I was approached by NCR, the maker of most of the cash registers in the world at that time, with a photographic problem. They had a machine for makinng microfiche to archive a company's trading history in a permanent form on post card sized photographic film. The computer data had to be shown combined together exactly with the image of whatever form it was printed on.

The computer information appeared on a high resolution CRT and was photographed. The form data was on a photographic slide that was superimposed over the computer data using an electronic flash and through a half silvered mirror.

The problem was the near perfect alignment needed for the system to work properly.

The image on the slide had to be exactly positioned to within 50 microns (two thou of an inch)

Up to now the glass plate with the image on it was placed in a carrier and aligned visually, when in position glue was applied and everyone hoped for the best.

 

I devised a system to remove the fine registration problems and every one was a winner.

In essence I designed and built a combined copy camera and projector.

The artwork of the customer's form was made on film and placed on the baseboard. A master slide with all print positions showing as a grid was projected down on to the artwork.

The artwork was now easily aligned with the grid as it was magnified many times.

The  master slide removed and a new slide with an unexposed plate inserted. Exposure was made by backlighting the artwork. The plate processed and dried. It was then inserted back into the carrier, put in the camera and the image projected back on to the artwork. If no image was visible the the registration was perfect. (light projecting on to black lines does not show)

Adhesive was then run around the edges and the job was done.

About 1500 slides were made over a 8 year period. For this work I traded under the name Ariane Design.

Although the darkroom has now gone with the rebuilding of the workshop I still have the camera and here are some photos of the system.