GB1061381A - Improvements in and relating to luminous signs - Google Patents

Abstract

1,061,381. Advertising signs. J. C. RUDGE. Aug. 21, 1963 [Aug. 21, 1962], No. 32073/62. Heading G5C. An illuminated sign is arranged so that relative movement between the sign and an observer causes the display legend to appear on his retinae only when he is no longer regarding the sign. In Fig. 1 a cylindrical mask with transparent portions 3 rotates round a strip lamp 1, the sign being mounted near a road or railway. Direct observation from a moving vehicle shows merely a vertically bright line of varying length, but the whole legend is spread across the retinae of the observer by the relative motion and becomes visible as an " after image " against a subsequently observed dark background, such as a tunnel wall. In Figs. 3, 4 (not shown) the mask is of disc form. The same effect as the strip light and cylindrical mask can be achieved by a fixed vertical array of lamps, switched in appropriate sequence by contacts engaging a rotating cylinder or moving plate of conducting and non-conducting mosaic form. A complete legend constructed of discharge tubes may be flashed at intervals corresponding to the time taken for an observer to pass across it. Alternatively a plurality of tubes arrayed one behind another each forming one character may be sequentially flashed at the same frequency. Instead of the observer moving, a sign may be carried by a vehicle. A sign may comprise an array of lamps extending along an arm rotating about an axis normal to its length, the lamps being switched by a like mosaic device to display an illuminated legend apparently suspended in space. These devices may incorporate two colours of lamp operated through diodes by positive and negative voltages.