US1699030A - Sign - Google Patents

Description

Jan; 15, 1929.

M. SEELEN SIGN Filed May 22,. 1926 WERE Z/ 8 7m :7 44 12m MMM J.

Patented Jan. 15, 1929.

UNITED STATES 7 1,699,030 iP ATEN T UFF-l-CE MARK SEELEN, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGN OR 7T0 GENERAL OUTDOOR ADVERTIS- me co. Ind, on NEW YORK, n. Y.,

A conronarion on NEW JERSEY.

SIGN.

Application filed May 22, 1926. Serial No. 110,861.

This invention relates to improvements in electrically illuminated signs of the larger, outdoor type, such. as are used on boulevards and on the tops of buildings, and consists of the matters hereinafter described and more )articularly pointed out in the appended claim. V

The invention relates especially to signs of the kind upon which are depicted designs which include one or more features represented as in motion or as containing moving parts. The object of the invention is to produce a sign of the kind, of cheap and economical construction and in which the moving features contained in the subject matter of the design will be made to appear to move,the illusion of movement being brought about by means of devices associated with the electric lamps which provide for the illumination of the sign.

The advantages of the invention will ap pear more fully as I proceed with my specification.

In the drawings Figure 1 is a view in front elevation of a sign containing my improvements and showing as the main feature of the matter depicted thereon, a moving obj ect,1n this case, a railroad train.

Figure 2 is a detail, more or less diagrammatic view, showing on an enlarged scale a part of the front plate of the sign structure with the illuminating lamps, the electric connections and other elements, by which the illusion of movement is produced.

Figure 3 is a vertical section through Fig ure 1 in a plane indicated by the line 3-3 of Figure 1.

Figure a is a detail vertical sect-ion on an enlarged scale in a plane indicated by the 7 line 44 of Figure 2.

The improved sign includes a suitable frame 10 in which is mounted a face plate 11 of metal or other suitable material, as for example, sheet metal, and backing member 13 secured to the frame 10 back of said plate and formed to provide an enclosed recess 12 at the rear.

The face plate 11 has depicted upon it in color or otherwise, as may be desired, a representation of a moving object which is to form a part of the advertisement,in this case, an express train. Certain of the most obvious and dominant of the moving parts of the train, in this case, the wheels of the engine and the connecting rods 14, Well in the immediate foreground, and the long streamer of smoke 15, flowing back from the engine stack 16, are defined by means of stencil openings. :The stencil openings 17,-

wholly or partly define the rims of the driving wheels of the engine; the stencil openings 18 define the lower parts of the rims of the front wheels of the engine; and the stencil openings 19 and 20 define the streamer of smoke or steam trailing back from the engine stack.

The said stencil openings are covered by sheets or panes of translucent glass 21, which glass panes are secured against the back of the said sheet metal face 11 in any convenient manner and are colored to indicate the color which the said parts are designed to have. Back of said glass sheets 21 (see Figure 4) are mounted shelves or troughs 22, which are formed to correspond with the openings, the outline of which they follow, and which carry lamps 23 symmetrically disposed with reference to said outline. The several lamps are connected by suitable conductors 24 to an electric switch 24* of the general type known as a flasher which, in turn, is connected by wires 25 to asuitable source of electric current. I

The lamps of the flasher are so arranged and connected in a familiar manner, that the several lamps in a channel 22, as for example, the lamps in the channel back of each opening 17 defining the rim of one of the driving wheels, will be caused to be illuminated and out out in rapid succession, proceeding from a point on said rim progressively in a direction about said rim back to said point-,-this rapid illumination and cutting out of the lamps occurring in succession for the several parts appearing through the openings in the face plate 11 in correlated relation to an actual movement of the rotation of the moving parts shown in the picture. As a result, the moving parts are by illusion made to appear to rotate or move in a manner corersponding to the rotation or other movement of the part represented, so that a striking illusion of motion is produced in the picture disclosed in the advertisement.

In providing a sign of the kind, it is only necessary to pick out and provide stencil openings for the moving, obvious and prominent moving parts of the picture displayed in the advertisement, since the illusion once presented as to said parts, Will be carried to the other parts by the imagination of the observer Without, the provision of lamps or openings in the plate for said other parts.

I claim as my invention V In an illuminated sign of the kind described, a body structure including an opaque face plate having depicted thereon a design containing one or more features pictorially represented as moving, said face plate being cut to provide stencil openings outlining the paths of movementoi the most prominent parts of said moving features, glass panes covering said stencil openings and fixed to said face plate, said glass panes bearing translucent pictorial representations of the parts of the design at the locations included in and visible at said locations, troughs or houses supported back of said casing against said glass panes, said troughs being substantially uninterrupted and open throughout their lengths, electric lamps supported by said housings and arranged in lines following the median lines of said stencil openings, said lamps being Without obstructions between them, electric conductors connected to said lamps, and a flasher connected to said electric conductors adapted to open and close the circuits of said lamps in rapid suc cession in conformity to the illusion of movement to be produced by said lamps.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my invention, I am my signature, this 20th day of May, 1926.

1 MARK SEELEN.

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