supporting framework or cabinet without disassembling the parts mounted therein. The mechanism shown inFigure4mayalsoformacompleteself-conform of a drawer, as more fully described in the aforesaid copending application and is, therefore, removable from its supporting framework or cabinet without disassembling the parts mounted therein.

This mechanism comprises the driving motor I06 which through belt I08 drives the pulley I09, the shaft of which carries a plurality of suitable pulleys on which there are a plurality of endless belts IIO which pass over a pulley III at the outer end of the unit. Individual take-up pulleys II2 spring-pressed downward at I I3 may be used to take up the slack in each belt IIO so as to keep it tight and fiat across the guide rollers H4, H5 so that the upper surfaces of the belts below the field of view of the lens at the point II6 will form a rigid traveling support for the sheet 20I to receive the image from the film.

Lamps 91 are suitably supported above the platen mechanism to illuminate the space IIE below the light tunnel 98.

When the device is used as a flow camera, copy flowing across said space, due to the action of the platen mechanism previously described, will be illuminated by said lamps.

When the device is used as a contact printer, as previously described, and motor I00 is not in operation, and a piece of white paper or the like is laid on the platen mechanism to form a reflecting surface at II6, light from the lamps 91 wlil be reflected from said surface and up the light tunnel 9B and through the films on drum 200.

At the forward end of this unit there are a plurality of idler belts I I1 passing over the pulleys H8, H9 and I20, the two forward pulleys II8, I I9 are mounted in a sub-frame I2I which swings around the axis of the pulley I20 as shown in dotted lines, Figure 4. The belts II! are in frictional contact with the belts H0 and are driven thereby so that a sheet or web of paper 20I fed into the front of the platen unit will be grasped by the belts H0 and II! and carried across the space II6 below the light tunnel 98. As the sheet continues to travel to the right, Figure 11, it will be grasped by idler belts I22 carried by the pulleys I23, I24, I25 and I26. Belts I22 are in frictional contact with the belts H0 and the paper 20I will therefore be grasped by belts II 0 and I22 and carried around the drive pulley I09 between the belts H0 and I22 and emerge at the point I21, and drop into the storage compartment I20 located below the unit. The paper may be wound on a spool.

The paper 20I may be any suitable type of photographic paper, or other material adapted to receive a photographic image and the emergent beam from tunnel 98 impinges upon this paper at H6.

The synchronizing of the film feed in the camera-unit, and the feed for the paper 20I is not described in detail, as any suitable control mechanism such as that described in the aforesaid copending application may be used. Also, details of the construction of the mounting, framework and electrical connections are given in said copending application and are therefore not described here in detail, as these may be of any desired type. I

The foregoing describes the device when used as a projector wherein an image on film I3 is projected downwardly to the platen at the point I I0. If a sensitized medium. such as a sheet of photographic paper 20I is fed across the field of view operating the platen mechanism can be stopped.

If it is desired to use the device as a flow camera to photograph images of copy, such as documents or the like, fed across the point or space H6 in the focal plane of the lens by the operation of the platen mechanism, unexposed film is used at 13 and lamp 203 is extinguished. The copy on the moving belts of the platen mechanism is illuminated in any suitable manner, such as by lamps 91, and an image of the copy is impressed on the film 13 as the film and copy are moved relative to each other, all as more fully described in the aforesaid copending application.

To use the device as a contact printer and produce prints directly from a film without enlargement, the camera is used as described in the aforesaid pending application. But, it is here briefly pointed out that the reel 14 carrying negative film i3 is placed on support H; a roll of unexposed film is placed on support 69; films are wound over the guide rollers and around drum 200; the negative film being outside and the image surfaces of the films being in contact. Take up reels are placed on the supports 10 and 12 to receive the films.

The lens 16 is removed and as the films are slowly moved through the device by operation of the camera motor 43, light from the lamps 91 is reflected by a white sheet 2M placed on the platen mechanism at I IS, the motor of the platen mechanism I05 being stopped. This reflected light passes up the tunnel 38 through the slit I1, through the negative film '13, and the film lying below it on the drum 200, thereby making a contact print on the last-mentioned film.

It will be observed from the foregoing that the present invention provides in a single apparatus or device:

(a) An enlarger capable of enlarging images on a film and photographing said enlarged images on a flow sheet of sensitized material. A projector whereby an image on a film is projected and enlarged on a screen for visual observation.

A new camera where images of moving copy are impressed on a moving film.

A contact printer wherein an image on one film is printed on another film, said films being in contact and no lens being used.

This quadruple use of the device is largely made possible by the employment of the transparent drum 200 and its cooperative relationship with the film or films which it supports, the arrangement being such that a beam of light can be projected from the inside of the drum through a film supported thereon when the device is used as an enlarger, or a projector.

When used as a fiow camera, or a contact continuous printer, the light beam is projected from outside the drum and through the film thereon.

Because of the necessity of reversing the path of the light in such a multi-use device, such structures have heretofore been complicated and required extensive and careful rearrangement 3 and relocation of the various parts such as the lamps, lenses, supports, etc., when converting the device from one use to another, which rearrangement is unnecessary with the instant invention. I

What is claimed is:

1. In a multi-use device'of the character described, a camera-projector unit including a framework having a vertical mounting plate extending longitudinally of the framework, a lens having its optical axis parallel to the plane of said plate, means carried on said plate for supporting and moving a film transverse the optical axis of said lens including a rotatably supported drum having a transparent arcuate rim portion adapted to be driven by a film engaging said rim, driving means extending through said plate for operating said film moving means, means for illuminating film carried on said drum comprising a light source mounted in said unit, means for projecting a beam of light through the arcuate rim of said drum and through film supported thereby and outwardly through said lens, a slit-forming member positioned in the optical path of said lens wherein said slit is parallel to the axis of the drum, 8. platen unit including a conveyor spaced apart from said first unit, the linear speed of said conveyor being synchronized with the movement of said drum, said conveyor being located subjacent said projector unit and adapted to position flat sheets in the field of view of said lens, said sheets being moved by said conveyor at a different linear speed from the speed of said drum and positioned to receive on their fiat surfaces enlarged images projected thereto from film carried on said drum, and means for illuminating sheets carried by said conveyor to cause an image of same made by reflected light to impinge on film carried by said-drum, said first means for illuminating film mounted in said cameraprojector unit being extinguished the while.

2. In a multi-use device of the character described, a camera-projector unit including a framework having a vertical mounting plate extending longitudinally of the framework, a lens having its optical axis parallel to the plane of said plate, means carried on said plate for supporting and moving a film transverse the optical axis of said lens including a rotatably supported drum having a transparent arcuate rim portion adapted to be driven by a film engaging said rim, driving means extending through said plate for operating said film moving means, a motor connected to said driving means secured to said unit and movable therewith, means for illuminating film carried on said drum comprising a light source mounted in said unit, means for projecting a beam of light through the arcuate rim of said drum and film supported thereby and outwardly through said lens, a slit-forming member positioned in the optical path of said lens wherein said slit is parallel to the axis of the drum, a platen unit including a conveyor spaced apart from said first unit, the linear speed of said conveyor being synchronized with the movement of said drum, said conveyor being located subjacent said projector unit and adapted to position fiat sheets in the field of view of said lens, said sheets being moved by said conveyor at a different linear speed from the speed of said drum and positioned to receive on their fiat surfaces enlarged images projected thereto from film carried on said drum, and means for illuminating sheets carried by said conveyor to cause an image of same made by reflected light to impinge on film carried by said drum, said first means for illuminating film mounted in said camera projector unit being extin ished the while.

3 A device as claimed in claim 2 including a second motor for operating said conveyor, said second motor forming part of said platen unit.

4. A device as claimed in claim 2 including a main frame wherein said camera-projector unit is removably mounted in the upper part thereof and said platen unit is mounted in said main frame subjacent said camera-projector unit whereby fiat sheets on said conveyor in said platen unit are positioned in the field of view of the lens of the camera projector, unit.

5. In a multi-use device of the character described, a main framework, 9, camera-projector unit mounted in said framework and including a lens, means in said unit for supporting and moving a film transverse the axis of said lens including a rotatable supporting drum having a transparent arcuate rim portion having its surface erpendicular to the axis of said lens, the axes of said lens and drum intersecting, said drum adapted to be driven by a film engaging said arcuate rim, a slit-forming member positioned in the optical path of said lens, means in said unit for projecting a beam of light through the transparent rim of said drum and film carried thereon and to direct same through said lens, a conveyor adapted to support flat sheets mounted in said framework independently of said projector unit and adapted to place fiatsheets in the front focal plane of said lens, and means for projecting light to sheets s placed.

6. In a combined photographic projector, enlarger, fiow camera and contact printer, the combination of a main frame, a supporting structure mounted on said frame, a pair of reels mounted on said structure, a second pair of reels mounted on said structure, means for transferring film from one of said reels in each pair to the other reel of the pair at a predetermined linear speed, a hollow rotatable drum having a transparent rim forming an arcuate support in the paths of said films between reels of each pair and adapted to be driven by at least one of said films, a lens outside said drum and having its axis perpendicular to the axis of the drum and adapted to be focussed on the film supported thereon, a slitforming member positioned in the optical path of said lens, a conveyor for positioning fiat sheets in the front focal plane of said lens, said conveyor adapted when in motion to move said sheets transverse the optical axis of said lens at a fixed speed relative to the linear speed of film moved by said transferring means, means for illuminating sheets carried on said conveyor, means for illuminating film on said transparentrim, said two illuminating means being usable at will whereby when a single pair of said reels and one negative film is employed the device may be used as a projector-enlarger, or as a contact printer 8 when both said pairs of reels are respectively supplied with a negative and an unexposed film, and as a camera when said first illuminating means is used to illuminate sheets on the conveyor and a single pair of reels is employed using unexposed film to receive images via light reflected from sheets on the conveyor.

7. In a combined photographic projector, enlarger, fiow camera and contact printer, the combination of a supporting framework, a casing removably supported on said framework in the upper portion thereof, said casing having a vertical mounting plate extending longitudinally therein and dividing said casing into two compartments,

said plate supporting the following instrumentalities in cooperative relationship in one of said compartments; to wit, film reels, means for moving film carried on said reels, a rotatable drum having a transparent rim for supporting said film in the back focus .of a lens, a lens, a light source, means for directing a beam of light through said transparent rim and into said lens for projection outside said compartment; the

other of said compartments containing a motor for driving said film moving means via a shaft extending through said mounting plate. a conveyor mounted subjacent said casing and adapted to position fiat sheets in the front focal plane of said lens, and means for illuminating sheets on said conveyor whereby same may be photographed by refiected light via said lens and on to film carried by said drum, said first mentioned light source in said casing being extinguished the while.

VERNEUR E. PRAIT.

GEORGE F. GRAY.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,212,259 Ramsey Jan. 16, 1917 1,539,322 Morton May 26, 1925 1,814,525 Owem July 14, 1931 1,896,246 Owens Feb. 7, 19 33 2,032,397 Brady Mar. 3, 1936 2,058,409 Capstafl Oct. 27, 1936 2,153,214 Tondreau Apr. 4, 1939 2,206,396 Glass et al. July 2, 1940 2,233,809 Darby Mar. 4, 1941 2,251,998 Goodale Aug. 12, 1941 2,282,337 Mies et al. May 12, 1942 2,292,825 Dilks, Jr. Aug. 11, 1942 2,358,649 Landrock et al Sept. 19, 1944 2,411,694 Place Nov. 26, 1946 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 796,844 France Apr. 16, 1936 834,651 France 'Nov. 29, 1938

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