GB1020222A - Improvements in shutters opening at high speed - Google Patents

Abstract

1,020,222. High speed camera. COMMISSARIAT A L'ENERGIE ATOMIQUE. Jan. 11,1963 [Jan. 15, 1962], No. 1383/63. Headings G2A and G2E. A shutter, for use with a high speed camera 17 especially a high speed motion picture camera comprises a divergent tube 10 opening to the atmosphere and provided with an opaque diaphragm 12 blocking a light beam, and means for creating in the tube a shock wave of such amplitude as to rupture the diaphragm. As shown, the means for creating the shock wave is an electric discharge device in a compression chamber 19. The discharge device has electrodes 20, 21 and an auxiliary electrode 22. The electrodes 20, 21 are connected across a capacitor 28 charged through a resistance 29 by a high tension supply 30. The electrode 22 is supplied by a circuit having a transformer 31 in series with a thyratron 33 and rheostat 34 across the terminals of a capacitor 32 charged from a high tension supply 35 through a resistance 29. In operation, the capacitor 28 is charged. The electrode 22 is then energized causing a discharge between electrode 22 and electrode 20 and then between electrodes 21 and 22. Gas in the chamber 19 becomes ionized and increases in temperature causing an increase in pressure and the creation of a shock wave in tube 14 which sets up a secondary shock wave in tube 10. Electrons and ions are prevented from entering tube 10 by a magnetic field set up by a coil 27.