The Jenkins Prismatic Ring
The prismatic ring or plate is a new contribution to optical science, and was designed for use in a machine for the transmission of radio pictures from a flat surface, and for recording them on a flat surface, the only way in which radio vision and radio movies will ever be produced; and a method which permits of the reception of portraits having true photographic value, without lines, and having tone and shading unequaled by any other known process to date.
The prismatic ring section is ground into the face of a glass disc, and from one end to a point half around it has its base outward, and from this midway point around to the other end having its base inward. The warp from one end to the other is gradual.
A beam of light passing through this ring, in rotation, is caused to oscillate, having its hinged action fulcrumed in the plane of rotation of the prism ring. The oscillation is always in the plane of the diameter of the disc from the point where the light passes through the prismatic ring section.
The plates (made with the initial grinding machine) may have one, two, or four prismatic sections to the ring, and may be made right or left hand, and in 10 inch and in 7 inch sizes, and also in disc ring (first illustration) or band ring form (second illustration).