US1290947A - Advertising projecting device. - Google Patents

Description

C. ERSKINE. ADVERTISING PROJECT ING DEVICE.

APPLICATIQN FILED AUG. 2|, I916.

Patented Jan. 14, 1919.

a SHEETS-SWEET '2.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CLYDE ERSKINE, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR T0 BARBIE H. WALSH, OF CHICAGO,

- ILLINOIS.

ADVERTISING PROJECTING DEVICE.

, Specification of Letters Patent. I

Application filed August 21. 1916. Serial No. 115,921.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CLYDE ERSKIN E, a citizen of the United States, and a resldent of Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and will immediately attract and hold the attenremoved.

tion of the passersby to the matter advertised by reason of the unique manner in which it 1s presented. To this end the device is con- .structed and arranged to throw upon a dark screen, which forms part of the device, illuminated characters, letters or devices forming words, sentences and the like, part of which are stationary and part of which move in an endless procession across the screen.

The many advantagesof the invention will appear as I proceed with my specification.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 represents a perspective view of my improved advertising device.

F g. 2 represents a top plan view of the device as it appears with the cover plate Fig. 3 represents a central, longitudinal vertical sectional view through the device, the plane of the section being indicated by the line 3, 3 of Fig. 2.

Figzci represents an enlarged detail, sectional view of several of the parts shown in Fig. 3 and will be more specifically referred to later.

Fig. 5 represents a transverse, vertical, sectional view through the device, the plane of the section being indicated by the line 5,5ofFig.2.

Fig. 6 represents a horizontal detail, sectional view. the plane of the section being in-' dicated by the line 6-6 of Fig. 4.

Fig. 7 represents a vertical, detail, sec

tiona-l view, the plane of the section being indicated by the line 7-7 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 8 represents a fragmentary view, in elevation of an endless band which bears the words, letters or other characters to be presented in an endless procession upon the screen.

Referring now to that embodiment of my invention, illustrated in the accompanying drawings :10 indicates a rectangular, long box or casing which contains the operating mechanism of my improved advertising device. This casing is preferably made of sheet metal and has side walls 11, 11, a rear end wall 13, a bottom wall 14 and a remove able top wall 15. The side walls are connected together near their front ends at the top by means of a transverse bar or plate 12-, which acts as a brace between said walls. 12 indicates the front wall of the casing which is removable. Said wall is made of glass and forms the screen upon which the words, letters, characters or the like, forming the sign, are projected.

17 indicates an upright, transverse partition wall, which divides the casing longitudinally into front and rear compartments 181 and 19. The front compartment 18 is dark and is the projecting chamber while the rear compartment 19 provides a housing for the projecting apparatus and lamp and for a motor and other operating mechanism of the device. i 4

In the rear compartment 19 about half way between its top and bottom, there are fixed to theupright walls of the casing two horizontal, longitudinally extending shelves or plates 20, 21 (see Fig. 2). Said plates are separated by an .intermediat space which is occupied by the projecting appara tus. Said space is bridged at the front and rear by vertically arranged plates 22. 23

which constitute supports for the lenses of throu said 1s a flared tube 22 which projects of said opening upright plates 26, 26 (see Fig. 6), the three plates forming a frame to receive and support a lens holder or tube 27 Said lens tube is in line with the opening 23 in the plate 23. 28, 29 indicate the familiar planoconvex condensing lenses mounted in the tube 27. The lens tube 27 isretained in its supporting frame by means of an upright plate 30, the side margins of which are attached to suitable flanges on the upright plates 26, 26, of said frame. The plate 30 has a rearwardly extending top flange 31 which engages upon and covers the top of the lens tube 27 (see Fig. 4).

In the plate 30 are formed a plurality of slots or openings which block out spaces through which the advertising characters are to be rojected. As shown there are three of said s ots, 32, 33 and 34. The top and bottom slots 32, 34, in this case are associated with stationary advertising matter. The intermediate slot 33 is associated with the trav cling advertising matter. Said slots are preferably covered by means of colored strips of glass or of other translucent material 32, 33 and 34 which are held against the front face of the plate 30 in any convenient manner. As shown, said strips are held in place by means of open frame plates 32", 35 and 34", which are removably fixed to the upright supporting plate 30- in any suitable manner.

endless opaque band 36 in which are stenciled the letters, characters or other devices which provide the traveling advertising matter.

The front lens supporting plate 22 has an openlng 22 of smaller diameter than, but in axial alinement with, theopening 23 in the rear plate 23. Fixed to the front face of plate, concentric with the opening 22", at its front end through a suitable hole in the partition wall 17 into the dark compartment 18.

37 indicates a tubular lens casing attached by means of a radial flange 37 at its front end to the rear face of the plate22, in axial ialninement with the opening 22 in 50 said plate. the rear end of said casing is fixed a concavo-convex objective lens 38. The objectrve lens casing 37 is inclosed by a telescopmg tube 37 comprising two sections 37 and 37. The front section 37 is attached at its front end to the plate 22 and the other section telescopes upon the first section andcloses at its rear end upon the plate 30.

Back of the project device is placed a lamp 40 which is locate in such manner as to dlrect the rays of light given out by it, h the condensing lenses 28, 29.

i lam is provided with a high power electric bul preferably what is known as a nitrogen lamp. Said lampis mounted as shown on a bracket 39 (see Fig. 6) which The intermediate plate 35 is a channel bar with a longitudinal slot 35 and forms a guide for a moving,

memes? jecting device. The lens tube 27 and the plates connected thereto preferabl have ventilating openings (see Figs. 3 an 4) to provide an upward circulation of air between the condensing lenses and toward the openings 15 in the top wall of the casing. The rear wall 13 of the casing has an opening 13 back of the lamp for getting at the parts contained in the rear compartment 19. Said opening is closed by a hinged door 13.

('.1lhe endless opaque band 36 which provi es ported in the rear compartment 19 as follows. Upon the shelves 20, 21 (see Fig. 2)

the traveling advertising matter is supare mounted a plurality of flangedrollers or spools, 40, 41, 42 on the shelf 20 and 40 41 42 on the shelf.21. Sald rollers have bearing onsuitable upright studs all "of which, except in the case of the roller 40,

are fixed to the shelves. The rollers 40, 42 and 40*, 42 are placed at the four corners of the compartment 19. The rollers 41, 41 are placed nearer the projecting device with their rear peripheries tangential to the plane of the guide strip 35 that provides support for the band 36 in its passage through the projecting-device. All of the rollers are in a common horizontal plane with the guide strip 35 and the endless band 36 is passed about them and through the guide strip in w a tortuous path, as illustrated in Fig. 2. The stud on which the .roller 40 has bearing is fixed to a horizontally swin armor plate 44which is pivoted at 45 to the shelf 20. The free end of said arm is connected by a coiled contractile spring 44 to a fixed part of the. casing in such manner as to tend to swing it forwardly, thereby taking up any slack in the band and providing tension therein.

' A motor and gearing as follows are provided to impart a continuous traveling movement to the band 36. An upright shaft 50' (see Figs. 2 and 6) is mounted between the roller 41" and the adjacentside wall of the casing. Said shaft has bearing in plates 51, 51 fixed respectively to-the bottom wall of the casing and to the bottom sideofthe shelf 21. A worm'gear 52 fixed to the shaft 50 meshes with a worm 53 on a horizontal shaft 54 which has bearing in upright standards 55 attached to the bottom wall of the casing. A large. pulley 56 on the shaft 54 is coning advertising matter.

nected by a belt 57 to the small driving ulley of an electric motor 58. Thus the s aft 50 is driven by the motor 58, but at greatly reduced speed.

The shaft 50. projects upwardly through the shelf 21 and has fixed to it a toothed wheel 60. (See Fig. 7). The teeth of said wheel are adapted to engage in holes 36 in the band 36. The holes 36 are provided throughout the entire length of the band near one edge (the top edge in this case) (see Fig. 8) and are spaced at equal distances apart. A spring controlled presser roll 61 mounted in any suitable manner on the shelf 21 adjacent to the shaft 50 holds the band 36 in proper engagement with the toothed wheel 60. From the foregoing it will be apparent that when the motor 58 is I operating, a continuous, feeding movement in one direction (as indicated by the arrows in Fig. 2) will be imparted to the band 36.

The band 36, as has been said, is opaque and is made preferably of thin metal. Letters, characters, or other devices that are to constitute the traveling-or moving advertising matter, .are cut out or stenciled in this band-the characters or letters and the like being thus-defined by open spaces through which light may pass. This band may be made of any suitable, preferably non-inflammable, material and the devices constituting the sign may-be blocked out in any desirable or convenient manner, it being simply necessary that the band he so made,

that whenlight is passed through it, the characters defined upon it will be blocked out by the llght so that they may be thrown on a screen as the band-is passed through its guide plate 35 in front of the condensing lenses.

The heretofore mentioned plates 32" and 3 L" (placed respectively above and below the traveling band) are stenciled, cut or otherwise formed to block out characters, letters, or otherdevices, so that the light passing through said plates will throw said characters on a screen in the same way as m the case of the band. These plates being fixed, carry what has been called the statlonary advertising matter, which may consist of the name of the concern advertised or other matter associated with the travel- The front wall 12 f the casing, whichas has been said'is, the screen upon which thesign iS'PiOjGCtQd, has translucent fields 12, 12 and 12 are of such shape and are in such position as to receive the letters, devices and the like pro ected through the stencil plates-32", 34: and through the traveling band 36. Said fields are preferably made by sand blasting,

7 or frosting the glass while the remainder ofthe' glass is rendered opaque by black paint or othe passerby.

blocked out upon it. Said fields The operation of the apparatus is applzltrent from the foregoing description. As t e 35, the light rays from the lamp are condensed and projected through the several colored transparent strips fixed to the plate 30 and through the stencil plates 32 34 and through the band 36. The color plates soften the intense glare orv ray from the lamp before it passes through the stencil openings. after they plates and the band, pass through the objective lens 38 and are thereby projected through the dark compartment 18- and upon the several associated fields on the front wall 12 of the casing. The dark compartment prevents diffusion of the projected light rays and adds to the 'brilliancy'of the sign thrown on the screen.

the condenser and objective lenses, no mat;

ter what the distance between them may be. When the device is in operation there is resented upon the various fieldsbf the ront wall of the casing, a unique and attractive display. The name of the company or other advertising matter appears stationary and immovable upon the screen. The

advantages of the use of theiadvertised deviceor of the service rendered by the company advertised, is also presented upon said screen in the form of moving letters or characters defining words which seem to appear from nothing at one end of the field and dissolve or fadeaway into nothing at the other The light rays from the lamp have passed through the stencil band 36 travels through its guide plate end ofsaid field, new words always appearing in an endless procession to take the place of the words fading .out.

My invention possesses many advantages besides the one advantage which arises by reason of its attracting the attention of the It is made of non inflammable material meet various insurance ordinances regarding display devices. It is light in weight and portable and may be readily used in the display window of a shop or store. It op-.

erate's to advantage either at night as the upon the screen in daylight or light rays are projected The stencils may be easily changed as also and is otherwise constructed to through the. inclosed dark compartment, thus conserving the light rays.

the band and the screen may also be changed to correspond' Any suitable switch (not shown) maybe used ,to control both the motor and thev lamp, s'o that the lamp will' be turned onor "off "at the same time that the motor is started or stopped. While in describing my invention I have 1. A device of the kind described, comprising a casing having a front wall providing a screen, a projecting apparatus and lamp located in said casing at a distance from said front wall, an endless band having letters, characters and the like blocked out upon it, means for supporting and guiding said band through said projecting apparatus, means for imparting continuous movement in one direction to said band, a fixed plate or plates having letters, characters and the like blocked out upon them and located in said projecting apparatus above or below said traveling band and said screen being provided with translucent fields associated with and adaptedto receive the letters, characters and the like thrown by said projecting apparatus from said traveling band and from said fixed plates in the projecting apparatus.

2.A device of the kind described comprising a casing having a front wall providing a screen, a projecting apparatus and lamp located in said casing at a distance from said front wall, an endless band having letters, characters and the like stenciled or cut in it, means for supporting and guiding said hand through said projecting apparatus, means for imparting continuous move ment 111 one direction to said band, a fixed acuna? and a projecting-k apparatus located therein, shelves fixed in said casing at each side of said projecting l apparatus, means whereby said projecting apparatus is adjustably supported on said shelves, an endless band, a slotted guide plate extending through said projecting apparatus which constitutes a guidefor'said band, a, plurality of rollers mounted on said shelves which together with said guide plate provide support for said band in a tortuous path, one of said rollers having a spring controlled bearing movable in a put tension in said band, and means for imparting movement to said band.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my invention I afiix my signature in the presence of two witnesses, this 15th day of June A. D. 1916.

T. H. ALFRED-S, KARL W. Donn direction to

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