US509473A - johnston - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

W. 0. JOHNSTON. ADVERTISING DEVICE.

No. 509,473. Patented Nov. 28, 1893.

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No. 509 Patented Nov. 28, 1893 we mmomu. umowuvnmc coin/my,

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NITED ST TES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM G. JOHNSTON, OF LINCOLN, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-I-IALF TO SAMUEL H. MARTIN, OF SAME PLACE.

ADVERTISING DEVICE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 509,473,:1ated November 28, 1893.

Application filed January 10, 1893. Serial No. 457,945. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, WILLIAM C. JOHNSTON, a citizen of the United States, residing at Lincoln, in the county of Logan and State of Illinois, have invented a new and useful Advertising Device, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to an advertising device; and the objects in View are to provide a device or structure in the design of a desk to be employed in hotels, restaurants, post offices, and other public places wherein the public are wont to write; to so construct the said desk as to present to the view of the writer or, if desired, to anyone in rear of the desk, a series of advertising cards or signs; and furthermore, to provide a mechanism and a bell to be struck and sounded thereby, which mechanism is actuated or set in motion by the Weight of the arm of the person writing, thereby calling to his attention, and the general public, a card or sign that will simultaneously appear with the ringing of the bell, which card will bear such symbols or words as to direct the attention of the observer to the series of advertising cards or signs adjacent thereto.

With these objects in view, the invention consists in certain features of construction hereinafter specified and particularly pointed out in the claims.

Referring to the drawings: Figure 1 is a perspective view of an advertising device. Fig. 2 is a rear view, the back plate removed. Fig. 3 is a vertical longitudinal sectional view. Fig. 4 is a detail in perspective of the internal mechanism removed from the frame. Fig. 5 is a transverse sectional view.

Similar numerals of reference indicate the same parts in all the figures.

In practicing my invention, as before stated, I preferably arrange the advertising device within a desk, and in this instance, the aforesaid desk comprises the opposite sides 1, the tops or upper edges of which preferably slant slightly toward their front ends, the front cross-piece 2, and at the rear end of the desk the head-piece 3. The sides 1 are connected at their lower edges by atransverse base-bar 4, and mounted upon the sides, but held out of contact therewith, is a desk top 5.

To the inner faces of the two end-bars 2 and 3, slightly above the base-bar 4, is secured a pair of transverse metal strips or rest-bars 6, whose extremities are slightly bent or offset from their intermediate portions and beveled to form knife-bearing edges 7.

8 designates a pair of levers, which at their rear ends are secured to or formed integral with U-shaped bails 9, whose extremities, upon their under sides, are notched, as at 10, to take over the knife-bearings, and in front of the same, upon their upper sides, are provided with notches or seats 11. Screws 12 are inserted in the side-bars 1, above these extremities, and serve to retain the terminals of the bails upon their bearings. The inner ends of the before-mentioned lovers 8 lie adjacent to each other within the center of the frame and are provided at reversely-opposite sides with bearing-studs 13. Links let depend from the bearing-studs, upon which they are loosely hung, and are embraced by the inner bifurcated end of a lever 14, which is fulcrumed between its ends upon a bearing-standard 15, seated upon the transverse base-bar 4. The inner end of the said lever 14, as before stated, is bifurcated, and the said links lie side by side within said bifurcations and are pivoted thereto by a pin 16. The rear end of the lever 14: takes between the bifurcations of a vertically reciprocating bar 17, which is located within the back wall or head of a desk. The bar 17 has its lower end bifurcated and is pivoted by a pin 18, loosely to the rear end of the lever 14. A keeper19 is secured to the head or back wall of the desk, and in this the bar 17 reciprocates. A shoulder 20 is formed on the rear face of the bar 17, adjacent to its lower end, and a coiled spring 21 is mounted upon a stud 22 projecting from the rear wall at one side of the bar 17, one terminal of said frame resting upon the shoulder of the bar 17 while the remaining terminal is bent, as at 23, and is designed to engage any one of a series of concentric perforations 24, formed in the back wall, and by which means the tension of the spring may be increased or decreased. A bellhammer 25 is loosely supported upon the pin 22, extends transversely over the shoulder of the bar 17, and rests in a bracket 26, the said plate 30 having mounted therein a card 31,

upon which may be printed or otherwise produced a symbol, as a hand, an arrow, or other means calculated to direct the attention of the public to certain advertising matter lo-' cated adjacent thereto and in a manner hereinafter described. In the present instance, however, the words printed on the card are as follows: Please read. adds below, also other side. At opposite sides of the headboard or rear wall 3 glass cases 32 are in this instance provided, and these cases contain spaces for advertising cards, or may be otherwise adapted for the reception of advertising matter. The cases are spaced apart and between them is located the mechanism on the back of the desk, the cards 31 appearing above the cases, as will be obvious.

33 designates the desk top, and the same is provided with metal cross-pieces 34, from the ends of which depend lugs 35, the edges of whichare beveled to form knife-bearings, and the same rest upon or take within the notches 11 of the bails 9. L-shaped keepers 36 depend from the under side of the top and take under the said bails in a loose manner so as not to interfere with their free operation but yet prevent a removal of the desk top.

This completes the construction of the device, and the operation thereof is as follows: The device is adapted to be mounted either in a stationary or swiveled manner upon a desk or any suitable base, in accordance with the place it is used, as for instance it might be employed upon a hotel desk for'the purposeof supporting the register book. At any rate, regardless of its position, its operation and function are the same, and by it the in-' stant a person rests his arm upon the top the;

levers are depressed, rocking on their knifebearings, the inner end of the lever 14 is depressed through the medium of the connecting-links, and the bar 17 vertically reciprocated, so that the card 31 is exposed to view above the rear wall of the desk. The sudden,

elevation of the bar 17 brings its shoulder into contact with the bell-hammer rod, elevating the latter,whereby it contacts with and sounds the bell, thus attracting the attention of the person who, glancing up, perceives the card and naturally following the instructions glances at the advertising matter, and if interested reads the same. By regulating the spring-terminals 23 in the various openings or diminished, and this spring is set so that it is just sufficient to maintain the levers 8 elevated and support a book thereon, so that the slightest touch or increase of weight will counteract the effect of the spring and sound the bell.

I do not limit my invention to the precise details of construction herein setforth, as

they may be varied by the manufacturer to suit different uses, all of which I claim as being within the scope of my invention.

Having described my invention, what I claim is v 1. The combination with a desk and a lever located within the same, of a desk top supported by the lever and connected therewith, a reciprocating sign-carrying bar connected with and operated by the lever, a bell, and devices for sounding the bell at each reciproca- 'tion of the bar, substantially as specified.

2. The combination with a desk, a lever fulcrumed therein, and a top connected with and supported by one end of the lever, a bell, a hammer for the same, and devices carried by the lever for actuating the hammer, substantially as specified.

3. The combination with a desk, a lever fulcrumed therein, a reciprocating bar mounted in the end walls of the desk and loosely connected at its lower end to said lever, said bar being adapted at its upper end to carry a card, a bell located at one side-of the bar, a hammer lever pivoted to the opposite side of the bar, a shoulder mounted on the bar and adapted to strike the hammer lever,a spring for normally depressing the bar, and a top mounted upon and supported by'the inner end of the lever, substantially as specified.

4.. The combination with a-desk, a lever pivoted therein, and a top connected with and supported by the inner end of the lever, of a bar mounted for sliding upon thehead of the desk and provided with a shoulder, the lower end of the bar being pivoted to the lever, a symbol or sign carried by the upper end of the bar, a spring coiled upon a pin at one side of the bar, one end of'the spring resting upon the shoulderof the bar and the other end bent and adapted to engage any one of aseries of perforations formed in the. end wall of the desk, substantiallyas specified.

5. The combination with the desk comprising the sides and end walls, the latter having ad vertising card-receiving cases spaced apart, a lever fulcrumed in the frame and extending at its rear end into the spacebetween the cases, of a top supported by and connected to the lever at the inner end of the latter, a spring for depressing the rearend of the lever, and a card'carrying bar-mounted for reciprocation between the cases and connected at its lower end to the rear-end of the lever, substantially as specified.

6. In a desk, the combinationwith the desk body comprising a top, and a rear wall or head having an advertising space, of a bell, a sign, 24, the strength of the spring may be increased said front and rear walls and having their ends ofiset and reduced to form bearings, the U shaped bails having their extremities notched to engage the bearings and provided at their centers with inwardly-disposed levers or arms, links depending from the inner ends of the arms, a lower lever fulcrumed in the base of the frame and pivoted at its inner end to the links, a top having depending lugs red need to form bearin gs engaging the notches formed in the terminals of the bails, the L- shaped keepers depending from the top and passing under the bails, the front and rear advertising cases, the keeper on the back of the desk, the rod mounted for reciprocation in the keeper, terminating at its upper end in a plate, a clamping plate and screw mountand above the shoulder thereof and terminating in a head, and a bell located in the path of the hammer, substantially as specified.

In testimony that Iclaim the foregoing as my own I have hereto afiixed my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

WILLIAM C. JOHNSTON.

Witnesses: or

E. F. L. RAUMBERG, W. R. BALDWIN.

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