US1367989A - Vehicle-signal - Google Patents

Description

R. REYNOLDS.

VEHICLE SIGNAL.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 7., 1916.

Patented Feb 2 SHEETSSHEET R. REYNOLDS R. REYNOLDS. VEHECLE SIGNAL. APPLICATION FILED SE'PT. 7, I916.

1,367,989. Patentedlieb. 8, 1923..

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2 3! Kg 'R- REYNOLDS- warren-stares ingest eerie-E.

nonnn REYNOLDS, or Housron, Taxes.

VEHICLE-SIGNAL.

Application filed September 7, .1916; SerialNo. 113,874.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Beit known that I, Roi-Inn 'REYNOLDS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Houston, in the county'of Harris and State of Texas, have invented certain new and useful improvements in Vehicle-Signals, of

which the following is a specification, ref

erence being had to the accompanying drawings.

This invention relatesto signals for automobiles and other vehicles and particularly to signalsmounted upon the rear-of; a vehicle and actuated by the driver for the purpose of indicating thedirection in which 7 A further object of theinvention is to 7 provide a signaling mechanism in which a plurality of signal arms or semaphores are used connected by flexible connections to operating 'means, these connections being arranged. within-a flexible conduit so that the mechanism may be applied in the most convenient manner to, all makes of automobiles, or in variouscircumstances,oi operation; r i

Still another object is vto provide a 31gnaling device of this character which will occupy but little space and which W- 1ll not readily get out of order. 7

Other objects will appear in the course of the following descriptions 1 My invention is illustrated-in the accorn- .panying. drawmgs, wherein-z Y F igure 1 is an elevation of mysignali-ng deviceapphed: upon an automobile;

\ Fig. 2 is asectionalview of thecasinglO showing the signal-. actuating members within the-casing and also showing the; sig' Fig. 3 is a section on the'line 3+31of Fig. 2 looking in the direction of the arrows; F ig. 4 is a sectional view of the means for operating the various signals; a

Fig; 5' 's**a longitudinal sectional view through the casing 21 at rightzanglesto the section in Fig 4; and Q Fig. 6 is an elevation partly in section Specification of iletters Patenti indiciamaybe used; however.

Patented Feb.

showing a modified form of signaling mech anism.

It ferring to these drawings,l0 designates a casing which is preferably of sheetmetal, though it may bemade of any other suitable material, the casing beingv open at its sides but closed at its top, the sides at therear portion of the casing being also closed; EX- tending through the casing [from front to rear, is a, shaft 11, and surrounding this shaft are a plurality of sleeves .12, these sleeves being successively shorter so that i the outermost sleeve is shortest ofall as illustrated clearly in Fig. 2. These sleeves are rotatable upon each other and upon: the central shaft which is rotatable within the;

casing. A'suitable bearing ll may be prov1ded to support the several-sleeves and the intermediate portion of the" shaft, this bear ingbeing disposed to engagethe outermost sleeve 12 and being mounted in any suitable, ,niannerupon the casing} Mountedlupon these several sleeves are the corresponding pulleys or band Wheels 141. 1 i

Mounted upon the shaft 11 is a semaphore arm 15 and mounted upon each of thesleeves 12 is a corresponding semaphore arm; all

of these semaphore arms beingv designated l6, and all alike except asreg'ards the sig naling indicia carried thereon. -These sema- 1phores are preferably oi relatively thin sheet metalsuch asgalvanizedliro'n and are about one {and five-'eighths inches. wide.

' N m y' th sev l semaph res ladepend vertically and are concealed fromview by the front ot-Sthe casing 10.- One ofqthese semaphore armscarries 'upon-ifii the word IStop andanother one the *word l'fSlow, still another the word Reverse "and the remaining armscarry the wordsRight an e fl respectively- Q her Word *0! Q Mounted inthe trame 10 disposed finthe lower portion of the casing area plurality of 'pulleys -17 and -over .theselpull'eys pass upon these bandwheelsso that when-thereflexible :ronnections suchas chains 18 which extend upward to the several.pulleysfor A band Wheels; 14; the chains being wound 105 spective, chains 18" are: pulled the band wheels and the respective "shafts will hero-2.;

tated to raise the paddles i'orjseinaphores connected theretointo; horizontal position. Connected-t0 the rear end of the casing is a nipple 19 to which'in turnfisconnected a 4' vfln li ecantime -2Qw ch as illus ated in i Connected to the forward end of this flex.

ible conduit 20 is a box or casing 21 into which these several flexible chains or wires 18 lead. Mounted to extend through the end of the casing are a plurality of operating members or pulls designated 22 each of these members being hooked shape at its outer end. These pulls operate through guides 23 mounted within the box and each pull is connected to one or" the flexible connections 18. The flexible connections 18 each are in the form of wires where they pass through the flexible conduit 20 and pass through a suitable spreader 2% which is mounted within the casing 21. This casing 21 is preferably mounted upon the steering post but it may be mounted in any other convenient position so that the driver can readily pull up on any desired actuating member 22 so as toactuate the corresponding signal.

Mounted upon the trout face of the casing 10 is a lamp housing 25 having a pane of red glass 26 on its face which constitutes the usual tail light and also having lateral lenses 2? whereby light from the lamp contained' within the housing is directed to right and left of the'casing 10 and against the faces of the signal arms or semaphores,

in a manner which will be obvious Fig. 3. l

lVhile I have heretofore described one form of myinvention it is to be understood that many changes might be made without departing from the spirit of the invention, thus inFig. 6 I show a modification in which the pulleys 14 and 17 are dispensed with. In this ase the flexible connections 18 which lead from the casing or box 21 are connected to the depending arms or bell from crank levers 26. there being one bell crank lever for each signal or semaphore arm and the e bell crank levers being mounted in any' suitable manner as upon a shaft 27 extendins, across the casing 10'; The signal or sema- 'phore arms are also mounted upon a shaft 28 so as to rotate independent of each other and each arm'is provided with an angularly bent member 29 constitutin za part oi the arm or extending above the pivotal axis thereof and between the horizontalarm of the corresponding bell crank lever 26 and the angular member 29 leads to a flexible connection or link It will now be obvious that when anv o e of the flexible connections 18 are'pulled the corresponding sig nal arm or semaphore will'he raised and that when this pull is relax'edthe arm will drop to its normal position; Otherwisethan this .the construction illustrated'is the same as that previously de "ribed. 1

The operation of this mechanism will'be' obvious from the drawings and previous de scription. It will be seen that my device is very simple in construction and operation and that because of the flexible conduit and the flexible operating connections which pass through the conduit, the signaling device may be readily applied to any vehicle and arranged in its most convenient position. No signals are normally shown but when the car is about to move to right or left or to slow down, reverse or stop, the proper actuating pull 23 is drawn upward, thus causing the signal arms to move from an obscured vertical position to a displayed horizontal position. When so displayed the signal arms are lighted by the lenses 27. Inasmuch as the signal arms are preferably white with red letters thereon they may be readily distinguished at night as well as in day.

Having claim is:

l. A vehicle signal including a casing adapted to be attached to the rearend of the vehicle and open at its opposite sides, a shaft passing through the casing from described my invention, what I front to rear. a'plurality of sleeves mounted upon the shaft for independent rotation, said sleeves being progressively shorter so that a smaller sleeve will project at both ends beyond a larger sleeve. semaphore arms mounted each upon one of said sleeves. pulleys mounted each upon each one of said sleeves. and actuating connections passing over said pulleys and connected to operating means certain connections being wound upon the p'ullevs reversely to certain other connections, whereby cert in of the arms will sh ft to a display position in one direction and theremainder of the arms be shifted to a display position in the opposite direction.

2. The combination with a plurality of signals, ofmeans for actuating the signals 'in'luding flexible connections extending there rom. a tubular housing through which the flexible connections extend, a casing having a width greater than the diameter of the housing and into which the connections extend. a p u ality of longitudinally movable pulls slidinqlv mounted within said casing and extending out therefrom, the pulls bel r laterally spaced from each other. and pulleys disposed at the iunction

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