US2912777A

US2912777A - Sign having movable letters

Info

Publication number: US2912777A
Application number: US621342A
Authority: US
Inventors: Radcliffe Charlie
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1956-11-09
Filing date: 1956-11-09
Publication date: 1959-11-17
Anticipated expiration: 1976-11-17

Description

Nov. 17, 1959 c. RADCLIFFE SIGN HAVING MOVABLE LETTERS 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Nov. 9, 1956 INVENTOR.

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Nov. 17; 1959 c. RADCLIFFE 2,912,777

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United States Patent 2,912,777 SIGN HAVING MOVABLE LETTERS Charlie Radclifie, Campbell, Ohio Application November 9, H56, Serial No. 621,342 1 Claim. (Cl. 40-140 This invention relates to signs, and more particularly has reference to a sign so designed as to include a plurality of grooves or slots undercut to receive complementarily formed letters, with the letters being normally maintained in a storage rack from which they can be slidably adjusted into the slots on which the legend carrier by the sign is to be displayed;

The main object of the present invention is to provide a generally improved sign, capable of manufacture in any of various shapes, and usable both as an inside and outside sign, which sign will be so designed as to facilitate the selective employment of stored letters or other indicia to form the desired legend that it to be displayed upon the sign.

Another object of importance is to provide a sign of the character described composed of a plurality of laminations, which were superposed and fixedly secured together will define a baseboard, an intermediate lamination having a plurality of grooves defining slideways for the letters, and a top or outer lamination having slots aligned with the grooves'or slots of the intermediate lamination but formed to a narrower width than the slots of the intermediate lamination, thus to cause the slideways to be undercutfor the purpose of receiving the letters or other indicia.

Another object of importance is to provide a sign as stated so designed that a storage rack will be disposed in side-by-side relationwithdhe portion of the sign on which the legend is to be displayed, with said storage rack being concealed from view, normally, by a door or equivalent means.

Another important object of the present invention is to provide a sign that will be capable of manufacture at low cost, will'be particularly rugged and durable, and will'be adapted to permit'the swift and easy formation of any of various legends or other advertising material thereon, with the sign being adapted to'permit changing of the'legend with equal speed'and ease.

Other objects will appear'from the following descriptions, the claim appended th'ereto,fand from the annexed'drawing in which'like reference characters designate like parts throughout the several views, and wherein:

Figure 1 is a front elevational view of a sign constructed according to the present invention, ingwhich a portion of the storage rack closure has been broken away;

Figure 2 is an enlarged, fragmentary perspective View of the sign;

Figure 3 is a transverse sectional view substantially on line 3-3 of Figure 2;

Figure 4 is a horizontal section substantially on line 4-4 of Figure 2;

Figure 5 is a fragmentary exploded perspective view of the sign with the letters removed; and

Figure 6 is a perspective view of one of the indicia.

Referring to the drawing in detail, designated generally at 10 is a sign according to the present invention.

in any suitable manner, and as one example of a support for the sign, there is shown an upstanding post 12 having at its upper end a laterally projecting extension or support arm 14 braced as at 16, and having at its outer end a depending eye 18 receiving an eye- 19 that projects upwardly from the upper end of the sign 10.

The sign may be appropriately considered as including a body portion generally designated at 20, said body portion being of flat, laminated formation. The.lamina-.

tions will be described in greater detail hereinafter, but at this point, it is suflicient to note frorn Figure 1 that the body portion 20,'-in the illustrated example of the invention, includes a large, rectangular lower part integral atits upper end with an upper part in the shape of a low isosceles triangle, In the triangular part of the body portion, there is'formed in the illustrated example, but not necessarily, a plurality of horizontally extending,

undercut slots

22, 24, 26, respectively, closed at one end and opening at their other ends uponone side of the triangular part. I

Disposed within the slots are removable indicia generally designated 28; The particular construction of each indicium has been shown to best advantage in Figures 2 and 6, and as will be noted, each includes a rectangular base 30 integral with a'forwarding projecting short stem of circular cross section-which isintegral or otherwise made rigid at its outer end with a character 34, which may be a letter, number,symbohpunctuation mark, or the like.

In the slots 22,-24, 26,- thefindicia are more or less permanently retained.'-' For example, the slots can carry legends showing the-name of the establishment, as illustrated in Figure 1. Obviously, in this instance the indicia would remain permanently placed, and'ordinarily would not be removed from the slots. The indicia movable into and out of the

slots

22, 24, 26 accordingly may be larger than the indicia that will be used in the lower portion ofthe sign. However, they will be of'identical formation, that is, whether'the indicia are of larger or smaller size they will all be constructed as shown in Figures 2 and 6. ,t

Considering now the particular construction of the body portion 20, reference should be had to Figures 2-5. As will "benoted from Figure 5, the body portion includes three superposed laminations. This is also shown in Figures 2-4, in which figures of the drawing'the laminations are shown connected together.

The body portion 20 includes a flat back or baseboard 36, which is imperforate over its, entire area. Cemented or otherwise fixedly secured to the front surface of the baseboard is an intermediate plate/37, having a plurality of parallel,-wide slots 38. Cemented to the face of the intermediateplate' or lamination-37 is a cover plate or lamination 39, having a plurality of slots 40 registering with the" slots 38 butformed to a width substantially smaller than that of the slots 38. As a result, and as shown in Figures 2 and 3, undercut, forwardly opening grooves are defined on the body portion, in which the indicia 28 slide.

The arrangement of the undercut grooves can vary, in different signs, the arrangement shown in Figure 1 being merely one of many'that can be employed.

In the illustrated example the undercut grooves are arranged in the rectangular part of the sign, to define at one side of the midwidth point of the sign a plurality of guideways 52, which terminate at said midwidth point of -the sign in communication with a vertically extending main guideway 53. At their other ends, guideways 52 are closed, terminating adjacent one side edge of the sign.

In the guideways 52 various legends can be assembled, as for example restaurant menus, a list of used cars with their prices, etc. This portion of the sign is continuously exposed as shown in Figure 1.

The main guideway 53, at uniformly spaced locations along its length, is in communication with laterally extending branch guideways 54, and extending from the guideways 54 in a vertical direction are closely spaced storage guideways 55.

The

guideways

54, 55 cooperate to define a storage rack for indicia 28 that are not in use. As shown in Figure 1, each of the vertically extending guideways communicates at its upper end with an associated branch guideway 54, with the lower end of the vertical guideway being closed and terminating in closely spaced relation to the next lower horizontal guideway 54.

Each of the guideways 55 is adapted for storage of a particular indicium. For example, in one guideway 55 all the letters A are stored, in the next guideway 55 all the letters B are stored, and so on through the entire storage rack. There will be sufficient guideways 55 to permit storage of all letters, and all numbers, punctuation marks, symbols, etc., that might be used in the exposed portion of the sign.

The storage rack is concealed from view by a door 62 hinged at 64 on the inner side edge of the rectangular part of the sign. A handle 66 is provided upon the door, and suitable latch means, etc., can also be provided for the door.

It is a characteristic of the storage rack that any letter can be reached without interference from other stored letters. For example, one desiring the letter S would obtain the same from the vertical guideway 55 in which this particular letter is stored. The uppermost stored letter S will then be moved upwardly, will be slid to the left in Figure 1 within the associated branch guideway 54, and will then be moved along the main guideway 53 to the guideway 52 in which the letter S is being assembled with other letters to provide a suitable legend.

In this way, the desired advertising material can be swiftly assembled and it is obvious that the advertising material can be disassembled with equal speed and ease.

It will be noted that the bases 30 of the several indicia may be rounded at their corners or otherwise formed to facilitate their movement into and out of the various guideways, and to facilitate their passage around corners occurring in the network of guideways.

It may also be noted that the construction is one that permits signs to be provided at opposite sides of the baseboard 36. In other words, the baseboard 36 may constitute an intermediate lamination in a group of five laminations. Secured to opposite faces of the baseboard 36 would be the plates 37, and secured to the outer faces of the two plates 37 that would be employed in this instance would be face plates 39.

It is believed apparent that the invention is not necessarily confined to the specific use or uses thereof described above, since it may be utilized for any purpose to which it may be suited. Nor is the invention to be necessarily 4, limited to the specific construction illustrated and described, since such construction is only intended to be illustrative of the principles of operation and the means presently devised to carry out said principles, it being considered that the invention comprehends any minor change in construction that may be permitted within the scope of the appended claim.

What is claimed is:

A sign comprising a vertically extending, flat, laminated body portion composed in its entirety of three superposed plates including a flat baseboard imperforate over its entire area, an intermediate plate fixedly secured to the baseboard in face-to-face contact therewith and having a plurality of wide slots, and a single cover plate secured to the intermediate plate in face-to-face contact therewith and having a plurality of slots narrower than and registered with the first named slots so as to cooperate therewith in defining undercut, forwardly opening grooves in the body portion, said grooves including a vertically extending main guideway one end of which opens on the lower end of the body portion and the other end of which terminates short of the upper end of the body portion, a plurality of display guideways all of which extend perpendicularly to and laterally in one direction from the main guideway, said display guideways terminating short of one side of the body portion, the upper and lower ends of the main guideway extending a short distance above and below, respectively, the uppermost and lowermost display guideways, a plurality of branch guideways extending perpendicularly to the main guideway laterally in the opposite direction therefrom toward the opposite side of the body portion, and a plurality of vertical storage guideways extending downwardly from each branch guideway, the storage guideways that extend downwardly from each branch guideway being closed at their lower ends and terminating at said lower ends short of and close to the next lower storage guideway; a plurality of indicia each of which includes a rectangular base sliding in the first named slots with its opposite sides in contact with the respective side walls of the first named slots, a narrow stem sliding in the second named slots, and a character on the stem overlying the cover plate, like indica all being stored in the same storage guideway; and a door hinged at one side to said opposite side of the body portion and proportioned when swung to a closed position to completely cover all the storage guideways.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 6,407 Allen May 1, 1849 205,151 Tatham June 18, 1878 207,319 Tatham Aug. 20, 1878 296,900 Wheeler Apr. 15, 1884 336,266 Smith Feb. 16, 1886 371,338 Matson Oct. 11, 1887 454,729 Gillis June 23, 1891 533,915 Petry Feb. 12, 1895 791,903 Hawkins June 6, 1905 FOREIGN PATENTS 97,552 Switzerland Jan. 16, 1923