GB190511423A - Improvements in Illuminated Signs. - Google Patents

Abstract

11,423. Urry, F. H. May 31. Drawings to Specification. Signs.-In illuminated signs or advertisements the illuminated words or the like change colour continuously and without apparent movement. In the front of a light-tight case is fixed a front screen of ground glass, or other convenient material, in which the portions surrounding the letters &c. are blocked out with opaque paint or otherwise. A little behind this is fixed a colour screen of glass, or the like, ruled in narrow, parallel, preferably vertical, bands of equal width, say 16 in., of transparent colour, preferably red, blue, and green alternately, although more or less colours or tints may be used. As close as possible without actual contact behind the colour screen is placed a dissolver consisting in a third sheet of glass or the like ruled in parallel, vertical, opaque bands, or a sheet of metal or the like pierced with parallel slits. Each band is as wide as two of the coloured bands and is separated by a space equal to the width of one colour band. The dissolver is swung upon links or otherwise moved to and fro behind the colour screen, by clockwork, electric motor, or other suitable means, a distance equal to the width of four of the colour bands, at a variable speed but preferably slowly. At the back of the box and behind the means of illumination, preferably a number of incandescent electric lamps, is placed a reflector of any suitable material. Supposing that in the normal position of the dissolver light only reaches the front screen through the red bands of the colour screen, then, upon the dissolver slowly moving, equal portions of the next or blue bands are uncovered, so that the colour of the letters or designs on the front screen gradually dissolves from red through all the tints resulting from the mixture of red and blue into pure blue, and so on. Portions of the dissolver may, of course, be so altered that different parts of the sign always exhibit different tints. The mcst effectual distance between the colour and front screens is such that the opaque bands of the dissolver cease to cast any shadows on the front screen and the words &c, there exhibit an even surface of coloured light. Opaque lines between one or more colour bands on the colour screen may be provided, giving the appearance of a gradual fading and reappearance of the coloured lights. In a modification, the dissolver may be fixed between the front screen and the colour screen, which is moved behind it.