A slide loader is mounted over a vertical projection gate open at the top thereof. The slide loader includes supply and takeup magazines for supporting slides in face-to-face contact. A pair of members engage edge portions of the foremost slide in the supply magazine for rocking such slide to separate the same from the adjacent slide and to orient such foremost slide with a discharge opening at the outlet end of the supply magazine. A shiftable plate receives the foremost slide after it passes through such discharge opening and holds the slide over the gate in readiness for dropping thereinto. Upon movement of this plate to a release position, the foremost slide is allowed to drop into the projection gate.
A slide projector located within a rear-screen projector housing includes a slide tray and slide positioning mechanism in cooperative relation with a gravity feed slide tray which is removably mounted on the rear-screen projector housing. The projector includes a gate having a shutter mounted for rotation to a first position blocking the optical path of the projector and for rotation to a second position at which the optical path is not blocked; indexing means rotate the slide tray relative to the projector gate to successively bring slides in the slide tray, one at a time, in registration with the projector gate; first means operating in time relation with the indexing means successively feeds the slides from the slide tray into the gate, under the influence of gravity, for projection by the projector and then back into the slide tray; and second means in time relation with the indexing means causes the shutter to be in its first position blocking the optical path of the projector in response to the absence of a slide in the projector gate and also causes the shutter to be in its second position enabling the optical path of the projector whenever a slide is present in the projector gate.
