US762108A - Sign for street-railway cars. - Google Patents

Description

PATENTED JUNE 7, 1904.

No. 762,108. H. WII'TB.

SIGN FOR STREET RAILWAY CARS.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 14, 1903.

Patented June '7, 1904.

UNITED STATES PATENT. OFFICE. r

. HUBERT WITTE, OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI, ASSIGNOR TO ST. LOUIS OAR COMPANY, OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI.

SIGN 'FOR STREET-RAILWAY CARS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 762,108, dated June 7, 1904. Application filed September 14, 1903. Serial No. 173,079. (No model.)

To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, HUBERT WITTE, a citizen of the United States, residing in the city of St. Louis, in the State of Missouri, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Signs for Street-Railway Cars, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to' the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification.

My invention relates to a sign for application to a street-car to indicate the line over which the car travels; and, briefly stated, it consists in mechanism whereby a sign-apron may be caused to travel in one direction under the action of a spring-roller and in the opposite direction through the medium of mechanical operating mechanism.

The invention consists in features of novelty hereinafter fully described, and pointed out in the claim.

Figure I is a longitudinal section of asigncasing with my sign illustrated therein. Fig. II is a vertical cross-section taken on line II II, Fig. I. Fig. III is an enlarged interior view of the gear-casing and the ratchet-gear of my sign-operating mechanism shown therein. Fig. IV is a perspective View of my sign shown applied to the upper part of a streetcar.

1 designates a casing in which my sign is situated and in the front of which is a transparent sheet 2, preferably of glass, through which an insight into the casing may be secured.

3 is a door at the rear of the casing.

4 designates incandescent lamps supported in the casing 1 behind the transparent Sheet 2.

5 designates a spring-roller journaled in brackets 5, fitted to the end walls of the casing 1 in proximity to the frontof said casing.

6 is an apron on which the names of streets are printed according to the lines over which a car equipped with my sign is likely to travel, and this apron leads from the spring-roller 5 to a roller 7, to which the second end of the apron is secured, so that the apron may be Wound onto either of the rollers 5 or 7.

8 is a toothed wheel fixed to the roller 7, and 9 is an endless chain that is mounted on 5 said toothed wheel.

10 is a gear-casing in which is mounted a toothed wheel 11, that receives the endless chain 9. Fixed to the shaft 12, on which the toothed wheel 11 is carried, is a ratchet-wheel 13, and secured to the outer end of said shaft is a crank-handle 14. (See Fig. I.)

15 is a dog provided with a pawl 16 for engagement with the ratchet-wheel 13 and having a handle 17, that extends-to the exterior of the gear-casing to be accessible by a person in operating the sign.

18 is a spring situated within the gear-casing to bear thereagainst and against the pawl 16, to which it is held by a stud 19, that pro- 5 jects from said pawl.

In the practical use of my sign the apron 6 is shifted in one direction when it is desired to expose to view the name of a certain street by turning the crank 14, which causes rota- 7 tion of the toothed wheel 11 and ratchet-wheel 13. When this rotation takes place, the pawl 16 slips readily over the teeth of the ratchetwheel, and the endless chain 9 is caused to travel to rotate the toothed wheel 8 and the roller 7, to which said last-named toothed wheel is fixed. The apron 6 is thereby wound onto the roller 7 and off of the spring-roller 5, thereby at the same time increasing the tension of the spring in said spring-roller. When it is desired to reverse the movement of the apron 6, the pawl 16 is released from engagement with the ratchet-wheel 13 by pressing the dog-handle 17 inwardly, and the spring action of the spring-roller 5 will then cause 5 the apron 6 to be wound onto said springroller and off of the roller 7, during which time the endless chain 9 will travel in a direction the reverse to its former travel, and the speed at which it moves may be governed by hold- 9 ing the crank-handle 1 1 to regulate its rotation in a direction retrograde to its former rotation.

I claim as my invention In a Sign of the character described, the combination with the spring-roller, of a curtain secured at one end to the roller, means for conand a helical spring surrounding the second trolhngthe operation of the sprlng-roller comextension and bearing against the pawl and prising a casing, a ratchet-wheel within the the casing".

casing, a pawl mounted within the casing for HUBERT VVITTE. engagement with the ratchet-wheel and pro- In presence of vided with an extension which passes to the A. DIEKMANN,

exterior of the casing and a second extension, M. H. MURPHY.

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