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Claim 1

A MECHANICAL SCANNING DEVICE FOR OPERATION IN THE INFRARED REGION COMPRISING A RADIATION DETECTOR FOR TRANSFORMING OPTICAL RADIATIONS INTO ELECTRICAL SIGNALS; A FIELD LENS FOR EVENLY DISTRIBUTING SAID RADIATIONS OVER THE WHOLE DETECTOR SURFACE; A PAIR OF ROTATING DISCS AT THE FOCAL PLANE OF SAID DEVICE; MOTOR MEANS FOR DRIVING SAID DISCS IN THE SAME DIRECTION AT DIFFERENT SPEEDS INCLUDING A SHAFT CONNECTED TO THE FASTER TURNING DISC DIRECTLY FROM SAID MOTOR MEANS, GEAR REDUCTION MEANS CONNECTED TO SAID SHAFT, AND SLEEVE MEANS SURROUNDING SAID SHAFT AND BEING CONNECTED TO SAID GEAR REDUCTION MEANS AND SAID SLOWER TURNING DISC TO PROVIDE THE SLOWER TURNING RATE; AND APERTURE WINDOW WHICH IS SHAPED TO PROVIDE A CURVED RADIAL FIELD OF VIEW ADJACENT TO SAID FASTER TURNING DISC; THE FASTER TURNING DISC BEING PROVIDED WITH A SERIES OF RADIAL SLOTS TRANSPARENT TO THE OPTICAL RADIATION AND SPACED EXACTLY THE ANGULAR WIDTH OF THE APERTURE WINDOW; THE SLOWER DISC BEING PROVIDED WITH A CONVOLUTE SLOT TRANSPARENT TO THE OPTICAL RADIATION, WHEREBY THE INTERSECTION OF THE TWO TYPES OF SLOTS SCANS ACROSS SAID APERTURE WINDOW IN A SERIES OF LINES DETERMINED BY THE NUMBER OF RADIAL SLOTS AND THE RATIO OF THE SPEEDS OF THE DISCS; AND AN OBJECTIVE LENS FOR COLLECTING THE OPTICAL RADIATIONS IN THE FIELD OF VIEW BEING SCANNED.