A Schmitt Trigger is any circuit that has a fast change-over from one state to the other. In our case we have used 2 transistors to produce this effect and the third is an emitter-follower buffer.
The circuit will drive a LED or relay and the purpose is to turn the LED ON quickly at a particular level of illumination and OFF at a higher level. The gap between ON and OFF is called the HYSTERESIS GAP.