US1067177A - Changeable-letter sign. - Google Patents

Description

G. M. KINNEY.

CHANGEABLE LETTER SIGN.

APPLIOATION FILED DEO.10, 1912.

L7 1F7 Patented July 8, 1913.

W/az; I

INVENTOR ATTORNEYS CELIA MURRAY KINNEY, OF NEW YORK, N. 'Y.

CHANGEABLE-LET'DER-SIGN.

Specification of Letterselatent.

Application filed December 10, 1912. Serial Ho..735,9 28.

Patented July8,:1913.

To all'whom-z'tmag concern: A

Be it-knownthat I,\CELIA M. KINNEY, a citizen of the .United States, ands resident ofthe city-of New ;York,'borough of Manhattan, in the county and State of New York, ;have invented a .new and Improved Changeable-:Letter -Sign, of which the following is ayfull, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates .to display apparatus and ,has particular reference to signs or advertising devices which involve ,removable words or letters.

Among the special objects of this invention is to provide a means whereby the names or words which-make up .a bulletin board or directory foran ottice'buildingor the like-may be more readily changed for shifted than is possible withl'the rneansmow in common use. i

More particularly stated, the apparatus herein disclosed-comprisesa bulletin board or the like which. is made up of a series of easily removable and .replaceable ,panels whereby-it is possible and expedient for the superintendent ofa building or other operavtor to arrange the names or words .upon

the'panels while seated :at his desk in his, of-

fice, if he so desires, instead of.his-beingreg uired as islnow commonly done,.to stand upon a step-ladder adjacent the bulletin board-to make the required adjustment or; to

.se-himselfto the drafts-commonly-in ci exit to .such places where bulletin boards nf thisrnature are displayed. In this way I the convenience I of the operator .is .greatly faeilitat ed'by the irnprovement -herein disclosed, and the publicity and obstruction incident to.-theoperator working in a publichallway are avoided.

The foregoing and other objectsof this invention will be hereinafter more fully described and claimed and illustrated in the drawings forming a part 4 of this specification in which flike characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the views-and in which- Figure 1 is a front elevation of a frag-- ment of a bulletin boardembodying this invention; .Fig. 2 is a transverse section of the samesubstantially on the line 22 of Fig. 1; Fig. 3is adetailperspective of one of the removable panels;.the.'same showing particularly the rear .view there0f;-.Fig. 4 is atransverse sectional detail on;the plane represented by-the line Hot Fig. 3.; and Fig. dis a detailof one qfthe interchange able letters, indicatingthe springshank.

A.bulletin board made inaccordance with thls invention-comprises a pair, or any suitable -nu1nber. of pairs, of preferably vertical parallel rails or channel members 10 .and 11, andextendingbetween said rails and temporarily secured .in place thereby are .any suitable number of panels .12. .T-he pposingf-aees ofleach pair of-rails are undercut or grooved, as indicated at 10 and 11, whereby there are provided gflanges 13 ,and 1. 1 vwhich;normally. overlap the extreme ends of the panels. .The groove or 1 channel 10', however, is deeper than .the companion channel 11.

.The panels are preferably formed, .as indicated in thedrawings, ofa substantially rectangular .form ,in cross section and provided with .a plurality of .parallel I grooves 15 extending inwardly or .rearevardly from the face-thereof. As,indicated,.o ne ofthese grooves is ,preferably .central of the front face ofthe-panel and another-is arranged between .the intermediate .groove and the bottom of.the panel. Each panel furthermore, is;prefer.ably -covered-by,me ans ofa strip -of felt 16 orother suitable material, the covering being introduced into and covering the walls .of the grooves also. .As shownespecially in Fig.2, one ...end. of the panel, the end which coiiperates with the channel 11 and flange 14,.is-beveledat 17 for coipenation with the beveled wall 18 of the channel 11 .fonthe purpose of facilitating the .manipulation-of -the panel. At

the other end of each panel is secured some suitable resilient .meanswhichserves, among other things, {the purpose of ,holding the panel in "the ,position indicated .in Fig. -2 with'bothends of theipan-el insubstantial contact with the inner faces'of the-flanges.

.amount of slidable engagement asthrongh a slot 21 through which projects ascrew 22 intermediate the ends of thespring andmot far remote from the adjacent end of .the panel. The free end 23 of the spring -is curved outwardly slightly. andoccnpies thebottom of the shank 10, .said .endbearin'g directly at 24 away from the end of the panel, tending through its resiliency to force the panel into the channel 11'. Said spring bears also against the inwardly projecting rear flange of the channel member 10, as indicated at 25, whereby the adjacent end of the panel is forced outwardly or maintained in contact with the flange 13.

The effect of the spring just described, serving to maintain the opposite end of the panel in proper position in the channel 11 and against the flange 14, is facilitated by virtue of'the beveled surfaces 17 and 18.

The panels are removable from the directory frame by a simple endwise movement for the'purpose of freeing the end from engagement by the flange 14. Such movement may be effected in any suitable manner, either by the operators finger nails or by the use of a suitable tool which may be introducedinto one or the other of the grooves 15 or caused to grip the tongue occupying the space between said grooves. As illustrated in the drawings, the panels upon being moved slightly toward the left against the resiliency of the spring 19 will be free to be withdrawn from the channel member 11 and then may be withdrawn from the opposite channel 10 in an obvious manner. In order to replace the same or another panel in the same space, a reverse movement thereof will be made and the spring will maintain the panel in the position indicated, as already explained.

As intimated above, the several panels may be filled with words or letters in accordance with the exigencies of any particular case while the operator is in his office or elsewhere, and when they are ready, the matter of applying them to the bulletin frame is a very simple and convenient one and the effect of the appearance is or may be even better than when the words or names are arranged while the operator is occupying a place in front of the bulletin board, as is now common. Among the reasons for. this may be stated the fact that the operator, while occupying his own oflice or not being'subjected to the inconvenience above indicated, will have better facilities for arranging the names and other characters in the best possible form. The panels being made of uniform size and being interchangeable, of course, present the proper appearance when applied to the board.

Each letter or character, as indicated in Fig. 5, is preferably provided with a shank '26, the rear end of which is preferably bent or folded over, whereby the material of the shank will constitute a spring clip serving to substantially hold the character in the particular groove 15 for which it is intended. The clip or shank 26 formed and arranged, as 'shown,serves another function of some importance, namely,-as pertaining .tion hereinafter claimed.

to letters such as the Hs, Ns and Ss, which sometimes are slightly troublesome in determining which are the tops and bottoms, the free ends of the several clips will be uniformly arranged with respect to the shanks. The operator will, therefore, know, when grasping a character in his fingers, which is the top or bottom. The lower groove 15 of each panel, in addition to the function already set forth, is intended especially for the application of punctuation marks, the manner of applying such characters preferably being the same as the manner of applying the letters already described.

As shown in Fig. 2, the channel member 11 may, if desired, constitute or include a structure corresponding to the channel member 10 in case the bulletin board is intended for an additional series of panels. The construction and operation of the duplicate device Wi'll referably,'.however, be substantially sim' ar to that already described and therefore no further description seems to be necessary.

The several parts of this device may be made of any suitable materials, and the relative sizes, forms and proportions thereof may be varied to a considerable extent without departing from the spirit of the inven- Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters -Patent:-

1. In achangeable letter sign, the combination of a pair of rails having flanges extending toward each other, one of said rails having a beveled wall in the rear of its flange, a removable panel between said rails and in the rear of said flanges, one end of the panel being beveled to cooperate with said beveled wall and a spring adjacent the other end of the panel serving to force the panel away from the adjacent rail into engagement with the opposite rail and where- I. by the panel, by virtue of the spring and said bevels, is maintained normally in contact with the rear faces of said-flanges.

2. In a changeable letter sign, the combination of a pair of channeled members, the channel of one member being deeper than'115 the other, a removable panel extending between said channel members, and a spring connected to the rear wall of the panel and extending therefrom past one end of the panel into the deeper channel aforesaid, said spring cooperating with the adjacent member and serving to maintain the panel normally in the shallower channel.

3. In a changeable letter sign, the combi nation of a pair of channeled members hav- 12 ing flanges projecting toward each other, one of the channels being deeper than the other and each having a rear wall, a removable panelextending between said members, and a spring secured to the rear wall of the 139 panel and extending thence into the deeper channel, the free end of said spring bearing laterally and rearwardly at different points on the wall of said deeper channel and serving thereby to maintain the panel projected into the shallower channel and against the rear wall of the opposite member and hence forced outwardly into contact with said flanges, the rear Wall of the shallower channel and the adjacent panel end having c0- 1) operating beveled surfaces.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing Witnesses.

CELIA MURRAY KINNEY.

Witnesses:

CHARLES W. GALLAN, J r., CECIL A. ARTHUR.

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