US586775A - Lantern and illuminated sign for street-cars - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 1. W. I. LARZELERE.

LANTERN AND ILLUMINATED SIGN FOR STREET CARS. No. 586,775. Patented July 20, 1897.

WITNESSES INNVENTOR.

(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

W. I. LARZELERE. LANTERN AND ILLUMINATED SIGN FOR STREET CARS.

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YVASIIINGTON IRVING LARZELERE, OF CINCINNATI, OIIIO.

LANTERN AND ILLUMINATED SIGN FOR STREET-CARS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 586,775, dated July 20, 1897. Application filed April 17, 1897. Serial No. 632,685. (No model.)

To (all whrmt it 71211. 7 concern.-

Be it known that I, WASHINGTON IRVING LARZELERE, a citizen of the United States, residing in the city of Cincinnati, county of Hamilton, State of Ohio, have invented a newand useful Improvement in Lanterns and Illuminated Signs for Street-Oar Purposes, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in a lantern and illuminated signs, one of which signs is placed outside 011 the roof of a car and the other sign is to show inside of the car and in fact to form part of the lantern itself.

Another object of my invention is to construct my lantern so that although I use one of the lights in my lantern used for lighting the car I do not take any effective light from the inside of the car.

The objects of my improvement are, first, a lantern fixed onto the inside roof of a car, with a 1i ght-tube and lens to throw its rays onto a sign on the outside roof of a car; second, of the novel construction of my lantern at its opposite end from the light-tube, whereby I am enabled to show a sign on the inside of the car and also to distribute the light from the lantern into the car; third, in the novel construction of the stand and frame of my sign on the outside of the car to facilitate the changing of signs easily and readily. I attain these objects by the mechanisms illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a perspective view of the whole mechanism affixed to a streetcar roof. Fig. 2 is a side elevation, and Fig. 3 an end view, of my lantern, showing the construction of the same to throw its light onto a sign outside and inside of a car and also for distributing its light into the body of the car at the same time. Fig. a is a front view, and Fig. 5 an edge view, of the frame for the sign on the outside of the car. Fig. 8 is a section on line a a, Fig. 4, showing means used to cushion and hold the glass sign in place in the frame. Fig. 6 is afront view, Fig. 7 an end View, of the holder for the sign-frame; and Fig. 9, a section of same on line 6 6, showing in dotted lines the section of sign-frame in position.

Similar letters and figures refer to similar parts throughout the several views.

The letters A and A, Fig. 1, show the roof of a streetcar in dotted lines, inside of which is fixed by suitable means my improved lantern, the light-tube O projecting through a suitable opening in the front wall of the Ventilator A of the car, and at a suitable distance from the lens I) of the light-tube O is securely fixed by bolts in the main roof A of the car the holder G of the sign F, the bolts passing through holes in the legs II II of the holder G into the car-roof. The object attained by this construction is to be able to easily change signs at any time without having to loosen any bolts or screws, the holder G, by extending above the axial center of the sign, holding said sign in place by its normal springpressure. The frame F, being made a little tight longitudinally to exert a slight strain endwise on the holder G, the frame E, and consequently sign F, by lifting vertically, readily slips out of holder G, when another frame and sign may be set in its place in the holder G.

In section Fig. 8 I plainly show the means used to cushion and hold the glass signs into the frame E, F being part of a section of glass sign, onto the outside edge of which, overlappingasuitable distance on each side, is drawn the cushion substance K, preferably a rubber band made endless and stretched onto place around the edge of the glass sign, the whole being held in place by binding-strips O, securely fastened to frame E by screws 1.

B, Figs. 1, 2, and 3, show the body part of my lantern, which has securely fastened to its front end light-tube O, into which is fixed a lens D. This light-tube projecting through the forward end of the wall of the ventilator part of the car-roof throws the light from the lantern onto the sign F. 011 the opposite end of B from light-tube O is fixed in a suitable Way grooved slides 5, into which the sign M, showing inside of the car, slides. Below this slide 5 and extending back toward the end of body 13, onto which light-tube O is fixed, I cut away the bot-tom part of body 13 of my lantern to a more or less angle, as may be required, (see Z2, Fig. 2,) exposing the inside of my lantern, and consequently through this opening distributing all the surplus light of the electric-light bulb 3 into the body of the car. 2 shows the electric wire into the lantern and electric-light bulb 3.

Having fully described my invention, What I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The combination of an illuminated sign fixed to the roof of a car on the outside, separate from the lantern, alantern throwing light onto the same by means of a suitable light-tube, and lens, with a sign on the inside of a car, forming a part of said lantern, as and for the purpose described and set forth.

2. The combination of illuminated signs, one on the outside of the car and the other inside; made of glass or other translucent material, upon which and through which the letters of the sign are shown both day and night, one of which signs is separate from the lantern, and has a light projected onto it, and one of which forms part of the lantern, and has a direct light onto it, both of which signs, inside and outside, are lighted by the same electric bulb, without diminution of the light of said bulb to the inside of the car, and both of which signs may be readily changed without disturbing said lantern, as and for the purpose set forth.

3. The combination in a lantern for the purpose described, of a substantially rectangular body, having at its front end a lighttube andlens, and at its rear, or opposite end, a suitable slide for a sign; and which is cut away as at b as and for the purpose described.

4. A combination of a frame E surrounding a suitable sign, a cushion 7t for said sign, and a holder G as and for the purpose set forth.

5. A combination of a forward front outside sign F, upon which are painted letters distinctly legible by day and by night without change of any apparatus; the letters being made legible by night simply by the same act, and at the same time by which the car itself is lighted: and an inside sign on the rear of the lantern-box B, distinctly legible by day and night, without change in the apparatus of the car, or in its lighting arrangements, the Whole combination being a day and night sign, both inside and outside of the car, consuming no extra light, and requiring no separate attention from the general lighting of the car, as and for the purpose set forth.

IRVING LARZELERE.

\Vitnesses:

DELIA DREssELL, II. E. STAGMAN.

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